Copy of Frankenstein 11/19-11/20 (6/23/2025)
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Last updated 8 months ago
17 questions
Prediction
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Volume II, Chapter 1-2
Paraphrasing I
Paraphrasing II
Final Words to the Creature
Volume II, Chapter 2, Pages 79–85
1 These sublime and magnificent scenes afforded me the greatest consolation that I was capable of receiving. Although they did not remove my grief, they subdued and tranquillized it. In some degree, also, they diverted my mind from the thoughts over which it had brooded for the last month. My father was pleased, and Elizabeth overjoyed.
2 “My dear cousin, you see what happiness you diffuse when you are happy; do not relapse again!”
3 The following morning the rain poured down in torrents, and thick mists hid the summits of the mountains. I rose early, but felt unusually melancholy. The rain depressed me; my old feelings recurred, and I was miserable. I knew how disappointed my father would be at this sudden change, and resolved to go alone to the summit of Montanvert. I remembered the effect that the view of the tremendous and ever-moving glacier had produced upon my mind when I first saw it. It had then filled me with a sublime ecstacy that gave wings to the soul.
4 Alas! why does man boast of sensibilities superior to those apparent in the brute; it only renders them more necessary beings. If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows, and a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us.
5 “Wandering spirits, if indeed ye wander and do not rest in your narrow beds, allow me this faint happiness, or take me, as your companion, away from the joys of life.”
6 “Devil! Do you dare approach me? And do not you fear the fierce vengeance of my arm wreaked on your miserable head? Begone, vile insect! Or rather stay, that I may trample you to dust! And, oh, that I could, with the extinction of your miserable existence, restore those victims whom you have so diabolically murdered!”
6 “I expected this reception. All men hate the wretched. You, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life?"
7 “Abhorred monster! Fiend that thou art! The tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes. Wretched devil! Come on then, that I may extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed.”
8 “Have I not suffered enough, that you seek to increase my misery? Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it."
9 “Remember, thou hast made me more powerful than thyself. But I will not be tempted to set myself in opposition to thee. I am thy creature: I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed.”
10 “Begone! I will not hear you. There can be no community between you and me; we are enemies. Begone, or let us try our strength in a fight, in which one must fall.”
11 “How can I move thee? Believe me, Frankenstein: I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity: but am I not alone, miserably alone?”
12 “You, my creator, abhor me; your fellow-creatures spurn and hate me. The desert mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge. I have wandered here many days; the caves of ice, which I only do not fear, are a dwelling to me."
13 “If the multitude of mankind knew of my existence, they would do as you do, and arm themselves for my destruction. Shall I not then hate them who abhor me? Listen to my tale. The guilty are allowed, by human laws, bloody as they may be, to speak in their own defence before they are condemned. Listen to me, Frankenstein. You accuse me of murder; and yet you would, with a satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature. I ask you not to spare me: listen to me; and then, if you can, and if you will, destroy the work of your hands.”
14 “Cursed be the day, abhorred devil, in which you first saw light! Cursed be the hands that formed you! You have made me wretched beyond expression. Begone! relieve me from the sight of your detested form.”
15 “Hear my tale; On you it rests, whether I quit forever the neighbourhood of man and lead a harmless life, or become the scourge of your fellow-creatures and the author of your own speedy ruin.”
For the first time I felt what the duties of a creator towards his creature were.
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