a. A particular phrase I like in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, is when Frankenstein dreams about creating a new being. He says, "A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs" (32). He imagines himself being praised and worshipped by this new species. He feels that he will be even more proud of the new species than any father could ever dream to be about his own children. I chose this phrase because I thought it was interesting how Frankenstein has such high hopes for this new creation. He honestly believes he will be praised as a God, and he never considers the consequences if the experiment goes wrong.
b. When Frankenstein's creature awakens, Frankenstein attempts to describe his feelings, "How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! - Great God!" (35). I really liked when Frankenstein exclaims "Beautiful! - Great God!" because it accurately conveys how horrified he is about how he could ever consider the creature as beautiful. I feel as if I could almost hear his voice telling me, as if he is speaking to me directly. I think Mary Shelley chose to write it this way, because it gives the story a personal meaning. The fact that we can hear his exclamations and horror at what he has done makes it feel more realistic, instead of just reading a book.
c. Mary Shelley uses many striking words that convey the emotion of the characters. When Frankenstein finds the creature, the creature threatens Frankenstein if he does not listen to his request. He says, "[I]f you refuse, I will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of your remaining friends" (68). Shelley used words like "glut," "death," and "satiated," which are all powerful and dark words. The words interpret the creature's feelings as he shows how angry he is.
d. An ambiguity I noticed in the book is whether Frankenstein or the creature is the real monster. In my opinion, I felt that Frankenstein was at fault and responsible for the creature's actions. He was the creator and had the responsibility to take care of the creature and teach him from right and wrong. The creature had no one else, and when Frankenstein abandoned him, he had to fend for himself and learn his morals from strangers.
f. In Frankenstein, Shelley uses personification for the creature. The creature is not human, yet he has thoughts and feelings like a human. He repeatedly comments on how wretched he feels. He says, "I am alone, and miserable," when he speaks to Frankenstein about what he has gone through (104). He weeps when people are mean to him and he feels vengeance towards Frankenstein. These are all emotions that any human has and the creature feels them as well.
g. I felt pity towards the creature in the book. He is just a baby in a big, deformed body. He was just "born" and his creator abandons him so he has to fend for himself. He doesn't understand why everyone hates him so much and he doesn't understand why he has to be so ugly. He has no control over it and he reacts like any child would, he gets angry at the world. I think I felt pity because all the stuff that happened to him wasn't his fault. He should have been taken care of, but instead he was hated for his existence by the one person who should have cared about him.
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a. Frankenstein should have worked out his issue with the creature differently. He should not have run away from him and left the creature to his own devices. He needed to take responsibility for what he had done and resolved the issue before it got out of hand. If he had resolved it early on, then Henry, William, and Elizabeth would still be alive.
b. The creature appealed to me as a character, not only because I felt bad for him, but because of his innocence when he first woke up. He was learning to understand his surroundings and even his own senses. The way he described things made me think differently about things, like when he was enraptured by the moon or fascinated by a fire.
c. Elizabeth was a secondary character in the book Frankenstein, but she was important because she loved Frankenstein and he loved her. She became an easy target for the creature because of her importance to Frankenstein.
d. In the novel, when the creature saves a little girl from drowning and he is shot by her father, I felt shocked. It made me realize how paranoid people can be and how quickly we are to judge based on appearances. It was unfair how he had to be penalized for saving a little girl because he was big and ugly. I feel that we don't have to be so rash about things and shouldn't criticize people for how they look.
e. I didn't dislike Frankenstein, but I did dislike his actions. When he abandons the creature and feels no remorse for him when the creature meets him again and asks for Frankenstein to listen to his story, I felt annoyed by him. He acted like a coward and even though he did take the blame for the creature's actions, he did nothing about it. He just kept wishing he would never see the creature again so he wouldn't have to deal with him. I understand that he was scared and ashamed about what he had created, but to me it is not an excuse, especially since so many innocent people had to die because he couldn't take responsibility for his actions.
f. I learned about the creature through his actions and what he said about himself. He described his journey and the evolution of his thoughts and feelings. He started off happy and innocent, then progressed to bitter and angry. Frankenstein said many things about the creature, but I didn't think it was reliable because he didn't want to think of the creature as being a good person. He was biased about the creature because of his looks, and didn't fairly judge his personality.
