One night in his lab, Victor worries that the new creature he's creating might refuse to live away from humans, or tha
two monsters might produce a "race of devils." Just then he looks up and sees the monster "grinning" at the window
Overwhelmed by loathing, Victor destroys his work. Outside, the monster howls in agony, and disappears. Hours late
monster returns to Victor's lab. It now refers to Victor only as "Man" and vows revenge. It promises: "I shall be with y
your wedding night." Victor thinks the monster means to kill him on that night, and fears for Elizabeth left alone as a
Letter soon arrives from Clerval suggesting they resume their travels. Victor gathers up his laboratory materials and r
out into the ocean to dump them. Victor is so happy he takes a nap in his boat. But he wakes into rough weather and
get back to shore. Just as he begins to panic, the winds ease. When Victor lands a group of angry townspeople gathe
around his boat. He's a suspect in a murder that occurred the previous night, and sent to meet with Mr. Kirwin, a loc
magistrate.
Themes – highlight themes and add a quote for each that are Links to HT
present.
Social status/class The fact that Victor has to dehumanise the cre
Loneliness and Isolation before he can kill it, by calling it a ‘thing’ is sim
Violence the way that Luke must kill the cat, by dehuma
Language and Power ‘That is what you have to do before you kill, I t
Playing God You have to create an it, where none was befo
Relationships and family Victor gives himself the ability to kill, just as Lu
Treatment of women many of the members of Gilead must do, in ord
Science murder so many of their own species. It is also
Mankind and nature particularly significant that the creature who V
Victims destroys is a female; he fears the female’s
Warnings reproductive abilities, and the power this woul
Quotes the creature. This contrasts to the way in which
female reproductive abilities in ‘The handmaid
Loneliness and isolation- Victor is located in the most isolated in fact make women less powerful, and instead
point of the Scottish isles, and as he makes his decision to destroy subverted within society.
the monster, he realises that he is actually completely alone, no
matter the results of his decision ‘I was alone; none were near me
to dissipate the doom’, this idea of longing for someone to
‘dissipate the doom’ perhaps emphasises Victor’s need for
domestic companionship, ironically similar to the wishes of the
creature. In particular, the verb ‘dissipate’ connotes the notion
that love and affection could perhaps break up and disperse his
fears, making the whole thing much easier to cope with.
Violence- In his ultimate fear of the female companion that he has
begun to create for the creature, Victor decides to destroy it
‘trembling with passion, I tore to pieces the thing on which I was
engaged’, in particular Victor’s ‘trembling passion’ and the severity
of the verb ‘tore’ gives a certain malice to the action. The fact that
he describes this practically fully-formed being as a ‘thing’ depicts
the fact that he has first dehumanised the creature in his own
mind, in order to make it easier to kill.
Playing god- Shelley parallels many of the ideas, and much of the
speech used in chapter 5, when Victor first speaks to the creature.
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