Write about 2 passages or lines from pages 108-111 that take on a new meaning in light of our discussion today. Remember we were looking at Frankenstein and his monster being two halves of the same being, and we discussed repression. Do you see anything related to these themes? Any hidden conflicts for Victor?
You need to reference an earlier post in your own post. This requires, as in the debate, re-stating their main idea, and then adding to it or disagreeing with it. (The first person to post gets off free from this requirement!)
To post: click on comments. Then select "Name/URL" and type your name. If you're anonymous I won't know you did the work.
Post is due by midnight tonight (Thursday).
Use this space to engage with our texts, with each other, and with your confusion.
In the book Victor thinks, "...truly I rejoiced that thus I should be saved many hours of lonely, maddening
ReplyDeletereflection. Nay, henry might stand between me and the intrusion of my foe. If I were alone, would he not at times force his abhorred presence on me, to remind me of my task or to contemplate its progress?" (111). Ito me this quote tells us that Victor is content with Henry being with him because he knows the monster will not intrude on Victor when someone else is there. When you look closer into the text, you see that Victor is talking about the monster which is his other half, the evil side. If Henry was not with Victor then the monster would have the opportunity to manipulate Victor into creating a new monster as his companion. Victor is hesitant to create the new monster because he can never be a hundred percent sure that the monster will not avenge when he and the new monster are together. Victor can not be certain that the companionship of the new monster will be enough, therefore, it is Victors job to suppress his evil side. With Henry's presence this task will be much easier.
"Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness." (108)
ReplyDelete"How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery!" (111)
Victor is constantly reminded of his failure each day, through having to live with the monster he created in the world around him. Victor says that he will never create another being the same as the monster for as long as he lived. He has accepted his fault and understands the consequences that follow: misery and evil. However, the monster is able to find love in his heart no matter how miserable he is feeling. The way that these two personalities connect to make one person with two side can be realted to the feelings of love despite misery. Victor created the monster out of love; however, he ended up feeling miserable because of his creation. The monster was created and only wanted and longed for love, but he was led to become miserable because of his treatment. Both searched for love, but only found misery. The monster searched for love through companionship, and when nothing was found, this is wear evil and misery began.
Blake brings up a great point in his last post. He stated that Victor and the monster both look for love despite the misery that exists in their lives. Victor later marries Elizabeth, and tries to repress his feelings of misery, only for his other half (his better half, ha!) to come murder Elizabeth because his feelings of misery overcame his love for Elizabeth.
ReplyDeleteVictor's father says, "I am happy to remark, my dear son, that you have resumed your former pleasures, and seem to be returning to yourself. And yet you are still unhappy, and still avoid our society" (109). Here, Victor's father tells Victor that he thinks that Victor is still mentally unstable and while he longs for marriage, thinks that he needs to get himself together. Yet, a similar situation arrives when Victor reacts to the creature's desire to have a companion by first considering it, then saying that his evil acts will continue or even double with a companion by his side.
"Could I enter into a festival with this deadly weight yet hanging round my neck, and bowing me to the ground? I must perform my engagement, and let the monster depart with his mate, before I allowed myself to enjoy the delight of a union from which I expected peace" (110). Here, Elizabeth doesn't want Victor's Promethean side of experimenting and exploring the limits of life and death and breaking the rules, and would just like Victor's eros side of settling down and starting a family with her. Furthermore, when Elizabeth says "the monster departing with his mate," this could be viewed as Victor's Promethian side departing. Elizabeth claims that she cannot perform this engagement with the monster and his mate at hand, yet, because the monster does not have a mate, a treacherous word lies in limbo for Elizabeth: fate.
"you are in the wrong," replied the fiend; " and instead of threatening, I am content to reason with you. I am malicious because i am miserable; am I not shunned and hated by all mankind?"(173 in my book)
ReplyDeleteThe monster is trying to reason with Victor after Victor has denied him the only thing he values most in life, which is a companion. The monster has realized that he will never be accepted by man, this makes his hunger for a companion even greater. The monster isnt using his rage because he wants to show Victor that he will change if he is just granted his prayers. The monster in this sense is approaching Victor in the sense that he is a god. And because of Victor's misery he denies the monster happiness. He does this becuase he shares the same passion as the monster, he is also in search for love. In Victors eyes why should the monster obtain this happiest before he does.
"I love my cousin tenderly and sincerely. i never saw any woman who excited, as Elizabeth does, my warmest admiration and affection. My future hopes and prospects are entirely bound up in the expectation of our union."(109)
ReplyDelete"Alas! to me the idea of an immediate union with my Elizabeth was one with horror and dismay. I was bound by a solemn promise, which I had not yet full filled, and dared not to break."(110)
victor is very in love with Elizabeth and has complete admiration for her. HE can not wait for their marriage and knows that it will be great. With ELizabeth he blocks out that sense of death that has been building up ever sense his mother died. Victor doesnt know how to deal with this feeling and tries to complete push it out of his mind bottling it up and letting it build. This sense builds to be so great that Victor feels the only way to oppress this sense is to create a sense of life. He then creates the monster and hopes that it will erase the feelings he never knew how to deal with so he could hurry up and marry his beloved Elizabeth. The sense of life did the complete opposite and was only a part of Victor which created more death. The monster is Victors sense of his mothers death that built up and finally escaped. He let it build for so long that it created an evil creature who brings back the sense that victor tried to give up, the sense of death.
I agree with Christian, that Victor tries to block out or forget death by reaching out to Elizabeth. He tells his father that he is very much in lover with her, but if he is so mentally unstable, how are we to know?
ReplyDelete"I must perform my engagement, and let the monster depart with his mate, before I allowed myself to enjoy the delight of an union from which I expected peace." (102)
"My promise might be fulfilled, and the monster have departed; or some accident might occur to destroy him, and put an end to my slavery forever." (103)
Here, Victor is describing himself as a slave to the monster. He mentions that the monster may get what he wants and he may create a companion for the monster. I see a new meaning in this because Victor may be wanting to create another monster, therefore he can feel good about himself by masking death with creation. He also explains that before he ios able to wed Elizabeth, he has to find a way to get the monster off of his back, whether that is by creating a comanion,or finding an alternative way of getting rid of the monster once and for all. Victor usues creation often to hide his fear of death, but in the end the monster brings him more death than he would likely had without him.
"Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness."
ReplyDelete"How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery!"
At this point in the book Victor is deciding wether or not to help the monster.The problem with how Victor chooses. the way he views the monster always will is as a nuisense. He sees never sees the good inside and how the monster reaches out for companionship before attacking humans. in my second quote Victor uses the words "our feelings" to discuss both himself and the monster which leads me to believe that Victor considers himself a half of the monster or like a father to his problem child. I agree with Blake when he says he is constantly reminded of the mistake he made, but he has made a few including abandoning his creation and not helping nuture it. Victor will never change his mind about the monster he made.