13th August 2018

Frankenstein Quotes

I doubt these quotes will be useful. But I need something to start with.

Allusion: “Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel.”

Allusion: “But it was all a dream; no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone. I remembered Adam‘s supplication to his creator. But where was mine?”

Foreshadowing – general: “You may conceive my astonishment on hearing such a question addressed to me from a man on the brink of destruction.”

Foreshadowing – general: “Thus ended a day memorable to me; it decided my future destiny.

Foreshadowing – dreams: “I slept, indeed but I was disturbed by the wildest dreams. I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death... and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother.”

Foreshadowing – dreams: “But sleep did not afford me of respite from thought and misery… I felt the fiend’s grasp in my neck and could not free myself from it.”

Foreshadowing – storms: “we witnessed a most violent and terrible thunderstorm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura, and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. I remained, while the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight. As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump.”

Foreshadowing – storms: “The storm appeared to approach rapidly, and, on landing, I ascended a low hill, that I might observe its progress. It advanced; the heavens were clouded, and I soon felt the rain coming slowly in large drops, but its violence quickly increased. “

Foreshadowing – storms: “…the lake reflected the scene of the busy heavens, rendered still busier by the restless waves that were beginning to rise. Suddenly a heavy storm of rain descended.”

Simile: “I wandered like an evil spirit, for I had committed deeds of mischief  beyond description horrible, and more and more (I persuaded myself) was yet behind.”

Simile: “Yet the idea that the field should live and triumphant my rage and vengeance returned, and like a mighty tide, overwhelmed every other feeling.”

Simile: “he will be like a celestial spirit that has a halo around him, within whose circle no grief or folly ventures.”

Smilie: “The saintly soul of Elizabeth shone like a shrine-dedicated lamp in our peaceful home.”

Simile: “I walked about the isle like a reckless spectre, separated from all it loved and miserable in the separation.”

Simile: “I was seated in a chair, my eyes half open and my cheeks livid like those in death. I was overcome by gloom and misery and often reflected I had better seek death than desire to remain in a world which to me is replete with wretchedness.”

Simile: “I do not doubt that he hovers near the spot in which I inhibit, and if he has indeed taken refuge in the Alps, he may be hunted like the chamois and destroyed like a beast of prey.”

Setting – Alps: “the majestic and wondrous scenes which surrounded our Swiss home—the sublime shapes of the mountains, the changes of the seasons, tempest and calm, the silence of winter, and the life and turbulence of our Alpine summers.

Setting – Alps: “The road ran by the side of the lake, which became narrower as I approached my native town. I discovered more distinctly the black sides of Jura, and the bright summit of Mont Blanc. I wept like a child. “Dear mountains! my own beautiful lake! how do you welcome your wanderer? Your summits are clear; the sky and lake are blue and placid. Is this to prognosticate peace, or to mock at my unhappiness?”

Setting – Alps: “The weight upon my spirit was sens- ibly lightened as I plunged yet deeper in the ravine of Arve. The immense mountains and precipices that overhung me on every side, the sound of the river raging among the rocks, and the dashing of the waterfalls around spoke of a power mighty as Omnipotence”

Setting – Alps: “The Alps here come closer to the lake, and we approached the amphitheatre of mountains which forms its eastern boundary. The spire of Evian shone un- der the woods that surrounded it and the range of mountain above mountain by which it was overhung.”

Setting – Geneva: “We possessed a house in Geneva, and a campagne on Belrive, the eastern shore of the lake, at the distance of rather more than a league from the city.”                  

Setting – Geneva: “I contemplated the lake: the waters were placid; all around was calm; and the snowy mountains, `the palaces of nature,’ were not changed. By degrees the calm and heavenly scene restored me, and I continued my journey towards Geneva.”

“The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine. Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember.”    

“At length the high white steeple of the town met my eyes.”

“yer with how many things are we upon the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries.”  

                            “But my enthusiasm was checked by my anxiety, and I appeared rather like one doomed by slavery to toil in mines or any other unwholesome trade than an artist occupied by his favourite employment.”

“It was very different when the mas- ters of the science sought immortality and power; such views, although futile, were grand; but now the scene was changed. The ambition of the inquirer seemed to limit itself to the anni- hilation of those visions on which my interest in science was chiefly founded. I was required to exchange chimeras of bound- less grandeur for realities of little worth.”

“I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.”

“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?”

“A serene sky and verdant fields filled me with ecstasy. The present season was indeed divine; the flowers of spring bloomed in the hedges, while those of summer were already in bud.”

“Nothing is more painful to the human mind than, after the feel- ings have been worked up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows and de- prives the soul both of hope and fear.”

“Yet my heart overflowed with kindness and the love of virtue. I had begun life with benevolent inten- tions and thirsted for the moment when I should put them in practice and make myself useful to my fellow beings.”

“The abrupt sides of vast mountains were before me; the icy wall of the glacier overhung me; a few shattered pines were scattered around; and the sol- emn silence of this glorious presence-chamber of imperial nature was broken only by the brawling waves or the fall of some vast fragment, the thunder sound of the avalanche or the cracking, reverberated along the mountains, of the accumu- lated ice.”

“A mist covered both that and the surrounding mountains. Presently a breeze dissipated the cloud, and I descended upon the glacier.”

“The desert mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge.”

“The light became more and more op- pressive to me, and the heat wearying me as I walked, I sought a place where I could receive shade. This was the forest near Ingolstadt;”

“This was indeed a godlike sci- ence, and I ardently desired to become acquainted with it.”

“Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appeared at one time a mere scion of the evil principle and at another as all that can be conceived of noble and godlike.”

“Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?”

“I cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections in- flicted upon me; I tried to dispel them, but sorrow only in- creased with knowledge.”

“I sickened as I read. `Hateful day when I received life!’ I exclaimed in agony. `Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even YOU turned from me in disgust?”

“Their happiness was not decreased by the absence of summer. They loved and sympathized with one another; and their joys, depending on each other, were not interrupted by the casualties that took place around them. The more I saw of them, the greater became my desire to claim their protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures;”

“Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken pos- session of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabit- ants and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery.”

“All, save I, were at rest or in en- joyment; I, like the arch-fiend, bore a hell within me, and find- ing myself unsympathized with, wished to tear up the trees, spread havoc and destruction around me, and then to have sat down and enjoyed the ruin.”

“There was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or as- sist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No; from that moment I declared everlasting war against the spe- cies, and more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery.”

“if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear.”

“She longed to bid me hasten my return; a thousand conflicting emotions rendered her mute as she bade me a tear- ful, silent farewell.”

“where the snowy mountains descend almost perpendicularly to the water, casting black and impenetrable shades, which would cause a gloomy and mournful appearance were it not for the most verdant islands that believe the eye by their gay appearance; I have seen this lake agitated by a tem- pest, when the wind tore up whirlwinds of water and gave you an idea of what the water-spout must be on the great ocean; and the waves dash with fury the base of the mountain”

“It was, indeed, a filthy process in which I was engaged. During my first experiment, a kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the horror of my employment; my mind was in- tently fixed on the consummation of my labour, and my eyes were shut in the horror of my proceedings. But now I went to it in cold blood, and my heart often sickened at the work of my hands.”

“I called myself the murderer of William, of Justine, and of Clerval.”

“I felt the fingers of the monster already grasping my neck, and screamed aloud with agony and terror.”

“Death snatches away many blooming children, the only hopes of their doting parents; how many brides and youthful lovers have been one day in the bloom of health and hope, and the next a prey for worms and the decay of the tomb!” 

“I felt a wish for happiness and thought with melancholy delight of my beloved cousin or longed, with a de- vouring maladie du pays, to see once more the blue lake and rapid Rhone, that had been so dear to me in early childhood; but my general state of feeling was a torpor in which a prison was as welcome a residence as the divinest scene in nature.”

“The past appeared to me in the light of a frightful dream;”

“I was anxious and watchful, while my right hand grasped a pistol which was hidden in my bosom; every sound terrified me, but I resolved that I would sell my life dearly and not shrink from the conflict until my own life or that of my ad- versary was extinguished.”

“I swear; and by thee, O Night, and the spirits that preside over thee, to pursue the daemon who caused this misery, until he or I shall perish in mortal conflict.”

“What a glorious creature must he have been in the days of his prosperity, when he is thus noble and godlike in ruin! He seems to feel his own worth and the greatness of his fall.”

“I am surrounded by mountains of ice which admit of no escape and threaten every moment.”

“We are still surrounded by mountains of ice, still in imminent danger of being crushed in their conflict.”





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