You are viewing a free preview of this lesson.
Subscribe to unlock all 10 lessons in this course and every other course on LearningBro.
This lesson focuses on the most frequently examined passages in Frankenstein. For each extract, you will find the passage, key language features, and a model PEAL paragraph showing how to write a top-grade response.
"It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, 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. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs."
| Feature | Example | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Pathetic fallacy | "dreary night of November," "rain pattered dismally" | Nature reflects the horror of the creation — Gothic atmosphere |
| Symbolism | "spark of being," "half-extinguished light" | Light imagery is diminished — the "Enlightenment" moment is murky and uncertain |
| Dehumanising language | "lifeless thing," "the creature" | Victor does not use human terms — he sees his creation as an object |
| Physical detail | "dull yellow eye," "convulsive motion" | Clinical, revolting description — Victor's first reaction is disgust |
Point: Shelley uses pathetic fallacy and diminished light imagery in the Creation scene to undermine the Enlightenment promise that scientific knowledge leads to human progress.
Evidence: The Creation takes place on a "dreary night of November," with rain pattering "dismally" and a candle "nearly burnt out," so that Victor sees the Creature only "by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light."
Analysis: The word "dreary" sets a tone of exhaustion and spiritual emptiness rather than triumph. The "half-extinguished light" is symbolically significant: the Enlightenment — which promised that science would illuminate the darkness of ignorance — is here literally flickering out. Victor's great moment of discovery happens not in glorious daylight but in near-darkness, suggesting that what he has done is not enlightenment but transgression. The pathetic fallacy of the "dismally" pattering rain externalises Victor's inner state — even nature recoils from what he has created. Furthermore, the detail that the candle is "nearly burnt out" foreshadows the destruction that will follow: Victor's ambition has consumed its own fuel.
Link: This scene structurally parallels the novel's ending, where Victor dies in the frozen darkness of the Arctic. The diminished light of the Creation anticipates the total darkness of his death — a trajectory from flickering hope to extinguished life.
"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! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips."
| Feature | Example | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Rhetorical question | "How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe?" | Victor's horror is beyond words — the Creation overwhelms language |
| Exclamation | "Beautiful! Great God!" | The ironic, anguished repetition shows how far reality has fallen from his expectation |
| Juxtaposition | Beautiful features (lustrous hair, pearly teeth) vs. horror (yellow skin, watery eyes) | The Creature is simultaneously composed of beautiful parts and a horrifying whole — Shelley questions what we mean by "beauty" |
| Gothic vocabulary | "wretch," "horrid," "shrivelled" | Victor immediately uses language of monstrosity and disgust |
Point: Shelley uses juxtaposition of beauty and horror in Victor's description of the Creature to challenge the reader's assumptions about what constitutes monstrosity.
Evidence: Victor notes that the Creature's hair is "of a lustrous black" and his teeth "of a pearly whiteness," but these "luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes."
Analysis: The juxtaposition of conventionally beautiful features (lustrous hair, pearly teeth) with repulsive ones (yellow skin, watery eyes, straight black lips) creates a deeply unsettling effect — the Creature is composed of attractive parts that fail to cohere into an attractive whole. This mirrors Victor's scientific method: he assembled beautiful components but produced something that horrifies him. The word "luxuriances" — meaning abundant, excessive beauty — is immediately undercut by "horrid contrast," revealing that Victor judges his creation not by its individual qualities but by its failure to meet a unified aesthetic standard. Shelley may be arguing that society's concept of beauty — and its opposite, monstrosity — is itself a construction, assembled from arbitrary standards that exclude those who do not conform.
Link: This passage is the foundation of the novel's theme of prejudice. Victor rejects the Creature on sight, without attempting communication or understanding. Every subsequent act of rejection — by villagers, the De Laceys, and William — echoes this originary moment. Shelley structures the novel so that all prejudice flows from this first look.
"I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me. Oh, Frankenstein, be not equitable to every other and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy clemency and affection, is most due. Remember that 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. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous."
| Feature | Example | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Biblical allusion | "thy Adam," "the fallen angel" | The Creature frames his story in the language of Paradise Lost, casting Victor as a failed God |
| Legal/moral language | "equitable," "justice," "clemency" | The Creature argues rationally and morally — he is no mindless monster |
| Conditional logic | "if thou wilt also perform thy part" | He offers a bargain: responsibility in exchange for obedience |
| Emotional appeal | "irrevocably excluded," "misery made me a fiend" | The Creature combines logical argument with emotional power |
Point: Shelley gives the Creature the language of theology, law, and philosophy to challenge the reader's assumption that he is a mindless monster.
Evidence: The Creature addresses Victor: "I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed."
Analysis: The allusion to Paradise Lost is multi-layered. The Creature identifies with Adam — the first creation, who was made by God and deserved love — but recognises that he has been treated like Satan — cast out and denied joy. Crucially, he adds "for no misdeed": unlike Milton's Satan, who rebelled against God, the Creature has done nothing wrong at this point. His exile is not punishment for sin but the result of his creator's horror and neglect. The legal vocabulary — "equitable," "justice," "clemency" — frames Victor's abandonment as a breach of duty, not merely an emotional failure but a moral and quasi-legal one. The Creature is making a reasoned argument, not issuing threats. Shelley uses this eloquence to force the reader to question who is truly rational and who is truly monstrous.
Link: This speech comes at the structural centre of the novel. Up to this point, we have heard only Victor's account; now the Creature speaks for himself. The shift from Victor's hysterical, self-pitying narration to the Creature's measured, philosophical eloquence is one of the novel's most powerful structural effects. Shelley ensures that the reader, like Victor, must sit and listen.
"But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing. I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery; I have pursued him even to that irremediable ruin. There he lies, white and cold in death. You hate me, but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself."
| Feature | Example | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Confession | "I have murdered," "I have strangled," "I have devoted" | The repetition of "I have" creates a litany of guilt — each admission is a blow |
| Self-loathing | "your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself" | The Creature's self-hatred exceeds even Walton's horror — he is his own harshest judge |
| Irony | "the select specimen of all that is worthy of love" | The Creature praises Victor — whom the reader knows was deeply flawed. Is this sincere, or bitterly ironic? |
| Juxtaposition | "lovely and helpless" / "strangled," "grasped to death" | The gentle descriptions of victims against the violent verbs creates moral horror |
Subscribe to continue reading
Get full access to this lesson and all 10 lessons in this course.