Key Extracts & Exam Practice

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.

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Extract 1: The Creation Scene (Chapter 5)

The passage

"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."

Key language features