The Lifted Veil:

"Low spirits! That is the sort of phrase with which coarse, narrow natures like ours think to describe experience of which you can know no more than your horse know" (Latimer contemplating his brother Alfred, p.28). Latimer is assuming that he alone suffers, and that Alfred can never understand him because he believes that Alfred has absolutely no doubts, no fears. This perhaps is evidence that Latimer cannot read Alfred's mind--if he could read his mind, he would inevitably find at least some feelings of doubt. Latimer doesn't really even seem to know his brother at all, and Latimer wants nothing to do with him. There has to be something more to Alfred than Latimer thinks he knows; Latimer can't even predict his brother's death, predicting instead that he would only be prevented from Bertha if he found a better woman.Bertha's marriage philosophy is very cynical. She says that loving the person you marry is problematic because you will always be jealous and it is much more elegant to marry someone you don't care about. When Bertha says this, Latimer tells her "Bertha, that is not your real feeling. Why do you delight in trying to deceive me by inventing such cynical speeches?" (6). Latimer is easily deceived because he already spends so much tome inviting his own ideas and placing them onto others.Here's a theory: Latimer is not clairvoyant, he can't tell what people think. Instead, he is just really good at projecting his own thoughts and feelings upon others. It may be impossible not to project on someone you really love. Perhaps you need that assurance that that person is who you think. But then do you love the person or what you have made of the person? In Latimer's case, it seems that Latimer does not love Bertha for who she is (a cynical girl who does not care about him) but instead he loves the Bertha he has made through his projections--he absolutely adores his creation. Later, when he no longer loves Bertha, he projects different feelings onto her--demonizing feelings of hatred and disgust.

Interior Thoughts...and The Lifted Veil
picture of women on couch (and her stream of consciousness):I wonder how this dress makes me look. I hope it doesn't show any of the gross side bulge I've been going to the gym to get rid of because those workouts are hard, excruciating actually, yes but they are worth it, I'm not fat, I have no bulges, I am beautiful I am beautiful Am I beautiful? Tell me I'm beautiful.Can Latimer read people's minds, or is he doing what we all do (in assuming what people say)??Latimer is perhaps just extremely imaginative and able to come up with people's "thoughts" by their body language and facial cues. Latimer, of course, unquestioningly believes in the accuracy and authenticity of his visions. Evidence for such power comes from his vision of Prague and his subsequent visit to the city (where he confirmed his belief). He also guessed his brother's speech before he made it, and saw the vision of Bertha before he met her. And yet, Latimer could just have easily seen a painting of Prague, for example.But why can't Latimer read Bertha's mind?Knowing what Bertha was thinking would take the fun out of the romance (at least for Latimer). He can instead project his own desires and thoughts onto Bertha; she becomes what he wants her to be. He sees her as pretending to love Alfred while she secretly loves Latimer. Latimer craves her love; he worships her. The hold that Bertha has over him comes from the tyrannical power she has over him.He sees her as having a deeply cynical soul, and that something is going to move her--and it is going to be him. Obtaining Bertha's love would be like winning a colossal struggle.Perhaps this strong desire for Bertha comes from the distance that has been established between Latimer and his late mother.How does Latimer feel about himself?He thinks he is an amazing person: "I am cursed with an exceptional mental character" (7). Clearly, Latimer feel himself to be governed by a fate that has been set before him, a fate this governed by his own intellect. He regards himself as an emotional poet in that he does not write, but has the same sensibilities as a poet. He doesn't trust anyone else; he feels alone and confined to his own wretched misery.

Frankenstein: Hero Machine

This is my interpretation of the monster-as hero- as is from Frankenstein. He is huge and scary and intimidating, but his face is kind and welcoming. He is very strong and capable of breaking, robbing and murdering however, he only wants affection and it is only seen in his facial expressions. The only way he can be understood is if we as readers and viewers can get past his scary persona and concentrate on his person beneath.

Giving mental images, as in this one, provides a new way to interpret the work.

At the end of the novel, it seems that Walton has learned Victor's lesson as he decides to turn his ship around. Because he does not choose the "ultimate hero" route, he saves himself, those he loves and the rest of his crew by doing so. Frankenstein on the other hand, does not really learn his lesson, as he tells Walton to heed his word but at the same time condemns the crew for wanting to return and begs him to continue in his search and destruction of the monster. It is heroic but is it justified or admirable? I don't think that sacrificing family is heroic. I think that the true hero is not the great man but the stable man, the person who knows what he or she stands for and what is truly important. In the end, Walton is the everyday hero while Victor is he big-time hero who in the end, loses the very most. However maybe Victor's speech at the end is true heroism and maybe there are motivations for heroism that is less than ideal.

There is also a different kind of heroism that is expected of women. Perhaps for women heroism takes a silent form for women, as with Elizabeth, who is the most or one of the most stable characters in the novel.

Are Frankenstein and Victor the same person? While they live together and die together and have all the same experiences and sufferings, they in my opinions are complements. As the monster is the character who is in need of affection and can't have it, while Victor is a character who has all the love and affection in the world but does not exactly want it.

Frankenstein: To Volume, Chapter VI

In this section, Victor agrees to build the other female monster before he marries Elizabeth. He and Clerval decide to go on a trip through Europe before he marries Elizabeth so that he has time to make the female monster. While he is doing this, he realizes that it would be terrible if the monsters procreate so he decides to tear up the female. The monster becomes infuriated and threatens to be with Victor on his wedding night, which Victor automatically assumes that is the night the monster will kill him. However this actually shows how egotistical he is, not thinking about Elizabeth at all. The monster could have killed him at any number of their meetings but decides it will cause Victor more pain if he kills those he loves. Once Victor returns to the island he is accused of murdering Clerval, who the monster killed.

Futhermore, the monster might not want to kill Victor because he is his creator or also because he knows it is more difficult to watch others die than to die yourself. He might also want to teach Victor a lesson so that he will change, or is just doing everything he can to get Victor's attention, which he was denied at his creation. Also, maybe Victor and the monster are the same thing.

Are Victor and the monster one and the same person?
Perhaps. of course Victor wouldn't want to kill all his loved ones however he is self-destructive, as shown in his creation of the monster (p. 53), and is perhaps trying to get rid of the people who he loves before they hurt him by leaving him and dying, as his mother did when he was a child.

If so, why dos Victor want to kill his loved ones?
Victor calls the monster the wretch. Wretch is mentioned on pages 12-Victor, 43 - monster, 44 monster twice, Victor's sleep, 45 - monster, 47 - Victor's sickness, 60 - Victor, 61 - monster, 62 - monster, 63 - Victor, 65 - Victor, 70 - Victor's sleep, 71 - Victor, 73 - Victor, 77 - monster and Victor, 83 - monster, 85 - Victor, 87 - Victor, 90 - describes Victor, 92 - Victor, 94 - Victor, 98 - Victor, 104 - monster of himself, 112 - monster of himself, 113 - monster of himself, 124 - monster, 136 - Victor, 147 - monster, 148 - monster, 165 - Victor of himself, 182 - monster of Victor, etc.

Clearly, there is lots of interaction between the use of the word wretch to describe both themselves as well as each other. This also expresses the relationship between parent and child, as the monster begins to use the same language, called mirroring. For example, they exchange the words in close proximity of the words. After the monster kills Elizabeth the monster says, "I am satisfied, miserable wretch! You have determined to live, and I am satisfied." which shows the interchangeability of the word as description as well as perhaps, the character as well. This also reveals the deliberateness of the words as well as the possibility that Victor is creating his own wretchedness in his search for greatness at something.

Typically we want to blame Victor for not thinking about Elizabeth, but really the depths of his love do not overcome his need to be the "one" "greatest" something. Perhaps is it part of his belief that they could hurt him too much if he is invested in it.

Frankenstein: To Volume III

How does the monster's story make you feel about him?

I do sympathize quite a bit with the monster and his story. While I was lying in bed last night, I started wondering whether I would give the monster a chance if I had seen him. I decided that I would be absolutely terrified at first, but that if he was standing in the doorway and tried to talk to me I would listen, but that if he was on the inside and I was in the doorway, I would probably run away. I think it would be very hard to embrace the monster as he wishes to, but I also understand Frankenstein's initial fear that they would only wreak more havoc together. However, I do believe that one is the loneliest number and empathize with his need to have a friend and partner, even if it is a partner in crime.


How does the monster represent the theory of raising children properly or contributing to their development? The monster is in a sense Victor's child, and, as his father-figure and creator, Victor abandoned him which made him feel rejected. The monster is a child, and was fortunately able to learn good behavior from the cottagers but every human he has interacted with since then has been violent toward him. It's sad actually, because he wants to be included in the world of his father but can't be. According to this philosophy, nurture could have played a much larger and beneficial role in the monster's life. However, there are many choices the child must make between what is easy and what is right. One example of these moral decisions is when he chose to frame Justine for William's murder, which shows his bad nature or possibly his lack of nurture and of controlling his emotions.

The monster, like a neglected child, wants attention from Victor even if it is negative attention. This is what happens when he murders William. Initially, he only wants to have a friend with the blind man and then with William, but they both reject him. Parents, like Victor, owe their children the potential and opportunities to make their own happiness. This is what, in essence was denied to the monster.

Frankenstein: To Volume II, Chapter III

Is Walton like Victor?

In my opinion, there is no definite yes or no answer to this question because it can swing both ways. First, yes, because both are preoccupied with a life goal and journey and will stop at nothing to complete it. Yes also because both crave the fame of accomplishment, that is they focus on the destination not the journey. But mostly, I think no, although it is difficult to say since we do not know as much about Walton still. Yet no because, unlike Victor, Walton does not endeavor on his adventures for very long. He gave up being a poet after only a year, where Victor worked two years in solitude on the monster. Also, Walton still keeps in contact with his family where as Victor does not. Furthermore, Walton has not sacrificed his own life for the fulfillment of his end goal. Overall, I think they have similar character traits, or maybe the same potential for success or disaster, I think they are overall different. I guess it's like they are two different branches made of the same root tree.

The more you love someone the more they can hurt you. How does this apply to Victor?
This especially applies to his mother, who doted on him all the time, and who loved him more than any other parents could love a creature.


There are three main allusions of poetry in Frankenstein:

The first is the Greek story of Promethius: He gave fire to the humans, and because of this the gods punished him for giving us so much power, is chained to the top of a mountain and punished daily for eternity. It is symbolic of Victor, who wants to defeat human mortality and is punished thenceforth.

The other poems are "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Alaster." The Mariner is an old man who stops a man from going to a wedding and tells him his story. There was a bird who came to the ship everyday, whenever the old mariner called him and was loyal and faithful. Then one day the old mariner shot it with an arrow. Because of this, everything goes wrong, his whole crew dies. They are so angry at him they hang the albatross around his neck. Then in the moonlight, the slimy snakes inside him change to beauty and he is allowed to come back to land. His curse is that he must re-tell the story over and over. Why would you kill someone who loved you unconditional, like the bird, or like kids, or Jesus? The truth is that unconditional love is scary as hell! You either think you are unworthy or the pain would be too much, our instinct is to stay away. The mariner makes the wedding guest recognize the fear that comes with unconditional love, with the union of one person with another. If you push it away first, if you kill it first, you save yourself the heartbreak.

There is a similar message in "Alastor" (p. 247). Alastor is story about a poet traveling all around the world looking for truth. He goes to Egypt to discover the truth of time. He stays with an Arab and while he is there, a maid falls in love with him but does not say anything. He does not realize it, and continues to travel and one night he dreams about her, and realizes she is just like him, they are soul mates. In the dream, she throws himself into his arms and they are about to consummate their love but then he awakens and she is gone. He then begins to travel around the world looking for her. The poet has "spurned her choicest gifts," or didn't take the opportunity when he had it. Then he ends up dying while searching for the maid.

How do they resemble Victor? Like the mariner he is trying to tell his story so that others might not make the same mistakes as he did. Because of his decision, everything around him becomes black and scary and makes his existence worse, as shown when he fears his old landscape when returning home and also created the monster who begins to destroy his family and friends at home. Similarly, he spurns nature's choicest gifts by going against nature and also forsaking the true nature and things he used to find joy in, like being outside and being with his family. He does not pursue relationships with women or with his family or his betrothed. Yet what were these feelings that caused him to neglect nature and his loved ones?

"On a dreary night in November" the monster becomes alive. He initially thought he was beautiful but on deeper observation he is awful, yellow and terrifying, he looks like living death. When he realizes this he runs out and decides he never wants to see the creature again, and he is horrified at what he has done. That night he dreamed that he sees Elizabeth but then changes to his dead mother, suggesting that he wanted to create the monster so that he could bring back his mother from the dead or prevent Elizabeth from dying. Thus, perhaps building the monster and ignoring Elizabeth are an attempt to prevent her from hurting him and to prevent him the pain of losing her. He is afraid of living in a world without her. It's part of what motivates him, but in a bad way.

Furthermore, the monster's first attempt at human contact was with Victor, who screams and runs out of the room. Later, Victor meets Henry Clerval and takes him back to the apartment to find that the monster has left. He has a manic attack of relief, and then falls fatally ill with hallucinations and nervous fever about the monster. Clerval then takes care of him and after some time Victor becomes "as cheerful as before I was attacked by the fatal passion" (41). In this passage he does not take responsibility for his own actions and claims that fate attacked him, and he is an innocent bystander. He is passive, saying fate attacked me, instead of I made the mistake.

This passive outlook also applies to the death of Justine for the acclaimed murder of his brother William. He doesn't say anything for fear of people thinking he was mad. He wants to step up but was unable to because of, possibly, his fear of people thinking him insane, especially Elizabeth. He will not confess to his own mistakes, he thinks that he can't prove it and says fate had it that this is the way it would be. He was the one who was guilty and lets other innocents suffer for his mistakes, claiming alone that it was fate. On p 63-4, Victor says he cannot be consoled, and while Elizabeth was sad the could not suffer like him. Victor claims the quote of Satan (who was cast out of heaven to create hell, who suffers more than anyone else), he claims that he is suffering more than anyone else; translation: feel sorry for me the most, he is an egotist. This reflects Victors greatest desire to be the greatest, at everything and ignores others.

Frankenstein: Letters - Ch. 3

Walton wants to be a poet or discoverer. Victor wants to achieve greatness through the discoveries of science. Despite these differences both men are "artists" in the romantic sense.

"Frankenstein" is a novel about why people should not meddle in those things God does not want him to. It is also an exploration of why we are so interested in human secrets. It is certainly an analysis of Victor. The 1831 version of "Frankenstein," it explores more of Victor's obsession with human secrets and he also says that he was "fated" to do this and be ruined. However, this is not Shelley letting Victor off the hook, but Victor trying to take the blame off of himself. It is in sentences like this that show the author's viewpoint behind the text by the way that it's said. We are looking for the places where Shelley contradicts Victor's self-acclaimed "fate."

Victor's childhood was heavenly, it was filled with love, family, friends, attention, education, etcetera. He states that no "creature" could have more tender parents than his. "Creature is the word he uses to describe his monster, and considers himself as a creature of his family. He says that the alchemists were the fatal impulse of his ruin. He meets Waldman at the university, who introduces him to chemistry and teaches him about the modern sciences. His desire to be famous, like the alchemists overtakes his being though in his quest to make such a discovery.

In creating the monster, Victor becomes crazed, obsessive and insane. He develops a god complex, as shown he he states "a new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve their's" (34). He wants them to know that he is great and the reason for their existence, he wants to be absolutely worshiped. Yet he never considers that something might go wrong. He is too driven to see the flaw in his plans.

His process of creation is basically locking himself up and letting it consume his existence until it is completed. His self confidence keeps him driving forward despite his failing health. He feels exalted, and never doubts his success. He's obsessive compulsive about it, and does not feel as though it is within his control to do it, as shown when he states "I appeared rather like on doomed by slavery to toil in the mines, or any other unwholesome trade" (36). It is interesting that in giving life to the monster he is actually losing his own. Typically if your job is life-sucking its not the right job for you. However, he is not thinking should I, but only can I.

Frankenstein: The Beginning

ove and passion again take another turn in the infamous Frankenstein of Mary Shelley. The narrator (Walton) begins and embarks on a journey of being remembered. He is writing letters to his sister, Margaret, as he embarks on a journey to the North Pole. He explains that originally he wanted to be a famous poet like Shakespeare and Homer, and finds that after doing it for only one year, he finds that he cannot do it. If, however, he really wanted to be a poet, he probably wouldn't give up after a year, which suggests that he does not want to be a poet but instead just wants to be idolized.

One day the crew and ship are surrounded on all sides by ice, and on the land they see the monster and Dr. Frankenstein. After this they bring Dr. Frankenstein aboard and he begins to tell his story. He decides to share his story with Walton so that he can teach him a lesson, because they share the same madness, as Walton is willing to sacrifice everything for his "enterprise." Frankenstein exclaims to Walton, "unhappy man, do you share my madness?" Thus he is compelled to share his story with Walton in order to save him the same fate.