Happily Ever After... NOT!

"'That is also my victim!' he exclaimed; 'in his murder my crimes are consummated; the miserable series of my being is wound to its close! Oh, Frankenstein! generous and self-devoted being! what does it avail that I now ask thee to pardon me? I, who irretrievably destroyed thee by destroying all thou lovedst. Alas! he is cold, he cannot answer me'" (pg 163).

SURPRISE! The monster in which Frankenstein was in search of when he found his place on this ship had found him on that very ship...dead. His reaction to his creator's death was also shocking. He had done everything in his power to make Victor unhappy, killing all of his loved ones. However, when Victor actually died, he felt great sorrow and remourse. He asked for forgiveness. He even wanted to kill himself. I feel like the same thing would happen if Victor found the monster dead, because his only goal in life was to kill the monster, and if the monster were to be already dead, he would no longer have a point to live. No matter how much they despised each other, their lives were basically run by the other. They had so many connections that there was no escaping each other...until DEATH.

PARALLELISM

"My presesnt situation was one in which all voluntary thought was swalloed up and lost. I was hurried away by fury; revenge alone endowed me with strenth and composure; it moulded my feelings, and allowed me to be calculating and calm, at periods when otherwhise delirium or death would have been my portion" ( pg 149).

This chapter shows the unity of the story. The monster was able to bring his creator to his level. Now he can finally understand the loneliness and solidarity that the monster had to face. When being forced into this situation, both of them react in the same way. They seek revenge. The monster was trying to hurt Victor by hurting the ones dear to him, and Victor wanted to kill the monster because of this. It was quite suspenseful reading when wondering if Victor would ever actually catch him. I think that his desire to kill his creation matches the desire he had to create the monster. He wanted with everything in him to accomplish the goal, but once he found him, was he going to be able to overcome the monster's supernatural strength and kill him? It seems as though Victor is the type to not really think about his actions before he actually does things.

RACE OF DEVILS

"Even if they were to leave Europe, and inhabit the deserts of the new world, yet one of the first recults of those sympathies for which the daemon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth, who might make the very existence of the species od man a condition precarious and full of terror" (pg 121).

This was my first thought when Victor agreed to creating a female monster. I foreshadowed little (or possibly gigantic) baby monsters running around South America. Who says that these little monsters would listen to their parents and not harm anyone? Nobody. I felt that Victor would be endangering the lives of many South Americans by creating this monster. Then again, who says that the female monster would want to be with the male monster? She would be completely unsophistacated at the time of her "birth." Maybe the male would take her in and teach her and all would be well, but maybe she would reject him as well. What would he do then, if someone of his own race rejected him? I honestly think he would go on a killing spree and end with himself.

FAITH

"It moved every feeling of wonder and awe, that the picture of an omnipotent God warring with his creatures was capable of exciting. I often referred the several situations, as their similarity struck me, to my own. Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but his state was far different than mine in every other respect" (pg 92).

This allusion to God and Adam further highlights the complexity of the creation's intelligence. Not only is he reading "Paradise Lost," but he is relating it to his life. It is a very true analogy as well; Monster is to Adam, as Victor is to God. It is true that both God and Victor created life, but Victor rejected his creation, while God loved and nurtured his. It truly must be miserable for the moster to be rejected by everyone. Being rejected by one person makes me terribly upset, especially if I care for them as deeply as the monster cared for the De Lacey's. That would have to be terribly heart breaking, so I feel for the monster in this respect. I feel that this sort of rejection can cause people (or monsters) to do crazy things that they normally would not do. He is an unstable emotional state, and, honestly, I feel bad for him.

COMPANIONSHIP

"But where are my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which distinguised nothing" (pg 86).

Saying that the creation desires companionship is an understatement. He takes it upon himself to help the De Lacey's without their knowledge. This shows the true compassion that he feels towards them. He wants nothing more than their approval and protection. He often refers to them as his "protectors," which I never really understood, because they don't even know he's there so there is no way that they are protecting them. He sets up a plan to get the blind man alone, which I believe to be a quite genius idea. Unfortunately when the younger people come home and see the monster with their father, he is immediately rejected AGAIN! Even after their cruelty he goes back for another chance, but they had moved out, because they feel that their father is in danger. This was the breaking point for the creation, and he blamed VICTOR!

MONSTER CAN SHOW AFFECTION?

"I saw no cause for their unhappiness; but I was deeply affected by it. If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect solitary being, should be wretched" (pg 77). I was stunned by the maturity and affection that the monster showed. First when he becomes intrigued by this little family and their problems. He is a very considerate creature, because when he realizes that he is part of the cause of their unhappiness by stealing food, he decides to stop and to help them out. I feel like many humans wouldn't even do that. I was also extremely allured by the fact that he wanted to learn, and he acted upon this desire. He paid attention to what they did and how the words correlated to the actions. I think it's hard to learn another language in school; I can't imagine trying to teach myself my first language. Victor may be wrong in his belief that he created such a terrible being. From what the creature told Victor, the creature has a good heart. He cares about people and himself by furthering his own knowledge. However, I do find it kind of creepy that he just watched this family. Kind of stalkerish, but how was he supposed to know it was wrong?

Justine

"Justine shook her head mournfully. 'I do not fear to die,' she saod; 'that pang is past. God raises my weaknesses, and gives me courage to endure the worst. I leave a sad and bitter world; and if you remember me as of one unjustly condemned, I am resigned to the fate awaiting me. Learn from me, dear lady, to submit in patience to the will of heaven'" (pg 59). I think that Justine is a very powerful and amazing woman. To have the courage and faith in God to admit to a false accusation in order to reach heaven is astonishing. I don't think I know anyone like her today on a personal level at least. I don't quite understand why she would admit to something that is not true though, because she still would have gone to heaven if she lived a good life. She didn't have to leave at that time. I wonder if it was God's time for her to go, or if she just thought it was her time. It's almost like a form of mercy killing or euthanasia, because she is basically choosing to die. I don't know if it's because she doesn't want to live with the blame on her and everyone thinking she is a murderer. I guess I wouldn't want to live like that either, but I feel that it is kind of wrong for to take the blame when she is innocent.

It's ALIVE!

"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 pearly whiteness; but these luxurances 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" (pg 35). It is shocking that Victor would be so disgusted by his creation after he spent so much time and effort on making it. However, the imagery the monster is quite frightening. If I were to see this creature come alive before my eyes, I would probably think about running away too, but I hope I would realize that would be the wrong thing to do. By running away and neglecting his responsibility of this creation, he puts the lives of many others (his brother!) in danger. It makes one question why he ever decided to make this monster. I wonder if it was because he never thought he could actually do it; it is defeating the laws of nature to be able to create life. I would never think I could accomplish such an astonishing feat. In class, we talked about how he only thought about, "Can I do it?" not "Should I do it?" I believe that it is kind of a mixture of both. He wanted to prove that he could do it, but he didn't know if he could, so when he accomplished his goal, he didn't know what to do with the product. He never thought about the consequences.

Cornelius Agrippa

"A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind, and, bounding with joy, I communicated my discovery to my father. My father looked carelessly at the title-page of my book and said, "Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash" (pg 20). Victor's father goes as far as to use the metaphor of this book being trash, yet Victor still decides to read it and become fascinated by it. I was surprised that Victor called his father's response a "cursory glance," because, if my father said that to me, I would definitely think twice about becoming so intrigued by it. I feel like Victor is somewhat blaming his father for his later disaster. He says that if his father would have gone into more detail, then maybe Victor would not have made the big mistake that he did. I'm sure that his father would have been more thorough if he knew his response would have been disregarded and later been the cause of creating a monster. I also think that it is very interesting that this book of some sort of magic was the catalyst of his curiosity in science. Victor said that as soon as he returned home from the baths near Thonon, the place where he had found the book, he began putting Agrippa's words into actions. I wonder what these books said exactly to make him act the way that he did.

"Frankenstein" Mary Shelley

"And when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine -- mine to protect, love, and cherish" (pg 18). As I read this first chapter, I felt that Elizabeth's role was a bit ambiguous. I could not tell if she was going to be his sister or Victor's wife or both... As strange as it may be, it turns out to be more of the third option. Victor's parents raise her as a child of their own, showing pride and love in her. On the other hand, his mother did pick her out, because she was so beautiful and told Victor that she had a "pretty present" for him before they brought her home. The hopes of his parents were that they would raise her and eventually Victor could marry her. That is really odd to me, because it's like they went to the store and hand picked a wife for their son, but oh well. I'm guessing that it was not that peculiar back then as it is today.

COINCIDENCE???

"A new point of view occured to me. Suppose Tom found out the Daisy had been driving. He might think he saw a connection in it--he might think anything" (pg 144). As soon as the black man said it was a yellow car, I was wondering if Daisy knew what Myrtle looked like and whether she would intentionally injure her or not. I didn't think that she would kill her on purpose, because then Tom might kill Gatsby in revenge. I also wondered whether it was Gatsby or Daisy driving. In my mind it would make more sense for Gatsby to kill Myrtle in an attempt to hurt Tom, after Tom had upset him so badly. It could have been a type of vengeance, like if Daisy can't have me, then you can't have Myrtle. I also wondered, like Nick, if Tom would make a connection, and if he would do anything about it if he did. Another thought running through my head was if Myrtle was trying to get hit or if she was trying to talk to Tom. I am still curious on that matter and whether Daisy tried to stop before she hit her, because I know she took off afterwards.

LONELY

"I found myself on Gatsby's side, and alone" (pg 164). I found this line to be depressing. This is probably weird, but sometimes I think about who would come to my funeral if I died, and if no one came I would be absolutely devestated. I find it incredibly sad that Gatsby has no friends. I would think that some of his platoon mates would come or something. It kind of makes sense that Wolfsheim and those fellows wouldn't show, because they could get in trouble for being in public. Daisy not making an appearance would be horrible in Gatsby's mind, but for her, it was probably better that she didn't know, because it would cause her internal conflict to grow even more. Having someone you love die is terrible, and if you ended on a bad note, it would be even worse! I grew to appreciate Nick more for being such a great friend.

IMAGERY

"There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of the water as the fresh flow from one end urged its way toward the drain at the other. With little ripples that were hardly the shadows of waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly fown the pool. A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its accidental course with accidental burden. The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of transit, a thin red circle in the water" (pg 162). When I was reading this paragraph I was so captivated by the realistic imagery. I felt as though I could have almost witnessed this catastrophe. My best friend and I have pools, so I know what it's like for leaves to bunch up if you don't skim frequently. Gatsby had recently been talking about how his pool didn't get much action, so a cluster of leaves is very plausible. I can also relate to the movement of the air mattress up and down the pool. Whenever I lay out on a raft, I don't stay still for a second, unless I'm holding onto something. Therefore, a small gust of wind could easilly disturb the mattress. As for the "thin red circle in the water," I am thoroughly disturbed by that, because I have never witnessed anything like that. However, I imagine it to look like the water you wash your paintbrush off in after you paint a red apple or something.

INTERNAL CONFLICT

"'Oh, you want too much!' she cried to Gatsby. 'I love you now--isn't that enough? I can't help what's past.' She began to sob helplessly. 'I did love him once--but I loved you too'" (pg 132). Daisy is possessed by great internal conflict. She fell in love with Gatsby before he left for war, but she wanted a normal life while he was gone and didn't know if he was ever going to come back. She fell in love with Tom and married him while Gatsby was away. Now that Gatsby has returned back into her life she doesn't know what to do! She knows it would be wrong for her to leave her husband, but he has an affair on the side; therefore, she feels like it is acceptable for her to do the same. That was going over fine for her until Tom starts to realize what is going on, and Gatsby just comes out and tells him that she doesn't love him. I feel like she doesn't know if she loves him or not, because of the bad things that he has done to her in the past, but she still really cares about him, feels a sense of loyalty towards him, and wouldn't want to hurt him. I hate how we don't get closure on their relationship at the end of the novel. I want to know if they end up happy together or if they have more affairs.

ALLUSION

"'I told her she might be able to fool me but she couldn't fool God. I took her to the window'--with an effort he got up and walked to the rear window and leaned with his face pressed against it--'and I said 'God knows what you've been doing, everything you've been doing. You may fool me, but you can't fool God!'' Standing behind him, Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night" (pg 158).

The way that Doctor T.J. Eckleburg is constantly watching over the novel makes him seem like God. Wilson even goes as far as referring to Eckleburg as God. This allusion makes the novel seem more corrupt in my opinion, because they know that what they are doing is wrong, but the do it anyways under the eyes of God. I think that this is one of the reasons that this novel is so unversal, because we all sin. Most people do things wrong, even though they know they are wrong, and whether they realize that God is watching or not, He is. It also shows that at least some of the people in this novel have a faith. It is never established which denomination, but I think that also makes it universal, because many people can relate to a belief in God. It makes one think about their own lives and how they feel about God watching everything they do.