Edinburg

"but the beauty and regularity of the new town of Edinburg, its romantic castle and its environs, the most delightful in the world, Aurthur's Seat, St Bernard's Well, and the Pentland Hills" (118)

Arthur's Seat is the main peak of the group of hills in the center of Edinburg. It is a remarkable highland landscape. St Bernard's Well was supposedly discovered by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian Order, in the 12th Century. He became ill and followed the birds to the spring which drank from it. He was soon healthy due to the well's healing powers. The Pentland Hills are a range of hills to the south-west of Edinburg that are about twenty miles in length. These beautiful landscapes brightened Frankenstein's mood as natural wonders often do in this novel.

~"Arthur's Seat" Gazetteer for Scotland. 2008. August 26, 2008 <http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/features/featurefirst249.html>

~"St. Bernard's Well" Edinbvrgh. 14/03/2008 August 26, 2008<http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/leisure/local_history_and_heritage/monuments/

other_monuments/cec_st._bernards_well>

~"Welcome to the Pentland Hills" Edinbvrgh. 14/03/2008. August 26, 2008. <http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/leisure/local_history_and_heritage/monuments/other

_monuments/cec_st._bernards_well>

Cup of Life

"The cup of life was poisoned forever" (134)

The cup of life is a metaphor for Frankenstein's happiness. Frankenstein's life is fine before he created his monster, but it become more and more toxic as the monster toiled with Frankenstein. All the damage that the monster does cannot be reversed so he is never happy again.

Maladie du pays

"or longed, with a deavouring maladie du pays, to see once more the blue lake and rapid Rhone"

Maladie du pays means homesickness in French, Frankenstein's native language. Frankenstein slips into his native language while telling Walton his story to emphasise the nostalgia he is feeling. Frankenstein misses his home because that is where he was innocent and happy as a child.

~"Maladie du Pays" Master Index. 2008. August 26, 2008. <http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/V3notes/maladie.html>

Chamois

"He may be hunted like chamois" (148)

Chamois is a goat-like animal native to the Alps that is a commonly hunted for its meat. Frankenstein tells the magistrate to hunt the monster like chamois because he thinks of him as inhuman. Although the monster does not appear human, he has the heart of a human and thinks like one.

~Huffman, Brent. "Chamois". Rupicapra Rupicapra. March 22, 2008. <http://www.ultimateungulate.com/Artiodactyla/RupicapraRupicapra.html>

Ground Sea

"About two hours after this occurrence we heard the ground sea; and before night the ice broke, and freed our ship." (8)

Ground sea is a swell of the ocean occurring during calm weather and without obvious cause, breaking on the shore in heavy roaring billows. This ground sea comes by chance and brakes the ice that surrounded Robert Walton's ship. His whole expedition is a risk and filled with events that happen by chance.

~"Ground Sea" Websters Online Dictionary. August 26, 2008. <http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/Gr/Ground_sea.html>

Palaces of Nature

" 'the palaces of nature,' " (49)

This is a quote form Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III, a poem by Byron. It is about a man who travels and draws pleasure from the land. Marry Shelley includes a lot about the sublime in Frankenstein and this is one example of this.


". . . Above me are the Alps,

The palaces of Nature, whose vast walls,

Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps,

And throned Eternity in icy halls

Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls

The avalanche -- the thunderbolt of snow!

All that expands the spirit, yet appals,

Gather around these summits, as to show

How Earth may pierce to Heaven, yet leave vain man below."

"Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" Master Index. August 26, 2008. <http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Byron/charold3.html>

Sorrow

"The first of these sorrows that are meant to ween us from the earth, had visited her, and its dimming influence quenched her dearest smiles." (63)

One could not live forever, because there are too many sorrows that fill the heart. Elizabeth's sorrows grows as the ones dear to her die. She changes as tragedies are presented to her and she eventually dies. Victor Frankenstein is constantly being filled with sorrow until he dies from the wearing that the pain had caused.

Mutability

"Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;
"Nought may endure but mutability!" (67)

This is the ending of a poem called Mutability by Percy Bysshe Shelley. It is significant because is shows that everyone is human after all, so their lives are constantly changing. At the point when this piece of poem is written in the novel, Frankenstein is finding happiness and relief by climbing the summit of Montenvert. Moments after this poem, the monster comes and changes Frankenstein's mood to regretful and terrified..

~Weaver, Lydia. "Biographical Sketch of PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY and An Interpretation Of 'Mutability' " August 26, 2008. <http://courses.wcupa.edu/fletcher/britlitweb/lweaverb.htm>

Harem

"sickened at the prospect of again returning to Asia and being immured within the walls of a harem" (88)

A harem is a place where Turkish women were kept in usually a polygynous household. Men were forbidden to be in the harem. Women in this novel are docile and inactive and the harem is a place where women are docile and inactive. Elizabeth waits for Frankenstein her whole life, but ends up being murdered. Justine dies, eventhough she is innocent and Frankenstein kills the female monster. Mary Shelley portrays women as patient and unjustly treated.


~"harem." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 27 Aug. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/harem>

Moon

"for the winds were hushed, and all nature reposed under the eye of the quiet moon." (121)

The monster usually comes out at night because it is dark and people are not around. The comfort and warmth people get from the sun he gets from the moon. This quote foreshadows that the monster is quietly hiding somewhere, ready to disturb Frankenstein's wedding night. Mary Shelley gives the moon in this quote personification because it is the quiet monster.

Laudanum

"ever since my recovery from the fever, I had been in the custom of taking every night a small quantity of laudanum; for it was by means of this drug only that I was enabled to gain the rest necessary for the preservation of life." (135)

Laudanum is an opium based pain killer that was popular during the Victorian Age. Frankenstein falls ill after traumatic events throughout the novel. This is his way of escaping the pain he is going through. Sleep and sickness does not rid him of his sins, but delays him from thinking about them.

~Harding, Stephen"Victorians and Laudanum" Victorian's Secrets. 2000. August 27, 2008. <http://drugs.uta.edu/laudanum.html>

The Apple

"but the apple was already eaten" (139)

This is a reference to the Genesis, when Eve eats the forbidden fruit which creates original sin. Elizabeth wants to marry Frankenstein so they can be happy together, but happiness has already been taken away from them, when Frankenstein created the monster.

Light

"the phenomena of the heavenly bodies undoubtedly are in those undiscovered solitudes. What may not be expected in a country of eternal light?" (1)

Light, like fire, is a symbol of knowledge in this novel. Robert Walton is pursuing a knowledge that no other man has discovered. He does not know what to expect to find there or how it will effect him. This situation is parallel to Frankenstein's, when he creates life.

Tintern Abby

"The sounding cataract

Haunted him like a passion: the tall rock,

The mountain, and the deep and gloomy woods,

Their colours and their forms, were then to him

An appetite; afeeling, and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm,

By thought supplied, or any interest

Unborrow'd from the eye." (113)

This poem was written by Wordsworth and is called Tintern Abbey or Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. It was written in July 13, 1798. This poem is in the novel to show how important nature is to the restoration of characters. Clerval restored Frankenstein back to health multiple times and he brings him to natural phenomenons.

Landry, Peter. "Tintery Abbey". A Blue Pete Poetry Pick. August 27, 2008. <http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Poetry/WordsworthTinternAbbey.htm>

Foreshadowing

"But as if possessed of magic powers, the monster had blinded me of his real intentions; and when I thought that I had prepared only my own death, I hastened that of a far dearer victim." (144)

When the monster informs Frankenstein that he will be with him during his wedding night, Frankenstein thinks that he will be killed and Elizabeth will be spared. When he tells Robert Walton this part of the story he reveals that Elizabeth will be the victim. Mary Shelley foreshadows this event so blatantly to create irony. There is a lot of foreshadowing that creates the reader to feel dread for the character while the character is oblivious. This emphasises the dreary tone of the Gothic novel.

Pandaemonium

"as exquisite and divine a retreat as Pandaemonium appeared to the daemons of hell after their sufferings in the lake of fire." (73)

Pandaemonium is the capital of Hell in the poem Paradise Lost, by John Milton. It was published in 1667 in a series of ten books. In the poem the daemons are trapped in the lake of fire that produces darkness instead of light. God condemned them to the lake, but then sets them free and Satan and the daemons construct Pandaemonium. This place is their Heaven in Hell, after being trapped by God. The monster compares the woods he had lived in to the lake of fire because he was so miserable there. When he finds the little hut it is his Heaven in the Hell he is still living in.

~"Summary" Yahoo Education. August 26, 2008. <http://education.yahoo.com/homework_help/cliffsnotes/paradise_lost/11.html>

Fire

"I found a fire... In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain. How strange, I thought, that the same cause should produce such an opposite effect!" (72)

Fire symbolizes knowledge in this quote. When the monster discovers fire it brings him warmth but also burns. When Frankenstein gains the knowledge of the creation of life it makes him excited, but it burns him later.

Never Dying Worm

"But I, the true murderer, felt the never-dying worm alive in my bosom" (58)

Worms eating away at Frankenstein and other decaying bodies is a thread in this novel. Worms are mentioned previously, when Frankenstein has the idea of creating life.

"I saw how the worm had inherited the wonders of the eye and brain. I paused, examining and analysing all the minutiae of causation, as exemplified in the change from life to death" (30)

The worm symbolizes the monster who is eating away at Frankenstein, ridding him of life. Frankenstein gave the worm life and the monster took it away from Frankenstein.

Dante

"It came a thing not even Dante could have conceived." (36)

Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet who wrote The Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy is about Dante's journey through Hell, purgatory and paradise. Dante is known for the source of the modern Italian language and known as a supreme poet. Victor Frankenstein is comparing himself to Dante, which renders him of greater brilliance.

~Parker, Deborah. "Over View" The World of Dante. May 2006. August 27, 2008. <http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/dante/overview.html>

Nature

"It was a divine spring, and the season contributed greatly to my convalescence." (39)

Nature plays a huge role in the emotions of the characters in this novel. The monster is rejuvenated by the coming of spring after a harsh winter in the woods later in the novel. The monster is given life in the winter on a rainy night, which adds to the terror that both Frankenstein and his creation feel. There are times when Frankenstein and his monster need to escape from society and their woes, so they journey into the sublime to ease their minds.