Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein begins with explorer Robert Walton writing letters from the Arctic. He rescues a half-frozen stranger, Victor Frankenstein, who tells him a cautionary tale. As a brilliant but impatient student of natural philosophy, Victor becomes obsessed with conquering death. He assembles a being from corpses and brings it to life—but the instant the Creature opens its eyes, Victor is horrified by what he has made and runs away.
Left to fend for himself, the Creature learns language and ethics by observing a poor family. When he tries to seek kindness, people recoil; rejection hardens into rage. He demands that Victor make him a companion so he can live far from humankind. Victor agrees, then destroys the second creation in fear of “a race of devils.” The Creature vows vengeance, killing those Victor loves, and the pursuit drives both creator and creation into icy desolation.
Shelley’s novel probes responsibility, loneliness, and the moral limits of ambition. It’s not simply a “monster story.” The horror is ethical and emotional: a scientist shirks the duties of a parent; a sensitive being is turned cruel by isolation. By framing Victor’s confession within Walton’s letters, Shelley turns the book into a warning—about genius without empathy, progress without conscience, and the cost of looking away from what we’ve made.
Whence, I often asked myself, did the principle of life proceed? …yet with how many things are we upon the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries.
fromFrankensteinbyI had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body… but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.
fromFrankensteinbyI 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.
fromFrankensteinbyI am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? You would, with a satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature.
fromFrankensteinbyIf I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth.
fromFrankensteinbyNothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change. The sun might shine, or the clouds might lower; but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day before.
fromFrankensteinbyThus strangely are our souls constructed, and by such slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity or ruin. One event, one sudden and irresistible event, bursts these ligaments; and we appear a mere plaything of chance and passion.
fromFrankensteinbyI am alone and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects. This being you must create.
fromFrankensteinbyThe fallen angel becomes the malignant devil. Yet even the enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.
fromFrankensteinbyLife and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.
fromFrankensteinbyLearn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge.
fromFrankensteinby