Frankenstein, 61-107

After Justine’s execution, Victor starts to become extremely sad and even contemplates suicide.  He is held back by the thought of Elizabeth, his father, and the beautiful scenery at his family home.  Victor then finds himself in despair once again and looks to find something pure with natural beauty so he ventures to the summit of Montanvert, where he comes across his monster.  The monster convinces Victor to come back to his ice cave and here is where the perspective changes in this book to that of the monsters.  The monster describes his acclimation to the world through sensations of light, dark, hunger, thirst, and cold.  He also discovers fire, which he learns is beneficial for food and warmth.  The monster stays away from humans because of the fear they had when they saw him.  He discovers a family who is always unhappy due to poverty and he does what he can to help them out, like gathering wood for their use.  He learns the names of his neighbors by repeating the sounds he hears from them.  Then, a woman named Safie shows up to their house and they become happier that she is around.  The monster learns the language perfectly and also learns history from Ruins of Empires.  The monster learns family and human relations, which makes him feel more pain from his isolation.  He tries to approach the blind neighbor, De Lacey, so he wouldn’t fear his exterior; however, the others come back before he could explain his situation and they are horrified so Felix drives him away.  The monster now vows his revenge against human beings and Victor in general and strangles Victor’s brother, William, to death.  The monster then implores Victor to create a female monster to be his mate, which Victor agrees to do because he feels responsible for the damage his monster has done by being his creator.

A passage that stood out to me was on the bottom of page ninety-five, where the monster says to De Lacey, “They are kind – they are the most excellent creatures in the world; but unfortunately, they are prejudiced against me.  I have good dispositions; my life has been hitherto harmless and in some degree beneficial; but a fatal prejudice clouds in their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster.”  This quotation stood out to me because it shows the judgements that human beings jump to of something different and not of the same human beauty in their eyes of what they are accustomed to.  Anything different will be isolated or disliked in this society and it shows in this quotation.