Summer - Frankenstein - Volume 3

• Chapter 1
• p114, Victor's father fears he doesn't want to marry his cousin Elizabeth,
  "But so blind is the experience of man, that what I conceived to be the best assistants to my plan may have entirely destroyed it. You, perhaps, regard her as your sister, without any wish that she might become your wife."
• p114, Victor allays his fears,
  "My dear father, re-assure yourself. I love my cousin tenderly and sincerely. I have never saw any woman who excited, as Elizabeth does, my warmest admiration and affection."
• p114, Victor's own reason for delaying the marriage,
  "I must perform my engagement, and let the monster depart with his mate, before I allowed myself to enjoy the delight of a union from which I expected peace." (engagement - promise, obligation)
• p115, Victor needs to go to England, so he tells his father he wants to travel before marriage,
  "I remembered also the necessity imposed on me of either journeying to England, or entering into a long correspondence with those philosophers of that country, whose knowledge and discoveries were of indispensable use to me in my present undertaking."
• p118, quoting Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey,"
  "The sounding cataract // Haunted him like a passion: the tall rock, // The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, // Their colours and their form, were then to him // An appetite; a feeling and a love, // That had no need of a remoter charm, // By thought supplied, or any interest // Unborrowed from the eye."
• Chapter 2
• p122, Victor continues to worry for his family,
  "I had now neglected my promise for some time, and I feared the effects of the daemon's disappointment. He might remain in Switzerland, and wreak his vengeance on my relatives. This idea pursued me, and tormented me at every moment from which I might otherwise have snatched repose and peace. I waited for my letters with feverish impatience: if they were delayed, I was miserable, and overcome by a thousand fears; and when they arrived, and I saw the superscription of Elizabeth or my father, I hardly dared to read and ascertain my fate."
• p122, Victor tells Clerval he wants to be alone in Scotland,
  "But I was in no mood to laugh and talk with strangers, or enter into their feelings or plans with the good humour expected from a guest; and accordingly I told Clerval that I wished to make the tour of Scotland alone."
• p124, Victor is making progress in his makeshift laboratory in Scotland, but his work is more horror than excitement as it was for his first creation,
  "In this manner I distributed my occupations when I first arrived; but, as I proceeded in my labour, it became every day more horrible and irksome to me. Sometimes I could not prevail on myself to enter my laboratory for several days; and at other times I toiled day and night to complete my work. It was indeed a filthy process in which I was engaged. During my first experiment, a kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the horror of my employment; my mind was intently focused on the sequel of my labor, and my eyes were shut to the horror of my proceedings. But now I went to it in cold blood, and my heart was sickened at the work of my hands."
• Chapter 3
• p125, Victor spots the monster, but seeing him, has a change of heart about his work,
  "As I looked on him, his countenance expressed the utmost extent of malice and treachery. I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise to create another like to him, and, trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged. The wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended for happiness, and, with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdrew."
• p126, confronted by the monster, Victor professes that he breaks his promise,
  "Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness."
• p127, a threat from the monster,
  "It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding-night."
• p131, Victor arrives by boat to an Irish town, and is immediately accused of murder,
  "Aye, Sir, free enough for honest folks. Mr. Kirwin is a magistrate; and you are to give an account of the death of a gentlemen who was found murdered here last night."
• Chapter 4
• p132, witness give descriptions of finding the murdered body,
  "He had apparently been strangled; for there was no sign of any violence, except the black mark of fingers on his neck."
• p133, of course, the dead man is Clerval,
  "The trial, the presence of the magistrate and witnesses, passed like a dream from my memory, when I saw the lifeless form of Henry Clerval stretched before me."
• p135, Victor contrasts his situation with Justine,
  "At one time I considered whether I should not declare myself guilty, and suffer the penalty of law, less innocent than poor Justine had been."
• p136, Victor's father has arrived,
  "'Your family is perfectly well,' said Kerwin, with gentleness; 'and some one, a friend, is come to visit you.'"
• p137, Victor is acquitted,
  "The grand jury rejected the bill, on its being proved that I was on the Orkney Islands at the hour the body of my friend was found, and a fortnight after my removal I was liberated from prison."
• p138, a gaoler correctly identifies Victor's guilty conscience,
  "A bad conscience! yes, surely I had one. William, Justine, and Clerval, had died through my infernal machinations; 'And whose death,' cried I, 'is to finish the tragedy? Ah! my father, do not remain in this wretched country; take me where I may forget myself, my existence, and all the world.'
• p138, Victor is using opium to sleep,
  "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."
• Chapter 5
• p139, Victor reveals his guilty conscience to his father, who thinks him mad,
  "'Alas! my father,' said I, ' how little do you know me. Human beings, their feelings and passions, would indeed be degraded, if such a wretch as I felt pride. Justine, poor unhappy Justine, was as innocent as I, and she suffered the same charge; she died for it; and I am the cause of this--I murdered her. William, Justine, and Henry--they all died by my hands.'"
• p141, Elizabeth writes to Victor, wondering if Victor is reluctant for their marriage, and telling him that she wants his happiness if there is another woman,
  "Tell me, dearest Victor. Answer me, I conjure you, by our mutual happiness, with simple truth--Do you not love another?"
• p142, Victor writes back, promising a revelation after they are wed,
  "I have one secret, Elizabeth, a dreadful one; when revealed to you, it will chill your frame with horror, and then, far from being surprised by my misery, you will wonder that I survive what I have endured."
• p145, Victor and Elizabeth are wed, and Victor forebodes,
  "Those were the last moments of my life during which I enjoyed the feeling of happiness."
• Chapter 6
• p147, Victor finds Elizabeth's murdered corpse,
  ""Every where I turn I see the same figure--her bloodless arms and relaxed form flung by the murderer on its bridal bier. Could I behold this, and live? Alas! life is obstinate, and clings closest where it is most hated. For a moment only did I lose recollection; I fainted."
• p149, Victor's father dies of heartbreak when he learns of Elizabeth's death,
  "He could not live under the horrors that were accumulated around him; an apoplectic fit was brought on, and in a few days he died in my arms."
• p149, after being in prison for madness and then released, Victor tells his story to a magistrate, imploring him to bring the monster to justice,
  "Nor did my hate long confine itself to useless wishes; I began to reflect on the best means of securing him; and for this purpose, about a month after my release, I repaired to a criminal judge in the town, and told him that I had an accusation to make; that I knew the destroyer of my family; and that I required him to exert his whole authority for the apprehension of the murderer."
• Chapter 7
• p152, Victor swears on his knees to pursue the monster,
  "By the sacred earth on which I kneel, by the shades that wonder near me, by the deep and eternal grief that I feel, I swear; and by thee, O Night, and by the spirits that preside over thee, I swear to pursue the daemon, who caused this misery, until he or I shall perish in mortal conflict."
• p152, the monster hears Victors vows, and laughs in rebuttal,
  "I was answered through the stillness of night by a loud and fiendish laugh."
• p155, Victor pursues the monster all over the world, and now with a sledge and dogs in the snow and ice, and learns the monster has acquired the same mode of transportation,
  "A gigantic monster, they said, had arrived the night before, armed with a gun and many pistols; putting to flight the inhabitants of a solitary cottage, through fear of his terrific appearance."
• p156, Victor, drifting on a piece of ice, is saved by Walton's ship,
  "In this manner many appalling hours passed; several of my dogs died; and I myself was about to sink under the accumulation of distress, when I saw your vessel riding at anchor, and holding forth to me hopes of succour and life."
• Letter dated August 26th,
• p159, Victor explaining to Walton that their new friendship is not the same as what he shared with Clerval, "Even where the affections are not strongly moved by any superior excellence, the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds, which hardly any later friend can obtain."
• Letter dated September 2nd,
• p160, Walton fears he will die at sea,
  "You will not hear of my destruction, and you will anxiously await my return. Years will pass, and you will have visitings of despair, and yet be tortured by hope."
• Letter dated September 5th,
• p161, Walton faces an impending mutiny,
  "They desired, therefore, that I should engage with a solemn promise, that if the vessel should be freed, I would instantly direct my course southward."
• p161, Victor rouses the sailors, in Walton's defense,
  "Are you then so easily turned from your design? Did you not call this a glorious expedition? and wherefore was it glorious? Not because the way was smooth and placid as a southern sea but because it was full of dangers and terror; because, at every new incident, your fortitude was to be called forth and your courage exhibited; because danger and death surrounded, and these dangers you were to brave and overcome."
• Letter dated September 12th,
• p164, the ship is freed from the ice and heads south, Victor dies, and Walton finds the monster in Victor's cabin,
  "I entered the cabin, where lay the remains of my ill-fated and admirable friend. Over him hung a form which I cannot find words to describe; gigantic in stature, yet uncouth and distorted in its proportions."
• p164, the monster speaks over Victor's body,
  "Oh, Frankenstein! generous and self-devoted being! what does it avail that I now ask thee to pardon me?"
• p166, the monster defends his actions to Walton, a continuation of his incel manifesto,
  "You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. But, in the detail which he gave you of them, he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I have endured, wasting in impotent passions. For whilst I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were ever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me?"
• p168, the monster plans self-immolation and departs forever,
  "I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly, and exult in the agony of the torturing flames."