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No Fear Translations of Shakespeare’s plays (along with audio!) and other classic works
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I am by birth a Genevese, and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic.
These are the first words that Victor Frankenstein speaks in the book, and they serve as his introduction to the reader. In this sentence, he expresses pride in his nationality and emphasizes the "distinguished" social standing of his family in Geneva. His words demonstrate arrogance and a sense of superiority, traits that will later be revealed as drivers behind his actions in the novel.
He strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by the gardener, from every rougher wind, and to surround her with all that could tend to excite pleasurable emotion in her soft and benevolent mind.
Here, Victor describes the dynamic between his father, Alphonse, and his mother, Caroline. The language Victor uses to describe their relationship introduces the motif of women’s passivity that is reinforced throughout the book; though he says that Caroline possessed courage and "a mind of an uncommon mould" before meeting his father, after they're married, she seems to become much more fragile and in constant need of protection and sheltering. He goes so far as to speak about her "weakened frame" and to say that "the tranquillity of her hitherto constant spirit had been shaken by what she had gone through."
Read more about the motif of the subjugation of women.
Her hair was the brightest living gold, and despite the poverty of her clothing, seemed to set a crown of distinction on her head. Her brow was clear and ample, her blue eyes cloudless, and her lips and the moulding of her face so expressive of sensibility and sweetness that none could behold her without looking on her as of a distinct species, a being heaven-sent, and bearing a celestial stamp in all her features.
Victor uses these words to describe Elizabeth Lavenza, an impoverished girl whom his mother adopts when Victor is a child. He paints a picture of Elizabeth as a beautiful, perfect angel—"a child fairer than pictured cherub—a creature who seemed to shed radiance from her looks"—and it's clear that he adores and obsesses over her. However, he doesn't seem to view her as a person in her own right, but instead views her as a prized belonging, going so far as to say "I looked upon Elizabeth as mine—mine to protect, love, and cherish. All praises bestowed on her I received as made to a possession of my own."
Read an in-depth analysis of Elizabeth Lavenza.
It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things, or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my enquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.
Victor describes his fascination and obsession with science, which only intensified as he got older. He became a "disciple" of authors like Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus, whose musings about the wonders and mysteries of nature, "the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life," were the partial impetus behind his own experiments. His arrogance in pursuing glory and discovering the secret of immortality will later lead to death and despair.
