Holly Koerwer & Abby Marcin

Collaborative Passage Analysis

Mrs. Anderson
December 5, 2016

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein explores the thin line between the natural and unnatural

world. While delving into the unknown of the unnatural world is tempting, crossing this line can

lead a person to lose a hold of his/her own nature. This is evident in the character of Victor

Frankenstein and his creation of an unnatural monster. Shelleys use of contradicting elements

in both the real and unreal aspects of Frankensteins mind and life further contribute to his

development as an unstable character.

Upon close reading of Volume I Chapter 4 the scene in which Frankenstein experiences

a haunting dream and is awoken to the sight of his creation, his contradictory ideas are striking.

Frankensteins dream begins with a picturesque scene of his lover, Elizabeth, in the bloom of

health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. He sees her and dreams of placing the first kiss on

her lips. This very beautiful scene of human interaction of love, and life is drastically contrasted

as Victor imagines her lips becoming the hue of death and all of her features undergo change.

This stark contrast of life and love and death create a sense of worry and uneasiness for both

the reader and Victor. Both the reader and Victor become anxious, watching beauty turn into

this ugliness of death. Her features change into what Victor believes is a corpse of [his] dead

mother that had grave worms crawling in her clothes. His mother, the image of love and beauty

in his eyes, is contrastive of a corpse with worms which could be judged as grotesque and

gnarled. Shelley later in the paragraph discusses Victors emotions when he wakes up to find his

monster in his room. Victor discusses his eyes, but also is unaware if you could call them eyes.

This contrast between the life-like features that are eyes, are deeply contrasted by Victors

perception of his monster which is not life like and this causes the questionable nature of the the

eyes. Victor believes that the monster has spoken, but also says [he] did not hear, contrasting

his sense of hearing with his mind being unable to process what was happening around him.

Shelley concludes this paragraph with an articulation of the contrast between the monster and
Holly Koerwer & Abby Marcin
Collaborative Passage Analysis
Mrs. Anderson
December 5, 2016
life. Victor feels remorse for miserably giving a demonic corpse life. This contrast shows the

thin line between the natural cycle of life and death that Victor crosses in this story.

All the contrasts outlined by Shelley in this passage work to develop Frankensteins

instability. Frankensteins mindset sets itself on images of beauty and life and then shift

dramatically to the stark contrast of vulgarness and death. Shelley interrupts Frankensteins

dream with the presence of the monster. This further represents how the monster is a harsh

reality for Frankenstein. This chapter can be viewed as an outline of the consequences

between natural and unnatural life. Frankenstein breaks the mold and is immediately haunted

by his decision both in his dreams and his life.

By working to develop an unstable mind in Frankenstein, Shelley exhibits how one can

be debilitated by their own ambition. Contrasts between hard truths such as life/death or

beauty/vulgarity bring the reader into Frankensteins life drawn by dreams that are ultimately

ruined by his reality. This is ultimately symbolized through the monster himself: a create made

to be similar to an Adam who is only perceived as the devil by his creator.