Friday, April 23, 2010

An Abortion

"I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on" (Shelley, 165).

Walton writes to his sister about when the monster speaks to him over Victor’s dead body. The creature finally cries out in his own angry self-pity and we can see into his inner life, giving us a glimpse into the suffering that has motivated his crimes. He talks of the miserable months he spent between seeing Frankenstein and how he started to grieve for him, but knew he must kill each loved one and Frankenstein because no one would love and accept him. So this quote captures the idea of abortion, that the monster was an unwanted life, society rejected him, and his own creator abandoned and shunned him. This led to the creature not knowing acceptance, but only hatred from those closest to him.

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