“The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep” (Shelley, pg. 34).
I found this passage to be important because it describes Victor’s emotions the first time he sees the monster come to life. It is pivotal as the moment that joins “before monster” and “after monster” in the novel. I remember thinking it was an abrupt description. Right before this, Victor is working tirelessly to put together his creation and bring it to life. Suddenly, things have gone all wrong, as this passage tells. I chose this particular part out of others on that same page because it talks about how fearful he is. Speaking of fear, I think Frankenstein has an overall message and meaning that People fear the unknown, or what they do not understand. This passage is all about fear, “breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” Also, Victor is seeing something he was not expecting. He is seeing the unknown, and is let down by this! “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished.” All this time he has spent on his creation seems for nothing now. At the end of this little passage, Victor runs out of the room. This effectively puts the reader’s sight of the monster to rest until later in the novel, closing the door on him until his re-entry. The first sentence of this passage is meaningful, “the different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature.” I take this time mean that one of the things in life that is easiest to so drastically change or affect is human emotion. His excited feelings go south quickly. This speaks to the rest of the novel… sensitivity of human feelings. This will not be the only time that disappointment is felt.
Immediately after starting to read this novel, and talking to other people who have aswell, I picked up on just how many misconceptions there are about Frankenstein. Here's a good article describing them.
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