 Now, in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the creature plays a really critical role as one of the other main characters in this story. Now, of course, whilst Victor Frankenstein, the creator, is essentially portrayed as the Promethean figure, in other words, derived from the myth of Prometheus, who basically stole fire from the gods. So he's a titan that stole fire from Zeus and the gods and gave it to man, hence Zeus punished him eternally by tying him to a rock and having an eagle daily eating his liver. And then it grows back and this happened perpetually. The creature is essentially this eagle and essentially this punishment to this Promethean figure. Now, of course, the creature represents how human beings perhaps try to surpass God. They use science in order to play the role of God and make their own creations. And of course, the fact that the creature turns against his creator initially, he does want to be loved by his creator. He seeks him out. However, once he realises that Victor Frankenstein will never show him any form of maternal or paternal affection. Remember maternal affection means affection that you get from your mother. Whilst paternal affection means affection you get from your father. And of course, Victor Frankenstein is both mom and dad to the creature. Once he realises he's never going to get this kind of affection, this love from Victor Frankenstein. He now becomes quite malignant. He becomes quite evil and he basically embodies the very thing that he looks at like on the surface. So whilst he looks quite scary evil, he's actually quite good underneath all of that. However, human beings and of course his dad and mom, Victor Frankenstein, the terrible treatment of him is what causes him to become quite evil. Now, as you can see behind me, I have selected the key quotations. Remember when it comes to the creature's character, especially if you're writing about the creature, for your coursework or exams. And of course, do you remember that I have created model answers that you can download as part of this course. But equally, these model answers show you how you can write about, for example, the creature as well as other key themes related to this story. Now, let's go over all the key quotations relating to the character of the creature, especially if you're writing about him and you're trying to memorise some quotations. Now, the first quotation is when he does encounter Victor Frankenstein, he questions him and he asks him, how dare you sport thus with life? Now, of course, this question shows his anger, but also it could be almost God's way of speaking through him, God's way of telling Victor Frankenstein, how dare you try to play my role as God, okay? Now, the word level analysis you want to do here for this quotation is firstly, the pronoun you, it's very accusatory. He's pointing fingers almost at Victor Frankenstein and saying, how dare you do this, okay? And of course, also he's pointing this finger because he's angry. How can you create me as your creature, but then reject me? Also, the second word level analysis you want to do is, of course, of the verb sport. In other words, Victor Frankenstein was almost playing with his life. He just kind of created him just based on his own selfish ambition. And then when he decided that he didn't really want to be dad anymore, he then cast aside this creature's life, okay? And of course, the creature is telling him that this is incredibly irresponsible for him to do, okay? Now, the second word quotation to remember for when it comes to the creature's character is when he orders and he tells Victor Frankenstein, do your duty towards me. Now, here he's speaking to Victor Frankenstein, his creator, in an imperative sentence. Bear in mind, an imperative sentence is essentially a sentence that issues an order or a command, okay? So he's telling him, you need to look after me, I'm your child, okay? Now, the word level analysis you want to do here is, of course, the alliteration of D in due and duty, okay? Here, of course, what the creature is trying to show is that Victor Frankenstein, as his father and mother, is being really negligent towards him. Now, the third quotation to bear in mind with the creature's character is, when he states, I was benevolent and good, misery made me effiend. Now, what this is illustrating is about human nature more than anything. It's human beings who are very shallow. It's human beings that judge others based on their outward appearance. And it's human beings that are the ones who actually create the evil out there in the world. The creature was actually a really good person. The creature was actually a really good species. However, it's through how he was mistreated by humans who are very shallow, who are very much focused on external appearance, starting with his own father and mother, Victor Frankenstein. That's what caused him to become a really bad and evil creature. Now here, the word level analysis you want to focus on is, firstly, the adjectives benevolent and good. Of course, what this is showing is that just like a child, how a child can become really corrupted in society as a result of society's negative influence, the creature basically became corrupted by society. It was actually quite good at heart, but it's society's treatment of it that made it bad. The other word level analysis you want to do here is the alliteration of M in misery and made. Of course, showing how evil human beings were towards him. And finally, you want to focus on the metaphor fiend. Fiend means devil, an evil creature. And of course, what he's saying here is basically evil as a result of how human beings have treated me. Now, the other quotation to bear in mind for the creature's character is when he's talking about the barbarity of man and hair. I've left an ellipsis. And of course, this is a declarative sentence. Bear in mind that a declarative sentence is a sentence that states a fact feeling all mood. He's basically stating that men and humankind is actually quite evil and quite cruel, which of course is saying quite a lot about our human nature. The other quotation to bear in mind with the creature is, I saw no cause for their unhappiness ellipsis. I was deeply affected by it. Now, this is talking about how he started learning how to, learn language, how to speak and so on by basically witnessing the Delacy family from a distance when he was hiding. And this is because he went into hiding when he first came out. Human beings were getting really scared of him, maybe attacking him sometimes, running away from him, so he learned to maybe hide. Now, whilst he was hiding, he witnessed the Delacy family and they appeared to him to be a really, really ideal, really good family. However, some kind of massive misfortune fell upon them. Now, of course, what this is showing is that the creature really, really cares for other people, especially at first when he's really worried, he's wondering what he can do to help them feel better. Okay? Now, the word love analysis you want to focus on is a repetition of the pronouns I, which obviously shows how caring the creature is. And also, you want to focus on the adverb deeply, showing how much he really cared for the Delacy family. They haven't done anything for him, he's just witnessing them, but he really worries for them because you can see that they're really miserable, they need a very simple life, but there's something that afflicts them. The other quotation to bear in mind for the creature's character is, when he states, I am alone and miserable, man will not associate with me. Again, this is highlighting just how evil, cruel, and mean we as human beings are, particularly to those who are outsiders, particularly to those who seem to not fit how we typically and traditionally expect human beings to look like, okay? Now, of course, here, the word love analysis is to show how shallow we are as human beings is firstly the assonance of A, right? So in am, alone and and. And also the noun man to talk about human beings as a whole. What this is illustrating is actually the real devils, the real evil people are us as human beings rather than the creature, okay? And of course, what you want to think about is maybe when he states man will not associate with me, this of course is a declarative sentence to show that human beings basically, they can really, really outcast other people based on their outward appearance, which is not fair. The other quotation to bear in mind, and of course this is when he basically tells Victor Frankenstein to create a mate for him, is he states, one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. So basically he's asking for a woman creature just like him to be created so that she can give him companionship both physically, sexually, but also of course, just in terms of human comfort and human warmth. That whilst the creature isn't necessarily entirely human because he's created from different human body parts, he is very similar to other humans in terms of needing some form of companionship, okay? Now, the word love analysis here, which is interesting is firstly when he's talking about himself and his appearance, the adjectives deformed and horrible, of course, is him asking for some species that looks just like him on the outward appearance. Separately, he mentions that he wants another woman creature who will not deny herself. Now, the verb deny is basically relating to how he, when this creature is made, he should feel basically he has a right to her body, a right to basically have sex with her. And of course, what this illustrates is how women, particularly women who were wives, were seen as property of men. And of course, your property will not deny itself to you. So of course, this new female creature that's being created for him, he is essentially assuming that she will never deny herself to him, okay? This obviously shows how men felt very entitled to the bodies of women during the Victorian time, and of course, even during the Romantic era. Now, the final word love analysis you can do here is of course the pronoun herself. He wants a female companion, not a male companion. And maybe there's that hint that even they can create children. And of course, this is what causes Victor Frankenstein to destroy her body because it doesn't want a whole new race of creatures, which he sees as monstrous, being unleashed onto the human race. The other quotation when it comes to the creature's character is when he witnesses Victor Frankenstein destroying the female creature he has built for him and he has made for him, he threatens him and says, remember, I shall be with you on your wedding night. And this is the wedding night that Victor Frankenstein will be marrying Elizabeth, his cousin. And so the creature basically warns him, not only will I be with you on your wedding night, but of course he foreshadows that he's going to kill Victor Frankenstein's wife because if he as a creature can't have a wife, then Victor Frankenstein doesn't deserve similar companionship. Now, the word love analysis you want to do here is of course the pronouns which are repeated you and you're where he's basically being threatening towards Victor Frankenstein. And of course he follows through with this right and him mentioning night, talking about the wedding night, of course this is pathetic fallacy, foreshadowing that he's going to kill Elizabeth and of course creating a sense of dread and fear within us as readers. So that's it when it comes to key quotations, remember for the character of the creature. Do you bear in mind that there are model answers which are prepared where you can write some really amazing, and you know I illustrate to you how you can write some really amazing model responses, both through the questions related to the creature, but of course even questions relating to other characters in the story and the key themes. Thanks so much for listening.