Frankenstein
Prompt #10 · Frankenstein
Prompt Type: Scene Analysis
In the scene where the Creature murders Elizabeth on her wedding night while Victor searches the inn armed with a pistol, Shelley delivers the culmination of the Creature's revenge. Analyze how Shelley uses this moment to explore the theme of revenge and justice, particularly how the cycle of violence between Victor and the Creature has escalated beyond any possibility of redemption. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
“A grin was on the face of the monster; he seemed to jeer, as with his fiendish finger he pointed towards the corpse of my wife.”
Chapter 23
Argument
This quote from the wedding night scene itself uses the Creature's grotesque gesture and mocking grin to demonstrate how revenge has transformed him into the very monster Victor always perceived him to be, revealing the scene's function as the irreversible culmination of their cycle of violence.
Quote 2
Chapter 22
Argument
This quote from immediately before the wedding night scene establishes the Creature's explicit threat that frames the entire scene, demonstrating how the revenge has been premeditated and inevitable, making the murder not an impulsive act but the calculated fulfillment of a promise.
Quote 3
“By the sacred earth on which I kneel, by the shades that wander near me, by the deep and eternal grief that I feel, I swear; and by thee, O Night, and the spirits that preside over thee, to pursue the dæmon who caused this misery, until he or I shall perish in mortal conflict.”
Chapter 24
Argument
This quote from after the wedding night scene shows Victor's response to Elizabeth's murder through his sacred oath of eternal pursuit, revealing how the scene propels both characters beyond any possibility of redemption into an endless cycle where revenge becomes their sole reason for existence.
Quote 4
“I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph; clapping my hands, I exclaimed, "I too can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him."”
Chapter 16
Argument
This quote from the Creature's first murder (William) establishes the pattern of revenge that culminates in Elizabeth's death, showing how the Creature has already embraced 'hellish triumph' and 'desolation' as his weapons, making the wedding night scene the inevitable escalation of a cycle he initiated earlier in the novel.
Quote 5
“The cup of life was poisoned for ever, and although the sun shone upon me, as upon the happy and gay of heart, I saw around me nothing but a dense and frightful darkness, penetrated by no light but the glimmer of two eyes that glared upon me.”
Chapter 21
Argument
This quote from after Clerval's murder (the chapter immediately preceding the wedding night) shows Victor already perceiving life as 'poisoned' and haunted by the Creature's 'glaring eyes,' demonstrating that the wedding night scene represents not the beginning but the final stage of Victor's psychological destruction through the revenge cycle.