Frankenstein
Prompt #19 · Frankenstein
Prompt Type: Symbol/Motif
The novel repeatedly depicts extreme landscapes of ice and cold, from the Arctic frame to the Mer de Glace to the final pursuit. Analyze how Shelley uses these frozen settings as symbols to explore themes of isolation, emotional numbness, and the sublime terror of nature. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
“My reign is not yet over—these words were legible in one of these inscriptions—you live, and my power is complete. Follow me; I seek the everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and frost, to which I am impassive.”
Chapter 24
Argument
This quote directly depicts the frozen Arctic landscape as the Creature's chosen domain, where ice and cold symbolize both his emotional numbness ('impassive' to frost) and his use of nature's sublime terror as a weapon against Victor, transforming the frozen wasteland into an instrument of revenge and isolation.
Quote 2
“Oh! Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not.”
Letters, Walton, _in continuation._
Argument
Victor's metaphorical contrast between ice and human hearts during the Arctic frame reveals how the frozen setting embodies emotional paralysis—the ice is 'mutable' while hearts have become harder and colder, inverting the natural order and suggesting that extreme landscapes mirror the characters' frozen emotional states.
Quote 3
“I am surrounded by mountains of ice which admit of no escape and threaten every moment to crush my vessel.”
Letters, Walton, _in continuation._
Argument
Walton's description of being trapped by 'mountains of ice' in the Arctic frame establishes the frozen setting as a symbol of inescapable isolation and sublime terror, where nature's overwhelming power threatens annihilation and mirrors the psychological entrapment experienced by both Victor and the Creature throughout the narrative.