some thoughts in the midst of reading Frankenstein

The monster, talking to Frankenstein (at great length! with a nested story of cross-cultural love! and a reading list for all auto-didacts out there: Paradise Lost, Plutarch's Lives, and Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther) about the cottagers near whom he's been sheltering, says,

The more I saw of them, the greater became my desire to claim their protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures; to see their sweet looks directed towards me with affectio...