Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds (The MIT Press)

by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life;

I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.

my imagination was too much exalted by my first success to permit me to doubt of my ability to give life to an animal as complex and wonderful as man.

I doubted not that I should ultimately succeed.

It was with these feelings that I began the creation of a human being.

my materials,

Ewww. Question

Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.

ardour.

with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding places.

the horrors of my secret toil,

I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave, or tortured the li...

the lifeles...

almost frantic impulse, urged me forward; I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit.

I collected bones from charnel houses; and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame.

my workshop of filthy creation;

The dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of my materials;

You must pardon me, if I regard any interruption in your correspondence as a proof that your other duties are equally neglected.”

Haha

If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind.

Slavery not imported and expanded, colonialism not harsh and money-grubbing,

I did not watch the blossom or the expanding leaves—sights which before always yielded me supreme delight, so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation.

my enthusiasm was checked by my anxiety,

I appeared rather like one doomed by slavery to toil in the mines, or any other unwholesome trade, than an artist occupied by his favourite employment.

Simile - Frankenstein describes himself not as a scientist, but as a guilty artist, and his crime is a social one.

catastrophe,

Why a catastrophe rather then Good? Do the CREATOR’s *feelings* determine the correct response, whether morally or aesthetically? Question central to the novel and Victor’s actions. E.g., Victor’s rejection and horror drive the creature away and lead over time to the creature’s loneliness.

the beauty of the dream vanished,

breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.

the miserable monster whom I had created.

Haha

Like one who, on a lonely road, Doth walk in fear and dread,

diligences and carriages

the Swiss diligence:

Public stagecoach

Henry Clerval,

my friend,

Ingolstadt.

it was not absolutely necessary for a merchant not to understand any thing except book-keeping;

Haha

his constant answer to my unwearied entreaties was the same as that of the Dutch school-master in the Vicar of Wakefield: ‘I have ten thousand florins a year without Greek, I eat heartily without Greek.’

Haha

a voyage of discovery to the land of knowledge.”

Haha sadly ironic, he is less free than he has ever been in his life, or ever will be again.

freed from its hideous guest.

More illusory (or temporary) “freedom”

confined me for several months.

Bondage in “freedom”

I remember the first time I became capable of observing outward objects with any kind of pleasure,

A great way to judge mental and physical health! Brilliant

a divine spring;

Sadly ironic

I felt also sentiments of joy and affection revive in my bosom; my gloom disappeared,

Haha - Henry writing to pretend victor’s health

the habits of application;

it is certainly more creditable to cultivate the earth for the sustenance of man, than to be the confidant, and sometimes the accomplice, of his vices;

Haha lawyers

Justine Moritz?

Name chosen deliberately? Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue (French: Justine, ou Les Malheurs de la Vertu) is a 1791 novel by Donatien Alphonse François de Sade. Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the anonymous author of Justine and Juliette, and as a result de Sade was incarcerated for the last 13 years of his life. The book's destruction was ordered by the Cour Royale de Paris on May 19, 1815. ~ Wikipedia

Haha

Haha - a slap at English social distinctions

the same reason that Ariosto gives concerning the beauty of Angelica—she

other trials were reserved for her.