Notes:
"Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery."
The first half of the quote is a mirror to Prometheus, especially by practically combining both of the myths into one sentence (The fire [extinguishing of in this case], and the creation of mankind). The whole thing, however, is a big mirror to Victor later on, as they both question their lives and misery.
"When night came I quitted my retreat and wandered in the wood; and now, no longer restrained by the fear of discovery"
It seems that at this point that the fear of being discovered is the only thing stopping him from being evil.
"I gave vent to my anguish in fearful howlings. I was like a wild beast that had broken the toils, destroying the objects that obstructed me and ranging through the wood with a staglike swiftness."
Though it could be argued that the above quote has quite a romantic edge to it, it is far more gothic.
"The cold stars shone in mockery"
This mirrors Victor at the end of chapter 17, who says practically the same thing.
"and the bare trees waved their branches above me; now and then the sweet voice of a bird burst forth amidst the universal stillness."
No matter what the situation is, the Creation always seems to find the time to be romantic in some way.
"I, like the arch-fiend, bore a hell within me"
Once again, the Creation compares himself to Lucifer in Paradise Lost.
""But this was a luxury of sensation... ...to this insupportable misery."
The Creation decides to hate all of mankind ("I declared everlasting war against the species") due to their outcasting him, but especially Victor for creating him in the first place.
"The pleasant sunshine and the pure air of day restored me to some degree of tranquillity"
Even at one of his lowest points in the entire novel, nature is still able to heal him.
"and when I considered what had passed at the cottage... ...and by my representations win him to my party."
Shelley is building the Creation's hopes just to knock them down after overhearing Felix.
"and when I considered what had passed at the cottage... ... and by my representations win him to my party."
The Creation believes that the situation with the De Laceys is not irreperable. Once more he is deluding himself.
"but the fever of my blood did not allow me to be visited by peaceful dreams. The horrible scene of the preceding day was forever acting before my eyes; the females were flying and the enraged Felix tearing me from his father's feet."
The Creation's terrible nightmares mirrors Victor just after he completed the Creation.
"'It is utterly useless,' replied Felix... ...Take possession of your tenement and let me fly from this place.'"
This small speech made by Felix shows just how much appearance matters to society, and how much an abnormality such as the Creation is abhorred because of it.
"'It is utterly useless,' replied Felix... ... Take possession of your tenement and let me fly from this place.'"
It's very noteworthy to point out that even good characters like the De Lacey household reject the Creation. It is also this speech that breaks the Creation's hopes, and leads him to want [and extract] revenge.
"For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom, and I did not strive to control them, but allowing myself to be borne away by the stream, I bent my mind towards injury and death."
These are the Creation's first properly evil thoughts.
"But again when I reflected that they had spurned and deserted me, anger returned, a rage of anger, and unable to injure anything human, I turned my fury towards inanimate objects."
Though he wavers in the decision, he wants to hurt all humans, including his friends. His anger is turned against everyone.
"As the night advanced, a fierce wind arose from the woods and quickly dispersed the clouds that had loitered in the heavens; the blast tore along like a mighty avalanche and produced a kind of insanity in my spirits that burst all bounds of reason and reflection."
Unsurprisingly, after such declarings of hate, ill intentions and anger, gothic imagery is soon used.
"As the night advanced, a fierce wind arose from the woods and quickly dispersed the clouds that had loitered in the heavens; the blast tore along like a mighty avalanche and produced a kind of insanity in my spirits that burst all bounds of reason and reflection."
The weather is symbolising the Creation's current mental state.
"As the night advanced, a fierce wind arose from the woods and quickly dispersed the clouds that had loitered in the heavens; the blast tore along like a mighty avalanche and produced a kind of insanity in my spirits that burst all bounds of reason and reflection."
A bit of a stretched connection, but the insanity caused by the storm mirrors Victor during the creating process of the Creation, which was initiated by a storm when he was 15.
"I lighted the dry branch of a tree and danced with fury around the devoted cottage, my eyes still fixed on the western horizon, the edge of which the moon nearly touched. A part of its orb was at length hid, and I waved my brand; it sank, and with a loud scream I fired the straw, and heath, and bushes, which I had collected. The wind fanned the fire, and the cottage was quickly enveloped by the flames, which clung to it and licked it with their forked and destroying tongues."
The fire symbolises the Creation's destructive passion.
"A part of its orb was at length hid, and I waved my brand; it sank, and with a loud scream I fired the straw, and heath, and bushes, which I had collected. The wind fanned the fire, and the cottage was quickly enveloped by the flames, which clung to it and licked it with their forked and destroying tongues."
The Creation is rejecting the place of his happiness, and permanently turning his back on it.
"And now, with the world before me... ...and towards this place I resolved to proceed."
The Creation decides to find Victor, in the hope of acceptance and affection.
"But how was I to direct myself?... ...any other being that wore the human form."
The Creation declares that he hates Victor for outcasting him after giving him human emotions and such a hideous body, and sees him as the root of his problems.
"My travels were long and the sufferings I endured intense... ..Snow fell, and the waters were hardened, but I rested not."
The Creation, in his turbulent state, is blending elements of both the romantic and gothic genre. This is actually pretty symbolic of the Creature as, originally innocent (romantic) has been accepting evil (gothic) and is currently in the transition from one to the other.
"My travels were long and the sufferings I endured intense... .. Snow fell, and the waters were hardened, but I rested not."
The Creation once again blames Victor for all of his misery. As the Creation travels through the wilderness he becomes more like an animal.
"but a circumstance that happened when I arrived on the confines of Switzerland, when the sun had recovered its warmth and the earth again began to look green, confirmed in an especial manner the bitterness and horror of my feelings."
Shelley is building up the dramatic tension for the upcoming action.
"which was one of the first of spring"
Spring is a symbol of rebirth. In the case of the Creation it is his rebirth as the evil being that he will soon become.
"the day, which was one of the first of spring... ...which bestowed such joy upon me."
Romantic imagery at this point reveals that the Creation is still romantic at heart, no matter how evil he wants to become.
"I generally rested during the day... ...which bestowed such joy upon me."
Through the appreciation of nature the Creation is regaining his humanity and happiness.
"She continued her course along the precipitous sides of the river, when suddenly her foot slipped, and she fell into the rapid stream."
This alludes to Harriet Shelley, who drowned herself prior to the novel being published. Ironically, years after the novel was published, Percy Bysshe Shelley also drowned.
"I followed speedily, I hardly knew why; but when the man saw me draw near, he aimed a gun, which he carried, at my body and fired."
This shows the true horror of mankind. Though the Creature has just saved a little girl's life, her companion (almost certainly her father) still proceeds to shoot him because of his monstrous appearance.
"I continued to wind among the paths of the wood... ...escaped into the wood."
The Creation is shot after saving a little girl's life. It is at this precise moment that the happiness that he had been building up again is completely torn away.
"I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone."
This mirrors Prometheus, as in his myths he created man and set them apart from animals by giving them fire, and as a result he ended up being punished by being strapped to a rock and having his liver eaten [and then regrowing] every day.
"...gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth."
This mirrors Victor's madness after creating the Creation.
"The feelings of kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth."
The Creation has now reached the point of no return. He has been fully convinced that being good offered him nothing, and that evil is the only way for him to go as a result.
"But the agony of my wound overcame me; my pulses paused, and I fainted."
We are reminded that the Creature, though physically superior, is not invincible.
"The ball had entered my shoulder, and I knew not whether it had remained there or passed through; at any rate I had no means of extracting it."
The bullet symbolises the evil that he cannot remove.
"My daily vows rose for revenge - a deep and deadly revenge, such as would alone compensate for the outrages and anguish I had endured."
The Creation is becoming more and more evil by the day or, at least, his evil thoughts are growing.
"After some weeks my wound healed, and I continued my journey. The labours I endured were no longer to be alleviated by the bright sun or gentle breezes of spring; all joy was but a mockery which insulted my desolate state and made me feel more painfully that I was not made for the enjoyment of pleasure."
This mirrors Victor, who also shunned nature when constructing the Creation. However, also like Victor, it is quite ironic as, though this is what he claims, he still fully pays attention to it and makes romantic references to it in denouncing it.
"The labours I endured were no longer to be alleviated by the bright sun or gentle breezes of spring; all joy was but a mockery which insulted my desolate state and made me feel more painfully that I was not made for the enjoyment of pleasure."
The Creation fully believes that he should not have any pleasure as he was not built for that purpose.
"Suddenly, as I gazed on him, an idea seized me that this little creature was unprejudiced and had lived too short a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity. If, therefore, I could seize him and educate him as my companion and friend, I should not be so desolate in this peopled earth."
Though now openly accepting evil, the Creation's loneliness and desperation for companionship get the better of him. He also believes that education and experience are the roots of prejudice, so that such a young boy as William should not reject him.
"'Frankenstein! you belong then to my enemy - to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim.'"
The Creation kills William simply due to his link to Victor.
"I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph"
The Creation delights in his evil act, and lives up to Victor's (along with the rest of the world's) demonic stereotyping of him.
"In spite of my malignity, it softened and attracted me. For a few moments I gazed with delight on her dark eyes, fringed by deep lashes, and her lovely lips; but presently my rage returned"
This is simply one example of several that shows that the Creation could be seen as a weak character as he always wavers in his actions and decisions.
"I remembered that I was forever deprived of the delights that such beautiful creatures could bestow and that she whose resemblance I contemplated would, in regarding me, have changed that air of divine benignity to one expressive of disgust and affright."
The Creation perpetually reminds himself that he cannot have any happiness.
"A woman was sleeping on some straw; she was young, not indeed so beautiful as her whose portrait I held, but of an agreeable aspect and blooming in the loveliness of youth and health."
This is quite ironic as, though the Creation constantly complains of the social injustices of judging people by appearance, he continues to judge and compare people (in this particular case Caroline and Justine) by their looks.
"Here, I thought, is one of those whose joy-imparting smiles are bestowed on all but me."
A typical case of romantic isolation displayed by the Creation.
"The sleeper stirred; a thrill of terror ran through me. Should she indeed awake, and see me, and curse me, and denounce the murderer?"
Again, though he is physically superior to normal humans, the Creation is still afraid of discovery, though in this case it could be down to spoiling his chances of getting to Victor.
"The thought was madness; it stirred the fiend within me - not I, but she, shall suffer; the murder I have committed because I am forever robbed of all that she could give me, she shall atone. The crime had its source in her; be hers the punishment!"
Through some of the most perverted logic ever, the Creation decides that Justine was to blame for William's murder due to her inevitable rejection of the Creation should she see him. To expand on him a little more, he's basically trying to say that because humanity made him the evil being that he has become by this point, it's their own damn fault if he goes around commiting crimes.
"Thanks to the lessons of Felix and the sanguinary laws of man, I had learned now to work mischief."
This is quite ironic as, though the lessons that Felix had unwittingly taught the Creation were there to be put to the use of good, the Creation has turned them around so that he can use them to be evil more effectively.
"...sometimes resolved to quit the world and its miseries forever."
After the murder of William, the Creation contemplates suicide, exactly as Victor did at the same time.
"...consumed by a burning passion which you alone can gratify."
The Creation realises that only Victor can help him, regardless of their mutual hatred.
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