Saturday, March 29, 2014

What do you think is the significance of Frankestein's dream about Elizabeth in Frankenstein?

Victor's dream foreshadows the ultimate
destruction of his bride and his stable life.
This dream comes on the
night he has "beheld the accomplishment of [his] toils". He runs from the room, locks
himself in his bedroom, & falls into a fitful sleep. There he
dreams:



I
thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt.
Delighted and surprised, I embraced her; but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips,
they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought
that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I
saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the
flannel.



This
also seems to suggest that Victor will cause Elizabeth's death, as evidenced by the fact
that his dream kiss causes her to transform into a corpse.
The fact that
it is the corpse of his mother suggests something else entirely. Note the imagery here:
"livid with the hue of death", "shroud enveloped", "grave-worms". This is powerfully
descriptive diction that reflects the description of Elizabeth's corpse later in the
novel.

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