Vol. 2 Chapters 6 and 7

Chapter 6 & Chapter 7
Vol 2 Chapter 6 Summary
 * The creature's constant eavesdropping allows him to reconstruct the history of the cottagers; he learns that the senior DeLacey was once an affluent, successful citizen in Paris and his children Agatha and Felix, were well respected members of the community.
 * creature begins to realize he wants safie in sexual orientation
 * Safie's father, a Turk, was falsely accused of a crime and sentenced to death. Felix visited the Turk in prison and met his daughter who he immediately fell in love with.
 * Safie sent Felix letters thanking him for his intentions regarding helping her father and recounting the circumstances of her plight; these letters are then copied by the creature in order to prove to Victor that his tale was true. The letter stated that Felix successfully coordinated her father's escape from prison, but when the plot was discovered, Felix, Agatha and their father were exiled from France and stripped of their wealth. They then moved to a cottage in Germany upon which the monster found them.
 * Meanwhile, the Turk tried to force Safie to return to Constantinople with him, but she managed to escape with some money and the knowledge of Felix's whereabouts.
 * the great
 * Vol 2 Chapter 7 Summary


 * While foraging for good in the woods around the cottage one night, the monster finds an abandoned leather satchel containing some clothes and books, eager to find out more about the world beyond the cottage walls, he brings the books back to his hovel and begins to read.
 * The books include John Milton's Paradise Lost which has the most profound effect on the monster.
 * Unaware that Paradise Lost is a work of imagination, the creature reads it as factual history and finds much similarity between the story and his own situation. Rifling through the pockets of his own clothes, stolen long ago from Victor's apartment, he finds some papers from Victor's journal. With his newfound ability to read, he soon understands the horrific manner of his own creation and the disgust with which his creator regarded him.
 * Dismayed by these discoveries, the monster wishes to reveal himself to the cottagers in the hope that they will see past his hideous exterior and befriend him. He decides to approach the blind senior De Lacey first, hoping to win him over based on his character while the others are away. He believes that the senior De Lacey, unprejudiced against his hideous exterior, may be able to convince others of his gentle nature.
 * The perfect opportunity presents itself, as Felix, Agatha and Safie depart one day for a long walk. The monster nervously enters the cottage and begins to speak to the old man; just as he begins to explain his situation, however, the other three return unexpectedly and Felix drives the creature away, horrified by his appearance.

2) Key Quotations
 * 'When alone, Safie resolved in her own mind the plan of conduct' - This is significant as Shelley defies both, the stereotype of women at the time, and the presentation of other female characters within the novel. Safie can be seen to be taking active control of her situation whilst disobeying male authority, therefore refusing to conform to the stereotypes of her character according to her gender.
 * 'I can hardly describe to you the effects of these books...that sometimes raised me to ecstacy'
 * 'Yet I inlined towards the opinions of the hero, whose extinon I wept, without precisely understanding it'
 * 'I often referred the several situations, as there similarity struck me to my own. Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other human being in existance'

Key contextual information:

Chapters 6 & 7 of Volume 2 are written in the voice of the creature; this is significant as the reader is able to understand the thoughts and feelings of the creature through his own narrative. Through this, Shelley enables the reader to sympathise with the creature rather than the critical, hyperbolic accounts of Victor regarding the creature, in addition to making it possible to trace the progression of his innately good character as he becomes corrupted by society.

Themes which are highlighted:

The Role of women Dangerous Knowledge
 * The De Lacey's defy the stereotype of the time, as they are a family who according to critics, 'shares work and responsibility equally between male and female in an atmosphere of rational companionship'
 * 'They produced in me an infinity of new images and feelings, that sometimes raised me to ecstacy, but more frequently sunk me into the lowest dejection'
 * 'I sickened as I read'