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All praises bestowed on her, I received as made to a possession of my own.
Frankenstein explains that he saw Elizabeth as his “possession.” He seems to believe that this demonstrates how much he loved her, but his story suggests that he took her for granted. He ignores her until she is forced to ask him to marry her, and when he does marry her it doesn’t even occur to him that he’s making her into a target for the Monster. In this way, by taking her for granted, he helps to cause her death.
Elizabeth, my love, you must supply my place to my younger children.
On her deathbed, Frankenstein’s mother tells Elizabeth that she “must” take her place as a mother figure to Frankenstein’s brothers. This line raises several questions that also apply to the relationship between Frankenstein and the Monster. Do children (or creatures) have a duty to be what their parents (or creators) want them to be? Should parents expect their children to be like them?
The murderous mark of the fiend’s grasp was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from her lips.
Frankenstein describes Elizabeth’s death. We rarely hear from her in her own words, and some readers have suggested that she is silenced by Frankenstein, who tells her story without understanding her or taking responsibility for his role in her death. When the Monster kills her, his method is designed to literally silence her: she screams, and he strangles her so that nothing—neither breath nor words—can “issue from her lips.”
