22 quotes
Fear and Hesitation in Friendship
Victor Frankenstein
Come on, Henry.
Henry Clerval
I can't help you, Victor. I can't help you.
Victor Frankenstein
You won't. What are you frightened of?
Henry Clerval
Everything! What do you think? And what if the authorities--?
Victor Frankenstein
Will do this in secret. I've got the raw materials, I've got Waldman's journals. Together we know more than Krempe's whole staff
Henry Clerval
You stole Waldman's journals?
Victor Frankenstein
We owe it to him to complete this work. He was one step away.
Henry Clerval
He never wanted this.
Victor Frankenstein
He couldn't face it, there's a difference.
Henry Clerval
Even if it were possible, and even if you had the right--which you don't--to make this decision for us... can you imagine for one second that there wouldn't be a terrible price to pay?
Victor Frankenstein
I think for the chance to defeat death and disease to let everyone on this Earth have the chance of life, sustained, healthy life, to allow people who love each other to be together forever... For all of that, I think it's a risk worth taking.
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Creation Comes to Life
Taglines
It's Alive.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Misunderstanding About Vaccine and Disease
Murderer
You're not sticking that in me? Got a pox in it, I hear.
Woman
Pox? They're giving us pox?
Murderer
That's right, pox.
Professor Waldman
It's not pox. It's a vaccine that will prevent a plague in this city.
Woman
What's that?
Professor Waldman
It's a tiny harmless amount of anti-smallpox serum.
Murderer
You just said "pox"!
Professor Waldman
I said it was harmless. It's a necessary precaution, about which, this godforsaken city would be immediately put under quarantine.
Murderer
You doctors kill people. I don't care what you say you're not stickin that in me!
Professor Waldman
Yes I am. It's the law! Now sit him down, someone.
Murderer
You're not stickin that in me! You're not stickin that in me!
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A Cautionary Reminder About Consequences
Taglines
Be warned.
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The Struggle for Identity and Responsibility
The Creature
You gave me these emotions, but you didn't tell me how to use them. Now two people are dead, because of us. Why?
Victor Frankenstein
Something at work in my soul, which I do not understand...
The Creature
What of my soul? Do I have one? Or was that a part you left out? Who were these people of which I am comprised? Good people? Bad people?
Victor Frankenstein
Materials, nothing more.
The Creature
You're wrong. Do you know I knew how to play this? In which part of me did this knowledge reside? In these hands? In this mind? In this heart? And reading, and speaking. Not things learned so much as things remembered.
[picks up recorder]
Victor Frankenstein
Trace memories in the brain, perhaps.
The Creature
Did you ever consider the consequences of your actions? You gave me life, and then left me to die. Who am I?
Victor Frankenstein
You? I don't know.
The Creature
And you think that I am evil.
Victor Frankenstein
What can I do?
The Creature
There is something I want. A friend.
Victor Frankenstein
A friend?
The Creature
A companion... a female. Someone like me, so she won't hate me.
Victor Frankenstein
Like you? Oh God, you don't know what you're asking...
The Creature
I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine, and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.
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The Pursuit of Enlightenment in Science
Professor Waldman
You! Explain yourself!
Victor Frankenstein
Professor I'm sorry. Listen I came here to learn all about the new science. I'm Galvanism, Franklin's experiments. The combination of modern disciplines with ancient knowledge in an attempt to protect and create...
Professor Waldman
To create what?
Victor Frankenstein
So we can change things. We can make things better. Now you know that. We're on the verge of undreamt of discoveries, if we only have the courage to ask the right questions. Now you must help me. Please.
Professor Waldman
Come on.
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A Threat of Vengeance and Despair
Victor Frankenstein
Go on, kill me now!
The Creature
That is too mild. If you deny me my wedding night, I will be with you on yours!
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The Role of Electricity in Medicine
Professor Waldman
Now for thousands of years, the Chinese have based their medical science on the belief that the human body is a chemical engine run by energy streams.
Victor Frankenstein
That's fascinating, then how do they explain... .
Professor Waldman
Henry is looking through his journals Don't touch that! Their doctors treat patients by inserting needles like these into the flesh at various key points to manipulate these electric streams
Victor Frankenstein
I see! So electricity is the key.
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The Burden of Knowledge and Wisdom
Robert Walton
And yea, I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly, and I perceived that all is vanity and vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. For God shall bring every work and every secret thing into judgment, whether it be good or whether it be evil.
Crewman
Captain, we--
Robert Walton
He has a right to bear witness!
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The Fear of Truth in Relationships
Victor Frankenstein
I have done something - so terrible, so evil, that I am frightened that if I tell you the truth, that I will lose you.
Elizabeth
You'll lose me if you don't.
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The Limits of Knowledge and Imagination
Krempe
The foolish and ] force their views by their brawn. But knowledge is power only through god, our motto, easily forgotten by you young men in a hurry... . But perhaps the greatest mistake that all students make during their time here is to suppose that they can ever have an original or creative thought. We have all imagined that in our time. But gentleman you have not come here in order to think for yourselves. You are here to learn how to think for your patients. You must learn therefore in the first place, to submit yourselves to the established laws of physical reality.
[[Vanity|vain]
Victor Frankenstein
But surely, Professor, you don't intend we disregard more philosophical approaches.
Krempe
Philosophical?
Victor Frankenstein
Those which stir the imagination as well as the intellect. As in ], for example.
[[Paracelsus]
Krempe
Ah, Paracelsus. An ] and foolish Swiss.
[[Arrogance|arrogant]
[[Albertus Magnus]
Krempe
His nonsense was exploded 500 years ago!
[[Cornelius Agrippa]
Krempe
A sorcerer, an occultist. What is your name?
Victor Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein sir. Of Geneva.
Krempe
Oh-ho. Another Swiss. Mr. Frankenstein here at the University of Ingolstadt, we teach and indeed hope to advance the science of medicine. ], ], ]. We study hard science.
[[Chemistry; [biology; [physics]
Victor Frankenstein
But surely professor the greatest possible advances lie in combining these things.
Krempe
We do not study the ravings of lunatics and alchemists hundreds of years in their graves because they're kind of amateur, fanatical, fantastical speculation does not heal bodies or save lives! Only science can do that. Now have we your permission to continue.
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The Ethics of Life Creation and Death
Victor Frankenstein
No I'm serious. You take vaccine for instance. 30 years ago the entire concept of vaccine was unheard of, and now we save lives every day. But that isn't the whole answer.
Henry Clerval
What do you mean?
Victor Frankenstein
That sooner or later the best way to cheat death, will be to create life.
Henry Clerval
Now you've gone too far. There's only one God, Victor.
Victor Frankenstein
No. Leave God out of this. Listen. You love someone they have a sick heart. Wouldn't you give them a healthy one.
Henry Clerval
Impossible!
Victor Frankenstein
No, it's not impossible. We can do it. We're steps away. If we can do that if we can replace one part of a human being. We can replace every part. And if we can do that we can design a life. We can create a being that will not grow old or sicken. One that will be stronger than us, better than us, one that will be more intelligent than us, more civilized than us.
Henry Clerval
In our lifetime?
Professor Waldman
No!
Victor Frankenstein
How close did you get, Professor?
Professor Waldman
Too close.
Victor Frankenstein
Professor, I beg you, let me see these notes!
Professor Waldman
No! My work now and it's application, lies exclusively in the preservation of life. I abandoned my researches many years ago.
Victor Frankenstein
Why?
Professor Waldman
Because they resulted in abomination.
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A Choice Between Humanity and Isolation
Captain Robert Walton
Come with us!
[offering his hand]
The Creature
I am done with Man!
[shakes his head; swims towards Frankenstein's pyre with a torch]
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Debate on Life and Death's Boundaries
Krempe
Once and for all, Frankenstein. Life is life, death is death. These things are real. They are absolute... .
Victor Frankenstein
That is rubbish and you know it. The premise has been repeatedly challenged by members of your own staff! to Waldman Yes you sir! We don't know where life ends or death begins. Hair continues to grow after what we choose to call death, so do fingernails! We know that a man's ] may die, but his ] and ]s may continue to pump and breathe. Now you know that!
[[brain; [heart; [lung]
Krempe
Mr. Frankenstein of Geneva, I warn you what you are suggesting is not only illegal, it is immoral.
Victor Frankenstein
Rubbish!
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Epidemic Crisis and Urgency Among Friends
Henry Clerval
Victor? Victor! Victor, open the door! Victor, please!
Victor Frankenstein
What do you want?
Henry Clerval
There's cholera. It's an epidemic! The city's been placed under martial law. Are you listening to me, Victor?
Victor Frankenstein
Yes. And?
Henry Clerval
The militia's arriving to quarantine the city. Most of us are getting out while we still can. Krempe knows you're here. What if he tells the authorities?
Victor Frankenstein
Goodbye, Henry.
Elizabeth
Victor, it's me. Elizabeth. Can you hear me? Victor, I have to see you.
Victor Frankenstein
Go away.
Elizabeth
Please, Victor! I won't leave here until you see me.
Victor Frankenstein
Come in the side door. Alone!
Elizabeth
What's happened to you? How can you live here like this? And that stench.
Victor Frankenstein
Don't go in there!
Elizabeth
We have to leave. It isn't safe.
Victor Frankenstein
No, I have to stay.
Elizabeth
Even if it means you'll die?
Victor Frankenstein
Yes.
Elizabeth
Well, let me help you.
Victor Frankenstein
No, that's impossible.
Elizabeth
We made a promise. Victor, I beg you.
Victor Frankenstein
Look, I know that this is difficult for you to understand..but I cannot abandon this work now. It is too important. Not just for me, but, believe me, for everyone. And it must come first.
Elizabeth
Before us?
Victor Frankenstein
Elizabeth... I love you so much, but...
Elizabeth
Goodbye.
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The Creature's Struggle with Identity and Acceptance
The Creature
There are people, but they do not know me.
Grandfather
Why do you not go to them?
The Creature
Because I am so ugly, and they are beautiful.
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Identity and Loss in Frankenstein
Captain Robert Walton
Who are you?
The Creature
He never gave me a name.
[continues to weep]
Captain Robert Walton
Why do you weep?
The Creature
He was my father.
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Selfish Ambition vs. Personal Relationships
Victor Frankenstein
I haven't got time to argue!
Elizabeth
Oh, isn't it convenient? Or doesn't it fit in with your plans? Don't you ever think of anything or anyone than yourself?
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Caution: The Creature Has Come to Life
Taglines
Be warned. It's alive.
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The Quest for the North Pole
Victor Frankenstein
Do you share my madness?
Robert Walton
No, not madness.
Victor Frankenstein
What, then?
Robert Walton
There is a passage to the North Pole. And I will find it!
Victor Frankenstein
At the cost of your own life and the lives of your own crew?
Robert Walton
Lives come and go. If we succeed, our names will live on forever. I will be hailed as the benefactor of our species.
Victor Frankenstein
You're wrong. I of all men know that.
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Consequences of Unleashing Creation
Krempe
You fool, Victor Frankenstein of Geneva, how could you know what you had unleashed? How was it pieced together? Bits of thieves? Bits of murderers? Evil stitched to evil stitched to evil. God help your loved ones.
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The Complexity of the Brain Explained
Professor Waldman
And that is why the central nervous system and it's crowning achievement the brain, are as complicated and mysterious a set of organs as you are ever likely to encounter. Handing a scalpel to Frankenstein Professor Waldman: Mr. Frankenstein the incision is yours. Excellent. Mr. Clerval you may remove the cranial lid.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.