Exercise One:
Read the following paragraph from Frankenstein, Volume II,
Chapter IX (p. 98 in the Norton Critical Edition), each sentence of which is
numbered. This paragraph contains an argument. Indicate
which sentences are relevant to that argument and which are not, and
then compare your answers to the key. (We will be using this
paragraph throughout this stage.)
(1) "You are in the
wrong," replied the fiend; "and, instead of
threatening, I am content to reason with you. (2) I am malicious
because I am miserable; am I not shunned and hated by all
mankind? (3) You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and
triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more
than he pities me? (4) You would not call it murder, if you
could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts, and destroy my
frame, the work of your own hands. (5) Shall I respect man, when
he contemns me? (6) Let him live with me in the interchange of
kindness, and, instead of injury, I would bestow every benefit
upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance. (7) But that
cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our
union. (8) Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject
slavery. (9) I will revenge my injuries: if I cannot inspire
love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy,
because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. (10)
Have a care: I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I
desolate your heart, so that you curse the hour of your
birth. ... (11) What I ask of you is reasonable and moderate.
(12) I demand a creature of another sex ...."
-- The creature to Victor
Frankenstein, Frankenstein, p. 98
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