Example

Situational Setup: You are writing a feminist critique of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. (For those unfamiliar with this literary theory, Purdue University has a primer on Feminist Criticism)

Thesis: Victor Frankenstein’s usurpation of the female biological imperative of creating life disrupts the natural order leading to the destruction of the Frankenstein family due to one man’s hubris.

Topic Sentence: The destruction of the female counterpart to his creation exemplifies Frankenstein’s desire to cement male-dominated reproduction.

What type of quote would we need to prove the topic sentence as well as the thesis at large? We need a quote that demonstrates Victor’s fear of female reproduction.

Exercise: All three of the quotes pertain to the female creature. Out of the examples below, which one best demonstrates the criteria of the argument?

1. “In this manner I distributed my occupations when I first arrived, but as I proceeded in my labour, it became every day more horrible and irksome to me. Sometimes I could not prevail on myself to enter my laboratory for several days, and at other times I toiled day and night in order to complete my work. It was, indeed, a filthy process in which I was engaged. During my first experiment, a kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the horror of my employment; my mind was intently fixed on the consummation of my labour, and my eyes were shut to the horror of my proceedings. But now I went to it in cold blood, and my heart often sickened at the work of my hands.” (Chapter 19)

2. “Even if they were to leave Europe and inhabit the deserts of the new world, yet one of the first results of those sympathies for which the dæmon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror. Had I right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations? I had before been moved by the sophisms of the being I had created; I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats; but now, for the first time, the wickedness of my promise burst upon me; I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race.” (Chapter 20)

3. “As I looked on him, his countenance expressed the utmost extent of malice and treachery. I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like to him, and trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged. The wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended for happiness, and with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdrew.” (Chapter 20)