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GCSE English Literature · key term
The condition of being subject to change; in Frankenstein, it includes the instability of feelings and circumstances.
Used by AQA and Edexcel
Paper 1
Revise: Nature and the sublimeDuring Victor’s ascent in Chapter 10, Mary Shelley interrupts the prose narrative by including eight lines from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Mutability, ending: “Nought may endure but mutability!” The line means that nothing lasts except change itself. Its paradox makes change the only permanent condition.
Paper 2
The quality of being subject to change; in Frankenstein, changes in feelings challenge the hope of finding permanent peace.
Revise: Nature and the sublimeDuring Victor’s ascent in Chapter 10, Mary Shelley interrupts the prose with a passage from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem ‘Mutability’, ending “Nought may endure but mutability!” “Nought” means nothing: the line declares that change itself is the only lasting certainty.
Part (a), AO2: if the printed extract includes the verse in Chapter 10, attribute it to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem ‘Mutability’, and explore how Mary Shelley’s insertion of it develops the passage.
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