I Can't Believe it's Not Butter

"I like to use 'I Can't Believe it's Not Butter' on my toast in the morning, because sometimes when I eat breakfast, I like to be incredulous" (Demitri Martin).

Wait, does my quote have to be from the novel?

"He had heard my story with that half kind of belief that is given to a tale of spirits and supernatural events" (Frankenstein, 148).

This moment in the novel is significant because it's the first time Victor relates his story to anyone. He intended to tell Elizabeth, but that didn't really work out for him, so this is when we get to see what people actually think of his story.

Back during Justine's trial, Victor worried that he would "proclaim [himself] a madman" if he related his story (60). The magistrate actually doesn't take Victor to be crazy -- and if he does, he understates the matter, because he just calls Victor "mistaken" (148). The magistrate listens to the story as if it's half true and half fictional, and almost like it's a fairy tale. Victor responds in a very manly ways by calling the magistrate "ignorant" and running away angrily (149).

I think this interchange puts a whole new meaning on cleaning -- I mean, a whole new meaning on isolation. Both Victor and the creature experience extreme loneliness and rejection over the course of the novel. Here, Victor expresses his story to a magistrate who has the power to search for the creature, but the magistrate decides not to put his whole force behind Victor because he can't believe it's not butter. In other words, the magistrate doesn't really believe Victor, so Victor feels even more isolated, and the only person he really has left is Ernest, and he's, like, not even a real character.