REVIEW
A SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
The early 19th Century was a time of scientific discovery. Explorers (like Robert Walton in the novel) had travelled to the far ends of the earth discovering new lands and strange people whilst scientists were pushing back the boundaries and
increasing our knowledge of the world through advancements in Physics, Chemistry and Medicine. The recent discovery of electricity was thought by some to be the key to life and scientists had discovered by experimenting with frogs that electricity could reanimate dead tissue. While many embraced this new scientific world others
A SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
PROMETHEUS
• Prometheus:
• Prometheus was a Greek god who was in charge of giving
out gifts to various creatures on Earth.
• By the time he got to mankind, he was out of gifts. He
decided to go against his orders and gave man fire
• Prometheus gave man fire - a symbol of knowledge
• The other gods were angered by his disobedience (partly
because now man was too godlike)
• Prometheus’s punishment was that he was chained to a
PROMETHEUS
• Prometheus:
• Prometheus can be considered a tragic victim on account
of his theft on behalf of civilization
• Prometheus was impatient with limitations and felt the
universe held from humans something humans deserved.
• This myth is also important because Prometheus’ name
means FORETHOUGH (thinking before you act).
• Prometheus created humans and made sure that his
creations were well taken care of.
• He even suffered severely at the hands of Zeus to make
PROMETHEUS
MARY SHELLEY
Mary Shelley was born on 30th August 1797 in London, the
daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, a famous feminist essay
encouraging women to act for themselves and William Godwin, a radical academic and author who counted William Blake, Lord Byron and Percy Shelley amongst his friends.
Wollstonecraft died giving birth to Mary leaving her
daughter in the care of Godwin. As a teenager Mary met and fell in love with the charming young poet Percy
Shelley and the two ran away to Europe together however the affair was rocked by the suicide of Percy’s pregnant wife in November 1816. The couple married weeks later. ‘Frankenstein’ was published fourteen months later and became an instant success but Mary’s literary
achievements were marred by a series of tragic personal events. From 1815 to 1819, three of her four children died in infancy and in 1822 Percy drowned off the shore of
Tuscany, leaving Mary a widow and single mother
‘Frankenstein’ was Mary Shelley’s most famous novel yet she wrote a number of books including: Valperga, or The Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca (1823),
The Last Man (1826), The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck
(1830), Lodore (1835) and Mathilda (1959) (published over 100 years after her death).
She died in London in February 1851.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is, along with Bram Stoker’s
Dracula of 1896, the most well known and widely read horror story of all time. The novel was first published anonymously and critics believed that Percy
Shelley was the author.
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THE BIRTH OF ‘FRANKENSTEIN’
In her preface to Frankenstein Mary Shelley admits that her main goal was simply to write a ghost story. She got the idea during the summer of 1816, which she spent at Lake Geneva in Switzerland together with Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and Dr. John Polidori. That year the weather was cold and dreary due to the eruption of MountTambora and the Shelley's spent most of their time
indoors. Inspired by German ghost tales, they held some kind of supernatural story writing competition where Mary Shelley invented her story of Frankenstein. The preface to the novel begins with:
‘I passed the summer of 1816 in the environs of Geneva. The season was cold and rainy, and in the evenings we
crowded around a blazing wood fire, and occasionally amused ourselves with some German stories of ghosts,
which happened to fall into our hands. These tales excited in us a playful desire of imitation. Two other friends (a tale from the pen of one of whom would be far more acceptable to the public than any thing I can ever hope to produce) and myself agreed to write each a
story, founded on some supernatural occurrence.’
THE DREAM
That night Mary had a dream which changed her life.
“I placed my head on my pillow, I did not sleep … I saw
with shut eyes, but acute mental vision, - the pale student of unhallowed arts standing before the thing he had put together, I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out… the creature terrified
its creator ; he would rush away from his odious
handiwork, horror stricken.... He (the
scientist) sleeps but he is awakened; he opens his eyes; behold, the horrid thing stands at his
bedside, opening his curtains and looking on him with yellow, watery, but speculative eyes."
FRANKENSTEIN
KEY DETAIL
• Frankenstein is a frame story
• A frame story is a story within a story.
• Walton tells Victor’s story; the creature, Elizabeth, and
Alfonse also have speaking roles within the story, in the form of their letters.
• Elizabeth’s and Alfonse’s letters make the novel an
epistolary, which means a novel told with letters.
• The purpose of a frame story is to allow the author to use
more than one viewpoint and more than one narrator.
• The reader is able to have the viewpoints of both
LETTERS 1-2
• The opening letters are written by an explorer named Robert
Walton
• He is organizing and expedition to the Artic (North Pole). • The Artic Ocean covers most of this region, and more
than half of the ocean’s surface is frozen at all times.
• Travel by ship is extremely dangerous.
• Huge sheets of ice float through the frigid waters,
threatening to crush the vessels that appear in their paths.
• If you were stranded on a chunk of ice and a
rescue boat came to save you, would you care where they were headed?
• What was your reaction when Frankenstein
LETTERS 3-4
• In the letters, which set the stage for the novel, Robert
Walton says he has been deeply affected by the narrative poem The Rime of the Ancient mariner, written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a leading poet of the Romantic era. In the poem, an old sailor, or mariner, tells the story of a horrific sea voyage that changed his life.
• Sailing in stormy seas near the South Pole, the mariner’s ship
is surrounded by ice. When the crewmen spot and albatross, a huge seagull-like bird, flying through the fog, the ice splits open, freeing the ship. Then, unexpectedly, the mariner
shoots the albatross. After this act of cruelty, the ship is cursed.
• Driven north, it becomes stranded in a hot, windless sea. All
of the crew except the mariner die. Ever since, the
LETTERS 3-4
• Walton’s comments about The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
are examples of literary allusion.
• Allusion:
• is a reference in a written work to something from
history, art, religion, myth, or another work of literature. Writers use allusions to give readers
additional insights about what is happening in the story and why.
LETTERS 3-4
• Part of the fascination of Frankenstein is the striving of the
human intellect to break accustomed limits, pushing out into unknown territory.
• The framework of the story brings Walton and
Frankenstein together. Almost at the end of his quest, Frankenstein both inspires and admonished Walton.
• The author suggests a sequence: ideal, quest, act,
consequence.
• The daring of both Walton’s and Frankenstein’s ideals lifts
the story out of the reader’s ordinary world and suggests comparison with the reader’s experiences, however
REVIEW – LETTERS 1-4
•
Who is the author of the letters and who is
the recipient?
•
What is the author of the letters writing
about?
•
What did the stranger answer when asked
about his predicament?
•
How does Walton feel about the stranger?
•
What literary allusion can be found in these
THE RIME OF
THE ANCIENT
POEM ANALYSIS
Frankenstein is heavily influenced by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous poem ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. Mary and her husband, the poet Percy Shelley, were great admirers of Coleridge’s work. Research this poem and find out the following information:
What is the poem about?
When was it written?
What is the ‘moral’ of the poem?
How is it similar to Frankenstein?
THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER – GROUP WORK
It is about: An old sailor is haunted by a sin he committed years ago. In a fit of anger he shot and killed an albatross whilst on an ocean voyage. Following the death of the bird the ship and its crew began to suffer terrible torments and many men died. The men blamed the mariner. It was felt that God was punishing all the sailors for the mariner’s crime of killing an innocent creature.
The moral of the poem is: That you cannot escape sins committed in the past, that they will always be on your conscience and be with you
wherever you go. And that only God, not man, has the right to give or take life.
It is similar to Frankenstein because: Victor has broken God’s law by creating life. As with the mariner, this is a crime that follows him to his grave, a crime from which he can never escape.
THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT
MARINER – GROUP WORK ANSWERS
POEM ANALYSIS - THEMES
• Sin
• Repentance • Good vs. Evil
• Religion (lack of faith)
POEM ANALYSIS -
SYMBOLISM
• The Albatross
• The burden of sin (the cross we all have to bare) • Spirit
• Guilt • Snakes
• God’s creations – beautiful in God’s eyes • Shrieving
• The necessity of confession, the fact that we always feel
POEM ANALYSIS –
ANSWER
•
After having read the poem, why do you
think that this poem is important to
Walton?
•
How is the stranger similar to the
ancient mariner?
•
What mood does Shelley create by
10 MINUTE QUICK WRITE –
REVIEW
COMPLETE ON BINDER
PAPER – TURN IN
•
The summer of 1816: Explain the events
that led to Mary Shelley writing the story
of
Frankenstein.
What discussions
QUIZ
1. Why does the Ancient Mariner stop the wedding guest and not one
of his companions.
a. His instincts tell him whom to stop
b. The wedding guest is the most distracted and therefor the easiest to reel in
c. He chooses his audience at random
QUIZ
2. Why does the wedding quest eventually sit down to hear the ancient Mariner’s tale?
a. He pities the ancient Mariner?
b. He is amused by the ancient Mariner’s antics c. He isn’t expected at the wedding any way
QUIZ
3. Other than “rhyme” what is the meaning of the word “rime”? a. An ice formation
b. An original mode of printing c. Limbo
QUIZ
4. How did the sailors react when they first spotted the albatross?
a. They suddenly dropped dead
b. They thought it was a bad omen c. They mistook it for an angel
QUIZ
5. Why did the Mariner shoot the Albatross? a. He was starving and killed it for food b. He thought it was evil
c. We are never told
QUIZ
6. Write a paragraph defining frame story? Explain using specific examples from the text.
JOURNAL ENTRY - #1
COMPLETE ON BINDER
PAPER
•
How do you define personal
responsibility? When something bad
happens that involves you, how do you
know whether you bear some
CHAPTERS 1-2
• A falls of B’s roof while mending it, who is responsible?
• B walks by A, who is homeless and begging on the street; do
you have a (moral) responsibility to help him or her?
• B lends A his car, which has faulty brakes, and A has an
CHAPTERS 1-2
• Victor Frankenstein develops an interest in science after
reading about the “wild fancies” of several noted alchemists who lived 300 to 500 years before his lifetime.
• Alchemy:
• The field of philosophy which believed it could find
substances that would enable them to transform ordinary metals, such as lead, into gold or create a magical drink that would extend life and youth forever.
• While alchemy is not true science, the alchemists did
CHAPTERS 1-2
•
Victor, at the age of 13, becomes fascinated with
the work of Cornelius Agrippa (a Roman
alchemist who attempted to turn tin into gold
and men into lions…)
•
Victor’s father discourages this type of “science”
and encourages his son to study something that
is more realistic.
•
Victor becomes obsessed with finding the
“secrets” of life and nature (and how to raise the
dead).
CHAPTER 3
•
In Chapter 3, we learn of the death of Victor’s
mother. She died caring for her adopted
daughter, Elizabeth.
•
We see that she is a great example of the love a
parent has for her child (even if the child is not
biologically hers.)
•
This becomes important tot show that Victor
had good parental role models and should
CHAPTER 5
•
The events in chapter 5 are the most pivotal in
the novel.
•
After the crescendo of motivated study,
Frankenstein is ready for some decisive action.
•
All the factors of the experiment come
together in the “birth”, the awakening of the
creature. An additional problem arises which
Frankenstein has never thought through:
•
What if the awakened creature should be
CHAPTER 5
•
The scientist, unable to manage his horror at the
appearance of the live creature takes flight,
thereby rejecting the new being.
•
A pattern established which will reappear in
CHAPTER 5
•
Elizabeth’s letter also establishes for the reader
the narrative facts about the family Victor has
not seen in the years he has been preoccupied
with his experiment.
•
His younger brother Ernest and William are
flourishing, and the family has taken in a
CHAPTERS 1-5
• Who is telling this part of the story?
• How did the Frankensteins treat Victor when he was a child? • How did Elizabeth come to live with the Frankensteins?
• Who was Victor’s close boyhood friend?
• What natural phenomena influenced Victor when he was
young?
• How did Victor’s mother die and what does this say about
her role as a mother?
• When at the university of Ingolstadt, what goal did
Frankenstein devise for himself?
• How did Frankenstein react when his experiment
succeeded?
• How did Victor spend the night after bringing the creature
to life?
• What happened to Victor after the night of the creation and
PROLOGUE – GUIDED QUESTION ANSWERS
1. The novel begins with a series of letters in which the narrator of the novel is writing his thoughts and plans to his sister. Where is the narrator going? Why has he chosen to make this voyage? Of what does the narrator dream? What is his goal?
Robert Walton is attempting to be the first person to sail to and reach the North Pole. He is pursuing this goal for personal gain and glory. He is not concerned with the possible cost in the suffering of his crew or even the benefits this exploration will provide to mankind. He thinks only of the glory and fame that will be his.
2. Walton says he is a “Romantic.” What is a Romantic person like?
He listens to his heart instead of his mind. He is concerned with the individual, focusing on his subjective experiences. He is irrational, imaginative, and emotional. He also finds peace of mind in nature and admires its beauty.
3. What evidence does Walton provide of his Romantic leanings?
PROLOGUE – GUIDED QUESTION ANSWERS
4. Aside from personal glory, what two benefits to mankind does Walton hope to achieve?
He hopes to discover the “northwest passage” for trade with the East, and he hopes to discover the secret of the North’s magnetic pull.
5. Identify one example of foreshadowing.
- Walton claims that even the threat of death is not enough to mitigate his ambition.
- Walton’s stated need of a “friend,” an equal in terms of passion and aspiration hints that
he will meet just such a man.
- By letter 3, Walton has become too boasting and too self-assured of success, his
“Triumph Over Nature.”
6. How do Walton’s letters illustrate the tension between eighteenth-century rationalism and
nineteenth-century Romanticism?
Walton’s letters indicate a belief that humankind (via science) can and will ultimately
conquer nature, contrary to the Romantic belief that Nature was ultimately unknowable and unconquerable.
7. What is Walton’s impression of Frankenstein?
PROLOGUE – GUIDED QUESTION ANSWERS
8. How does Frankenstein react to Walton’s dream/goal?
He is horrified by Walton’s goal because he sees himself in Walton. He fears Walton is
doomed to make the same tragic mistakes he has made. He fears for Walton’s safety and the crew’s lives.
9. Why does Frankenstein decide to tell Walton his story?
CHAPTERS I & II – GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
1. What plot exposition does Shelley offer the reader in these chapters?
Shelley provides the reader with the account of Frankenstein’s birth and early life, the backgrounds of his parents, how Elizabeth came into the family, etc.
2. What are Frankenstein’s parents like? How do they feel about each other and about their child?
They are from a distinguished family and they are devoted to each other and their child
3. How are Victor and Elizabeth different? What kind of person is Victor?
Victor is curious to learn the hidden laws of nature. Elizabeth delights in the appearance of things; he investigates their causes.
4. What quality in young Frankenstein proves to be his tragic flaw later in life?
His “passions were vehement.” He loved learning, and pursued that end with ferocity.
5. Who is Henry Clerval? What is he like? How is he different from Victor?
CHAPTERS I & II – GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
6. What does Victor want to accomplish in life? Why does he turn to the study of mathematics? What prevents him from continuing his study?
He wants to find the elixir of life and banish disease from mankind. He wants to study real knowledge, and he believes that destiny has decided something else for him.
7. How is Elizabeth a “typical” Romantic female character?
She is blonde and fair—the only one in her “family,” as she is Italian. She is also sweet, virtuous, and kind.
8. How did Cornelius Agrippa and other early scientists affect young Victor?
He began to desire the elixir of life. They set him on his path trying to understand God scientifically.
9. How does Victor view his switch to mathematics? What does he compare it to?
He sees it as his guardian angel’s last effort to get him off the path to ruin.
10. What is foreshadowed at the end of Chapter 2?
CHAPTERS III - IV – GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
1. How is the story of Victor’s mother’s death ironic?
Victor’s mother contracts the disease that kills her by caring for, and eventually saving, Elizabeth.
2. What does Victor contemplate in the first hours of his departure? How do these thoughts indicate his future?
He is sad to be alone and he does not feel he has the capacity to meet strangers. Later he becomes more and more reclusive as he makes his creature.
3. Why does Victor not want to study the contemporary scientists suggested by M. Krempe?
Victor has contempt for the uses of modern natural philosophy; he believes the older,
natural philosophies seek immortality and power while modern ones are just busy proving the old ones wrong.
4. What ultimately changes Victor’s mind about new chemists?
CHAPTERS III - IV – GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
5. Compare the physiognomy of Krempe and Waldman.
Krempe is opinionated and intolerant. He is also extremely ugly. His physical appearance repulses Victor as does his attitude. Krempe is more open-minded and able to reconcile the ideas of the past with those of the furture. He is also dashing-looking—not traditionally
handsome, but handsome in a Byronic hero sort of way.
(Byronic Hero – an antihero who is rebellious and cynical)
6. What is the literary term for M. Waldman and the effect that his lecture and guidance have on Victor?
He is a catalyst.
(Catalyst – meant to increase or cause a reaction)
7. Why does Victor favor science above all other disciplines?
CHAPTERS III - IV – GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
8. How is Victor’s practice of science different from the modern practice of science?
Victor’s practice of science is the reading of books and observing the decay of corpses, while the modern practice of science is based on experiments.
9. Why does Victor hesitate to make a creature like man? Why does he go through with it?
He originally thought that the body frame would be too laborious to make. However, his pride and ego convince him to try it. He wants a creation that owes him everything and will revere him.
10. What traditional tragic flaw is Victor demonstrating?
Hubris - proud or extreme self-confidence that brings about a characters downfall
11. What is the central flaw in Victor’s decision what to create?
He believes he is creating a new life form when he is in reality merely imitating what has already been created.
12. What internal conflict does Victor deal with as he finishes his creation?
CHAPTERS III - IV – GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
13. List some gothic details from the end of Chapter IV.
- Victor’s ill health-pale skin, emaciated frame, bulging eyes
- The visits to charnel houses (charnel house – a building where bones are piled) - The isolation of the top-floor laboratory
14. What is Romantic in the moral Victor shares with Walton?
JOURNAL ENTRY - #2
COMPLETE ON BINDER
PAPER
•
Why do you think Shelley might have
CHAPTER 6-10
• Frankenstein’s encounter with his creation is very symbolic
• The creature is furious with him for having abandoned and cursed him. • He compares himself both with Satan and with Adam.
• This is a biblical allusion
• The creature is like Adam because he is the first of his kind. He,
like Adam, was created from nothing (not giving birth).
• But, Adam was in God’s favor, where the creature is not in his
master’s favor.
• He says that he’s intrinsically good, but that circumstances have
made him evil.
• He has been abandoned and therefore, he associates himself
with the devil because of how he feels inside.
• In the biblical story, however, although Adam suffered a natural
consequence for his own disobedience, God never abandons him.
• Unlike the creature, who has done nothing to deserve the
CHAPTER 6 – 9 - REVIEW
•
What did Elizabeth say about Justine in her letter to
Victor?
•
After his recuperation, what did Victor decide to study
alongside of Clerval?
•
What news does a letter from Frankenstein’s father
bring?
•
When returning to Geneva what does Victor see just
outside the gates?
•
Who was accused of murdering William, and why?
•
How did Frankenstein react to this accusation?
•
What happened to Justine?
•
What was Frankenstein’s state of mind after the trial?
CHAPTERS V AND VI– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
1. How is the night that the creature is born an example of Gothic prose?
It is dark and raining. The candle is nearly burned out. Overall, it is very creepy setting.
2. What is ironic about the creature’s physical appearance?
Victor says he selected the features to be beautiful, but the composite effect is grotesque.
3. What is Romantic about the creature’s physical appearance?
The creature’s very grotesqueness is Romantic. Additionally, his flowing black hair and perling-white teeth make the creature resemble – M. Waldman –they Byronic hero
4. How does Dr. Frankenstein feel about his creation? What does he do after the creature comes to life?
Breathless horror and disgust fill his heart when he sees his creature. He runs from the room
5. What event is foreshadowed in the beginning of Chapter V?
Frankenstein has a dream about Elizabeth’s death.
CHAPTERS V AND VI– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
6. What does Frankenstein feel when the creature reaches out to him?
Frankenstein feels repulsion and disgust when the creature tries to make contact. Answers will vary, but clearly, Shelley is depicting the poignancy of the creature’s reaching out for the
7. What is most likely the cause of Victor’s reaction to his success?
Victor is repulsed by the creature’s physical ugliness, but the true horror is in the fact that he has overstepped his bounds as a human being.
8. In Elizabeth’s letter to Victor there is one example of Shelley’s support for the revolution in France and republican society. Identify the passage.
“The republican institutions of our country have produced simpler and happier manners than those which prevail in the great monarchies that surround it.”
9. What do you learn about in Elizabeth’s letter through plot exposition?
We learn the history of Justine, the young girl who once lived in the Frankenstein family.
CHAPTERS V AND VI– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
10. What sparks Victor’s fever?
His fever is brought on by nervousness he feels about his creature.
11. How is Victor’s recovery an example of Romanticism?
He begins to heal when he sees the beauty of nature—the sky, the flowers, the smile of children.
12. How does Shelley create suspense toward the end of these chapters?
One certainly expects some reversal after Victor’s apparent recovery. The sudden and
JOURNAL ENTRY - #3
COMPLETE ON BINDER PAPER – TURN IN
WITH VOCABULARY QUIZ
•
What are some reasons a person might
CHAPTER 6-10
•
In romantic literature, nature is a very
powerful element brought into writing.
•
Complete the “Nature in Romantic Literature”
work on page 5 of the Student Guide.
CHAPTERS VII AND VIII – GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
1. What function do letters serve in this and previous chapters?
Letters are the vehicles by which the first-per-character narrator can relate information that he himself has not witnessed and has no other way of knowing.
2. What briefly lifts Victor’s spirit on his journey home? Why is this significant?
Seeing the mountains and lakes of his homeland bring him very fleeting relief. The power of Nature to heal the human spirit is a cornerstone of Romantic philosophy.
3. Why does Elizabeth believe that she is responsible for William’s death?
She had let him wear her mother’s necklace, and she believed that he had been killed in a robbery.
4. What is “gothic” about Frankenstein’s encounter with the creature?
It is a dark, stormy, and suddenly violent night. The thunder ends when the creature disappears up the mountain.
5. What is depicted in the picture above the Frankensteins’ mantelpiece?
CHAPTERS VII AND VIII – GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
6. Why doesn’t Frankenstein take the blame from Justine?
He doesn’t tell anyone his suspicions because he felt that no one would believe him. He had been out of the country when William is killed, and he was too afraid to tell the world about his monster.
7. Why does Elizabeth’s speech in court hurt Justine?
While she means to help Justine, people feel that Justine has betrayed Elizabeth’s generosity, thus hating Justine even more.
8. What is revealed about Justine’s character in these chapters?
She proves to be very religious and strong.
9. Do you think Frankenstein is as guilty as he feels he is? Of what do you think he is guilty, if anything?
He is guilty of William’s murder because he created the monster. Victor has chosen to
CHAPTERS VII AND VIII – GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
10. How do the reactions of Victor and his family to William’s murder illustrate Romantic principles?
CHAPTERS IX AND X– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
1. What keeps Victor from killing himself at the beginning of this chapter?
He feels he has an obligation to watch over the monster. He lives in deadly fear that it will commit crimes against his father or brother; his thoughts of Elizabeth also keep him alive.
2. How does Victor become a disenfranchised member of society himself?
Because everyone believed the young girl was guilty and treated her so horribly, he can no
longer see the world, and people, as he once did.
3. As Victor climbs the mountains, what effect do they have on him?
The mountains bring to mind memories of boyhood pleasures, while the winds soothe and make him feel spiritual. Feelings of depression quickly follow.
4. Why does Victor climb Montanvert in spite of the rain? How does that identify this as a romantic novel?
CHAPTERS IX AND X– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
5. What are Victor’s feelings as his creature approaches him. What is the first thing he says to his creature?
He feels rage and horror. “Devil, do you dare approach me?”
6. How does the creature respond to Victor?
He says, “How dare you sport thus with life?” This quotation refers to the idea of creating and destroying life as if it were a sport. The monster shows itself to be more humane than Victor, valuing life more than his creator.
7. What biblical character does the creature compare himself to? What character does he think he ought to be?
He compares himself to a fallen angel—a reference to Satan. He feels he should be like Adam— adored by his creator.
8. What do you think the creature will ask of Victor? Why?
CHAPTERS IX AND X– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
9. What does the creature say made him a “fiend?” What is Romantic about this?
He says misery made him a fiend. Romantics believed that people were essentially good and that evil was introduced into the world by social mistreatment.
10. What does the creature claim is the basis of Victor’s debt to him?
The creature claims that Victor owes it the protection and regard that a creator owes its creation.
11. What does the creature promise to Victor if Victor will fulfill his duties as creator?
NATURE IN ROMANTIC
LITERATURE - ANSWERS
•
Nature’s restorative power as it affects Frankenstein
•
“My country, my beloved country! Who but a native can
tell the delight I took in again beholding they streams, thy
mountains, an more than all, thy lovely lake!” (59)
•
“I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the
waters might close over me and my calamities forever”
(75).
•
“These sublime and magnificent scenes afforded me the
NATURE IN ROMANTIC
LITERATURE - ANSWERS
• “The sight of the awful and majestic in nature had indeed always
the effect of solemnizing my mind and causing me to forget the passing cares of life” (81).
• Victor often depressed because of his lack of forethought, but
he finds much comfort in nature.
• Monster’s relationship with nature:
• ”The desert mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge” (84). • “I have wandered here many days; the caves of ice, which I only
do not fear, are dwelling to me, and the only one which man does not grudge” (84).
• ”These bleak skies I hail, for they are kinder to me than your
fellow beings” (84).
DEBATE
•
Should Victor have told the truth about
PREPARE FOR THE DEBATE
•
In earlier chapters in the novel, Victor Frankenstein fails to plan
for his creature’s integration into the world.
•
Victor does not, in fact, aid this integration, but instead
rejects his creation completely.
•
Chapter 7 begins with a letter which Victor receives from his
PREPARE FOR THE DEBATE
•
Chapter 8, Justine Moritz if falsely accused of the crime,
forced into a confession, and executed.
•
But, Victor suffers desperately as he knows that the true
criminal is his own creation.
•
In these chapters, and in the two following chapters, Shelley
SHOULD VICTOR HAVE TOLD THE TRUTH
ABOUT THE SITUATION WITH JUSTINE?
•
Divide the class in half
•
Dived those groups in half again
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PRO – Victor should have confessed to save Justine
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CON – Victor should not have confessed
JOURNAL ENTRY - #4
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Can the creature really be blamed for his
acts of fury? Who is truly responsible for
the creature: himself or his creator?
TRAGEDY
•
Tragedy:
•
Is a story that ends in the downfall of its main
character and arouses pity or fear in the reader.
•
In general, tragedy also expresses a tragic view of
life – the idea that a noble person inevitable brings
on his or her suffering or death through some
failure or error.
•
As you continue to read
Frankenstein
think about
ALLUSION
• A Fallen Angel• Do these words sound familiar?
• “Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / To mold me man? Did I solicit thee / from darkness to promote me?”
• This quotation appears on the title page of Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein. It could have been spoken by Frankenstein’s creature.
• In fact, the words come from John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost
(1667) and are spoken by the character of Adam.
• This book-length poem is a retelling of the story of Adam and Eve
from the Bible.
• An equally prominent character in the poem is Satan, the lord of
evil.
• Milton depicts Satan as the chief angel of heaven who rebels
against God and is cast into hell.
• To avenge himself, he tempts Adam and Eve to disobey God
ALLUSION
• Near the end of chapter 10 of Frankenstein, creature confronts his creator. He compares himself not only to Adam but to “the fallen angel, whom thou drives from joy for no misdeed.”
• In chapter 11 through 16, Shelley expands on this allusion to Paradise Lost
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Shelley uses several literary allusions in
CHAPTER 10 - 16 - REVIEW
• These chapters are important because we know that the creature
knows the difference right and wrong.
• The creature has been deeply influence by the works of Milton’s
“Paradise Lost,” Goethe’s “The Sorrow of Young Werther,”,
Plutarch’s “Lives,”
• Which all deal with the issue of morality. The creature has
learned to love virtue and to despise vise.
• We see the creature struggling between right and wrong. He knows
what he should do, but his life has been so difficult for him that he feels he has no choice.
• The only hope he had left was in the cottagers. He just wanted and
CHAPTER 10 - 16 - REVIEW
• Now he vows revenge upon humanity – especially his creator. He
curses his creator for ever giving him life.
• To add insult to injury, when the creature saves a little girl from
drowning, he is shot by the father.
• Does the creature have a choice, but to exact revenge on all human
kind?
• In chapter 16, the description of the fire that engulfs the cottage is
described as “lick[ing]… with forked and destroying tongues”
• Like the tongue of Satan, the creature is now consumed with hate • Fire is an important symbol in the novel. It is one of the reasons
Shelley originally called her manuscript ”The Modern Prometheus”.
• Frankenstein hears these pivotal words: “On you it rests, whether I quit
forever the neighborhood of man and lead a harmless life, or become the scourge of your fellow creatures and the author of your own
speedy ruin”.
CHAPTER 10 - 16 - REVIEW
• In accounting for the change in his own temperament from innocence
and hunger for love to an overwhelming desire to destroy, he places a burden of moral responsibility on his creator’s shoulders.
• Frankenstein is to have one more chance to help the creature he
CHAPTER 10 - 16 - REVIEW
•
Where did Victor next see the creature and why didn’t he
destroy it?
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What did the creature want of Frankenstein?
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What is the creature’s account of his first moments of life?
•
Where did the creature go after he was abandoned by
Frankenstein?
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Describe the creature’s first encounter with humans.
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How does the creature learn to communicate properly (how
does he learn to read and write)?
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What is the creature’s goal at this point in the story?
•
Describe what happened when the creature introduced
CHAPTERS XI AND XII– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
1. What technique does Shelley employ to provide the reader with the creature’s story?
Shelley creates a story-within-a-story-within-a-story.
2. Trace the levels of narration Shelley has established to tell this story.
The creature is telling his story to Victor, who is telling the story to Walton, who is writing the story in a letter to his sister.
3. How does the creature describe his first days of life?
He says his early days, which are confused and indistinct, are filled with a multiplicity of sensations.
4. How does the creature respond to fire?
He is surprised that the fire can produce such opposite effects—it warms him but also burns him.
The positive and negative consequences of the fire relate to Prometheus and the positive and negative consequences of knowledge.
5. How are the creature’s early days different from Victor’s early days?
CHAPTERS XI AND XII– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
6. What effect does the creature’s speech (vocabulary and grammar) have on the reader? Why did Shelley write it for that purpose?
His speech makes him civilized, even human. Shelley made him speak like that to increase reader sympathy for the creature.
7. Why is the creature confused to see his cottagers crying?
He thinks that since they have a nice, warm house, handsome clothes and loving company, they should not be sad.
8. Why does the creature work so hard to learn their language? What does that reveal about his character?
He hopes that his ability to speak, will enable the cottagers to look past his appearance. It shows that he greatly wants a human connection.
9. What does the creature say he discovers about himself? What feelings does this discovery cause?
CHAPTERS XI AND XII– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
11. What evidence does Shelley provide of the creature’s innate goodness?
The creature instinctively likes the cottagers and is moved by their shows of apparent sorrow. Once he recognizes that their lives are a struggle, he performs tasks for them to make their lives a little easier.
12. What is typically Romantic in the final paragraph of Chapter XII?
The fact that his spirits were uplifted by the beautiful spring is very Romantic.
13. How are the creature’s first words similar to the typical first words of human babies?
A baby’s first words are nouns names of concrete things.
14. Based on what you’ve read so far, do you anticipate the cottagers will accept the creature? Why or why not?
A few of the more optimistic students may want to predict that the creature will find friends here in the cottage, but all of the creature’s experiences—including Victor’s own reaction to him, and the fact that the creature is now alone telling his story—clearly indicate that they do not.
15. Why does Shelley end chapter 13 on an apparently optimistic note?
CHAPTERS XIII AND XIV– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
1. Explain the second sentence of this chapter: “I shall relate events that impressed me with feelings which...have made me what I am.”
We learn that the creature is capable of changing as a result of his experiences. He is also isolated by society due to his appearance.
2. What practical purpose does the beautiful stranger serve?
She is a tool for the creature to be able to refine his understanding of language, especially reading.
3. Why does the creature calls the cottagers his “protectors?”
Students should mention that they are “teaching” him to be a member of society, and their home is sheltering him until he can face the world.
4. What paradox does the creature see in humankind through his study of human history?
He sees that man can be so “powerful, so virtuous, and magnificent” while being so “vicious and base.”
5. In what way does his study of human society make him what he eventually becomes?
CHAPTERS XIII AND XIV– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
6. What is the primary disadvantage of the creature’s “education”?
The more he learns, the more he wants the companionship of the cottagers, and the more acutely he feels pain that he can’t join them.
7. In view of the trial of Safie’s father in Chapter XIV, and Justine’s trial earlier, what is Shelley’s opinion of the courts in that era?
Shelley thought that they were corrupt and convicted people on very circumstantial evidence.
8. How is Safie a feminist character?
She defies her father by going to Germany instead of going home. She is independent. By marrying a Christian, she escapes life in a harem.
9. What plot exposition is revealed in Chapter XIV?
The plot exposition is the story of how Safie came to be with the cottagers, as well as how they came to Germany.
10. What is the character of Safie’s father? How is he a foil to Safie, and to Victor’s own father?
CHAPTERS XV AND XVI– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
1. What is revealed about the creature’s character very early in Chapter XV?
We learn that though he knew about crime through study, it still seemed like a “distant evil.” It was not a part of his reality yet.
2. How does the creature feel about the Sorrows of Werter? In what ways is he different from the characters in the book?
He thinks that the characters are very noble. They remind him very much of the cottagers. He, however, is dependent on no one, and related to no one.
3. What is the creature’s reaction to Paradise Lost? According to the creature, how is he both similar to and dissimilar from Adam?
Like Adam, he has disappointed his creator. Unlike Adam, he was not created by God, has no partner, and is unhappy with his existence.
4. Why couldn’t the creature fully sympathize with the characters in Milton’s book?
He couldn’t sympathize because he was uninformed, and he was so different. He didn’t know where he came from, who he was, or what he was meant to do.
5. What does the creature find in his pocket? How does it make him feel?
CHAPTERS XV AND XVI– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
6. What happens when the creature introduces himself to the cottagers?
When the creature first appears in the cottage, the blind old man is kind and understanding. However, when the sighted people return, they force him away.
7. Why doesn’t the creature kill itself after this incident?
He does not kill himself because despair has not yet gripped him. He believes he may have another chance. Though he is angry, he is not ready to give up altogether.
8. What evidence is there that the creature is still essentially good despite this momentous disappointment?
He admits that his anger was so great he could have burned down the cottage and killed the inhabitants, enjoying their screams of anguish, but he does not. Instead, he devises a new plan to befriend them.
9. What does the creature decide to do? What is his new plan?
He resolves to try and make human contact again. This time, however, he won’t let the family see him until the old man speaks to them on his behalf.
10. What happens that makes the creature finally despair?
CHAPTERS XV AND XVI– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
11. Why does the creature decide to go to Geneva? How have these horrible circumstances changed him?
As a result of his rejection and isolation, he feels intense suffering and bitterness. He decides to go to Geneva to find his creator.
12. Why does the creature ask for a mate?
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Why is Shelley’s Novel considered a gothic novel?
2. How did the creature help the family?
3. Why did the monster do this for the family?
4. After reading Victor’s journal the creature is even more miserable than before. With this in mind, if the creature was this miserable and even contemplated suicide at one point, why did he not follow through with his suicidal thoughts?
5. Why does the monster put the locket in Justine’s pocket?
6. How did the creature’s feelings change when he learned that the cottagers were gone? 7. In chapter 11, from which point of view is the story told?
8. How does the point of view in chapters 11 – 18 affect Shelley’s story?
9. In chapter 12, the monster sees his own reflection in a pool of water and… 10. The creature learns how to speak and learns to read by:
11. Through the cottagers and by reading books written by Milton, Plutarch, and Goeth, the monster learns?
SYMBOLISM
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Why is it important to be loved and to
CHAPTER 17 - 24 - REVIEW
• The creature’s desire for a companion seems almost noble.
• You can’t blame him for wanting someone in his life with whom he can share his misery.
• On the other hand, is it fair to the companion to be created ugly and horrifying to all only to be a companion?
• Frankenstein is truly conflicted between saving those he loves (and saving the rest of humanity) and knowing that creating another creature might not solve the problem, but compound it.
• Frankenstein reflects upon the “blasted tree” that once sparked imagination and scientific thirst for knowledge. Now, he feels himself to be a “blasted tree”, an example of wrecked and forsaken humanity.
• The tree is an important symbol because it is a living thing. And, because it was “blasted”, now the tree is split down the middle, severed from its
roots, unable to register sensations.
CHAPTER 17 - 24 - REVIEW
• The creature’s demand for a mate now forces Victor into a choice.
• Either he refuses the demand and risks a terrible retribution –
• “I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart…” or he fulfills the demand with extended agony and risking the safety of the human race.
• Although it is not at all clear that Victor realizes it, his two earlier
abandonments have supplied the foundation for the creature’s loneliness and consequent act –
• “I am malicious because I am miserable.”
• Now Frankenstein is asked to deny his own fear –
• “You will then have a companion to aid you in the task of destruction”
• He must undertake the work of creating another companion
CHAPTER 17 - 24 – CLASS
DISCUSSION
• Now that you have heard the creature’s story, do you think he is justified in declaring an “ever-lasting war” against the human species and his creator?
• What have the creature’s interactions with humans been like?
• What acts of revenge does the creature take?
• Are these acts justified?
• Is revenge ever justified?
• How has the creature grown intellectually and emotionally since his “birth”?
• How does he justify his actions?
CHAPTER 17 - 24 - REVIEW
• Victor plunges again into a maelstrom of creative activity. This time, no
idealism obscures the passing of the days. Now he knows the reality of the consequences of the first creation.
• To gather courage for his horrific task, he travels with his dear friend,
Henry Clerval, gaining spiritual sustenance from companionship.
• Later, alone on one of the Orkney Islands, he begins his work, which
becomes irksome. His fear that he may be cursed by future generations for the danger he is now creating intensifies.
• Overcome with anguish, he is unable to remember the creature’s
reason for requesting a companion; in spite of the threat from the creature that, “I will be with you on your wedding night,” he risks the creature’s rage by destroying the beginnings of this new
creation.
• After he has buried the remains in the waters of the sea, when he
CHAPTER 17 - 24 - REVIEW
• Two months after the dreadful landing in Ireland, Victor awakens in a
prison room, full of sorrow at the memory of Henry Clerval’s death.
• Guilt overwhelms him, but Mr. Kirwin, the old magistrate, reassures
him of his innocence.
• News of Victor’s illness has brought his father from Switzerland.
• Still insisting that he is guilty now of three deaths, Henry’s, Justine’s,
and William’s, Victor refuses to be consoled.
• He receives a letter from Elizabeth, however, which does comfort
him.
• She insists that he need not keep his promise to marry her,
but her concern fro him awakens his desire to go through with the marriage despite the monster’s threat.
• He returns to Geneva, happy to be reunited with her, an
promises to reveal his “dreadful secret” to her the day after their marriage.
• With some apprehension he enters into the plans for the
CHAPTER 17 - 24 - REVIEW
• After the wedding, the bride and groom stop for the night at Evian,
thinking to continue their wedding trip on the morrow.
• True to his promise, “I will be with you on your wedding night,” the
CHAPTER 17 - 24 - REVIEW
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What was the creature’s reaction upon learning that the
cottagers left?
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How did the creature exact his revenge when he arrived in
Geneva?
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Why did the creature frame Justine for William’s murder?
•
What did the creature ask of Frankenstein in order to settle
the “debt” he owed him?
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What is Frankenstein’s answer to the creature’s request and
what is his reasoning?
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When Frankenstein destroyed the work he had begun on the
female, what threat did the creature leave with his master?
•
What happened to Frankenstein when he returned to shore
CHAPTER 17 - 24 - REVIEW
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Who was Victor accused of murdering?
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What happened at Frankenstein’s trial?
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What happened to Clerval?
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What happened on Victor’s and Elizabeth’s wedding night?
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What happened to Victor’s father, Alphonse, as a result of this
tragedy?
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What request did Victor make of Robert Walton?
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What happened to Frankenstein at the end of the novel?
CHAPTERS XVII AND XVIII– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
1. What, according to the creature, is the cause of his wickedness and what will be the remedy?
The creature’s loneliness and isolation are the causes of its wickedness. When it has the mate, it will be happy, good, and together they will leave humankind alone.
2. What does Victor suggest is a creator’s obligation to his creation?
At the very least, the creator must make it possible for the creation to be happy.
3. Follow Victor’s and the creature’s lines of reasoning in their debate over the creation of the companion. Whose reasoning is most sound?
• Victor’s line of reasoning is that the creature has already shown itself to be evil, and he therefore does not trust it to keep its word.
• The creature insists that it is good by nature and that the hatred and misery to which it has been subjected have made it evil. When given the chance for happiness, its good nature will once again surface.
• Shelley wants the reader’s sympathy to lie with the creature.
4. Why does Victor refuse to make a female monster? Do you feel he is justified in his refusal?
CHAPTERS XVII AND XVIII– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
5. What is the “sympathy” that the creature long for?
Sympathy is the ability of one person to fully understand the thoughts and feelings of
another. Because the creature is not human, he asserts that no human can fully know how it feels. Another word for what the creature is describing might be affinity.
6. What is different about his solitude at the beginning of Chapter XVIII from his solitude while first creating the monster?
The solitude he seeks now is calming and natural. When he was creating the monster, his solitude was in his attic with his instruments. This time he is postponing his task, while before he was working fanatically at it. This time he is sadder and more fearful.
7. What does Victor’s father think is the cause of Victor’s present anxiety?
He believes that Victor has met someone else to marry and is worried about disappointing both Mr. Frankenstein and Elizabeth by not wedding Elizabeth.
8. What are some of the reasons Victor feels he must go to England to complete his task?
CHAPTERS XIX AND XX– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
1. Describe Victor’s feelings as he journeys through England.
He does not feel that he is good company because there is a bothersome barrier between him and his fellow men.
2. What does Victor say about his childhood in Chapter XIX?
He says he was formed for peace and happiness. He used to love nature; now he can’t get the same enjoyment out of it.
3. What is Victor’s big fear in delaying his trip?
He is afraid that the monster might get angry that he is taking so long and take it out on one of his loved ones.
4. Why would the Romantic Mary Shelley call the English Civil War “the most animating epoch of English history”?
As a “liberal,” Shelley would have been excited by the thought of common subjects and their elected Parliament rising up against a tyrannical king, deposing him, and abolishing the monarchy.
5. What style of literature describes the place where Victor begins to work in Scotland? Why?
CHAPTERS XIX AND XX– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
6. How is his creation of this monster different from the first?
Before he had worked day and night with passion to complete it. Now he can’t even bear to enter his laboratory some days.
7. Give four reasons why Victor changes his mind about making the second creature. Use evidence from the book to refute each of Victor’s reasons.
A. The female creature might be more evil than the first B. She has made no promise to live an isolated life.
C. She might reject the first creature and then there would be two wild creatures D. Worse yet, they might propagate a new race.
Evidence:
A. The romantics believed in the concept of Tabula Rasa –that a person was born a “blank” slate with no innate personality. Personality as formed by a person’s upbringing, education, and experiences. This is evident in the creature’s account of its own “growing up.”
B and C. The creature “awoke” to no one—no companion, no teacher; mentor, or guide to help him form his opinions and values. The female would have the creature to help her form her thoughts and feelings.
D. They might, but there is no reason to believe that their offspring won’t be born with the same nature as the parents. Also, if Victor is truly afraid of this, he could take some
CHAPTERS XIX AND XX– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
8. What opinion does Victor have of his creation? Do you agree with his assessment of it?
He believes his creature is a wicked demon. Opinions may vary about his evaluation. One possibility is that the creature has been made wicked by society. The creature was made an outcast because of his appearance and only sought after friendship.
9. What is your reaction to the creature’s speech? Do you agree with him at all? Do you think Victor has treated him fairly?
Again, it is most likely Shelley’s intention that the reader sympathize more with the creature.
10. What does the creature threaten when Victor destroys the mate?
“I will be with you on your wedding night.”
11. What is the “calmness” Victor finds after the monster storms away?
CHAPTERS XXI AND XXII– GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
1. What is familiar about the method of the murder discovered in this chapter?
The victim has been strangled, the finger marks of the murderer clearly visible on the victim’s neck. This is very similar to William’s murder.
2. Who has been murdered, and why is Victor accused of the murder?
Henry Clerval has been murdered, and Victor is accused because witnesses saw a single man in a boat leaving the scene. The boat resembles the one in which Victor has come ashore.
3. Why does Victor think he survived all that he had been through? How is the fact that he lives ironic?
He thinks he is doomed to live. While all of his friends must die, which is usually considered the worst possible thing, he remains alive. In his case, watching everything he loves being destroyed is worse than death.
4. Victor makes several references to his destiny in this chapter. What does he believes his destiny to be?
Victor believes the creature means to kill him.
5. What does the word “torpor” mean in the following context?: “But my general state of being was a torpor, in which a prison was as welcome a residence as the divinest scene in nature”?
