Ambition, Knowledge, Discovery
“The world was to me a secret, which I desired to discover.” Who is speaking? What does the word secret suggest about his relationship with knowledge? What is he seeking?
Victor. Before Victor ever begins his experiment, he describes the pursuit of knowledge in terms of uncovering something hidden. He wants to find the secrets of nature and life.
“The beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” Identify the speaker and explain what dream means here. What was he looking for and what was the result?
Victor. Dream refers to Victor's imagined achievement and the idealized outcome he expected. He wanted a living creature. The result was horrific to him.
“I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.” Who says this? What causal claim does made establish about the impact of parental/creator relationships in the development of character? What theme is suggested that Shelley critiques?
Monster. Made presents misery as a force that transforms character. Shelley is interested in the importance of experience or biology. Nature vs. nurture.
Daily Double
“I have no friend, Margaret.” Speaker? Audience? What does this statement establish before Victor enters the narrative? Is there a theme emerging here?
Walton in letter to Margaret. Walton describes his loneliness during his Arctic expedition. Shelley is interested in the nature and impact of isolation.
“I, not in deed, but in effect, was the true murderer.” Speaker? Explain the distinction between in deed and in effect.
Victor. In deed distinguishes direct action from in effect, which points to indirect responsibility and consequences.
“Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge.” Speaker? Audience? Why does the distinction between precepts (guiding principle/moral law) and example matter? When does this quote occur?
Victor to Walton. By my example asks Walton to learn from the consequences of Victor's life, not merely accept his advice. On Walton's ship in the arctic.
“I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!—Great God!” Who is speaking? What does the repetition and abrupt exclamation (!) reveal about the gap between expectation and reality?
Victor. The reader receives the Monster's appearance through Victor's horrified perspective. Victor later describes the Monster as a “miserable monster,” language that reduces him to his appearance. What Victor expected in his monster was nothing close to his reality.
The Monster secretly observes the De Lacey family before approaching them. What does he learn from this observation that he could not learn from simply watching people at a distance? What does he learn beyond language, relationships, and basic social interaction?
He learns how affection, labor, poverty, generosity, and family bonds operate. Empathy, compassion, time, history, morality, human connection and emotion.
Walton wishes for “the company of a man who could sympathize with me.” What does sympathize mean in this context, and why is this desire important to the novel? He is surrounded by sailors, why will they not serve his needs?
Sympathy means more than physical company; Walton wants someone who can understand and share his feelings. All three central figures desire recognition, but they do not respond to loneliness in the same way.
What is the name of Victor Frankenstein's closest childhood friend?
Henry Clerval
“All the steps by which I had been progressively led to it were obliterated, and I beheld only the result.” Speaker? Explain the contrast between steps and result. Connect it to another moment in the speaker's account.
Steps suggests a process; result suggests the final achievement. The contrast exposes how completely the desired outcome has displaced faith in the process. The long process evaporates in his mind when he sees the product (result). Similar to when he is working on the female monster or his scientific obsession in university.
“I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel.” Speaker? Audience? Identify the allusion (hint: the name of the text is in our book). Why does the Monster use ought rather than simply say that he is Adam?
Monster addressing Victor. Ought expresses an expectation that has not been fulfilled. Paradise Lost. Adam suggests a created being who should receive care; the fallen angel suggests rejection and isolation. The Monster frames his violence as a consequence of Victor's failure. His grievance is real, but his argument does not by itself absolve him of responsibility for his actions.
The Monster describes being inspired by the De Laceys' goodness “to become an actor in the busy scene” of human society." What does actor suggest about his relationship to society? How does his desire play out?
Actor suggests participation rather than observation; he wants to take part in social life. He wants to be with others. His attempt to be an actor is initially successful with the blind father but when Felix returns and attacks him the Monster feels violent rejection.
“Every where I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded.” Speaker? Explain the contrast between every where and I alone. How does this language connect his isolation to the novel's treatment of society?
Monster. The contrast turns exclusion into a crippling experience: he sees happiness every where and it seems universal except for him. The Monster experiences rejection as absolute. He alone is alone. The single exception barred from experiencing happiness.
Who is accused of murdering William?
Justine Moritz
“I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit.” How does the phrase all soul or sensation make the ambition seem more dangerous than ordinary hard work? Connect it to the novel's treatment of relationships.
All and one create an opposition: every other part of his life is reduced or excluded. Dedication can produce achievement, but Victor's dedication becomes destructive when it prevents his obligations to other people. Hard work requires effort, but "losing all soul or sensation" means sacrificing human feeling, moral conscience, and physical health. His ambition isolates him from human connection. Because he ignores his loved ones while creating life, his unnatural creation ultimately destroys all of his real relationships.
“There can be no community between you and me; we are enemies.” Speaker? Audience? Why is community more significant than friendship? Connect the word to the Monster's earlier hopes.
Victor to Monster. Community suggests membership and the possibility of a relationship beyond hostility. Victor's refusal may be motivated by genuine fear of what the Monster could do, yet it also repeats the exclusion that has helped produce the conflict.
Why does the Monster approach the blind De Lacey before attempting to join the rest of the family? Give the immediate context, then explain how the scene complicates the theme of appearance versus reality in terms of character. Does the scene strengthen or condemn snap judgment?
The Monster hopes to gain a hearing from De Lacey without his physical appearance that determines the outcome (Felix attacking him). Blindness allows De Lacey to respond initially to the Monster's speech and apparent intentions. The scene condemns snap judgment based on appearance.
Compare Walton's “I have no friend” with Victor's description of his secret work as taking place in “a solitary chamber, or rather cell.” What does cell suggest that chamber does not? How do the two characters' isolation differ? Why is Victor lonely? Why is Walton lonely?
Walton describes his loneliness; Victor describes the secluded place where he works on the Monster. Cell suggests confinement, separation, secrecy, making Victor's laboratory seem almost like a prison or unholy space and he is alone because of his ambition. Walton is lonely because of his environment.
What is the name of Victor's father?
Alphonse Frankenstein
“Be steady to your purposes, and firm as a rock.” Speaker? Audience? What contradiction emerges? Does the speaker's ending represent wisdom, self-deception, or hypocrisy?
Victor to Walton's crew. The first statement comes in Victor's final reflections; the second is his attempt to persuade Walton's sailors not to abandon their expedition. Victor recognizes the damage caused by ambition but still speaks in the language of heroic persistence. Even on his deathbed, he cannot fully abandon his obsession with glory, projecting his tragic mistake onto the crew and calling their reasonable desire for survival "cowardice." Also wisdom - his words capture a romantic ideal of bravery - that great achievements require perseverance through hardship.
Daily Double
“You are my creator, but I am your master;—obey!” Speaker? Audience? Explain how the word master reverses the original relationship. When does this quote appear in the novel?
Monster to Victor. Creator establishes Victor's original authority; master asserts the Creature's new power over him. This appears after Victor fails his duty to the Monster in creating a mate.
“If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear.” Speaker? Audience? How does the contrast between love and fear reveal a change in strategy? Does it also reveal a change in someone's deepest desire? How has the speaker's approach changed?
Monster to Victor. He explains to Victor how his experience of rejection has led him toward revenge. Earlier, he hoped to enter human society; later, he uses violence to force Victor's attention. His desire for recognition persists, but he now seeks it through domination and suffering.
Walton seeks a sympathetic friend; Victor tells Walton his life story; the Monster tells Victor his own story. What does Shelley accomplish by nesting these accounts inside one another? How does the frame story function?
Each narrator asks another person - and ultimately the reader - to listen to a particular account of his experience. The reader encounters the Monster first through Victor's fear and judgment, then hears the Monster's own account of his development. Mirroring - all three have similar destructive habits. Multiple perspectives and subjectivity (who is the real victim?). Dramatic irony - a web of warnings through the lens of another character!
Who is M. Waldman?
A professor of chemistry at Ingolstadt who encourages Victor's scientific interests.