Theme
Where do both Frankenstein and his monster retreat to when scorned or overwhelmed?
Nature
What allusion is made within the full title of Frankenstein?
An allusion to Prometheus
“My heart palpitated in the sickness of fear; and I hurried on with irregular steps, not daring to look about me:— Like one who, on a lonely road, Doth walk in fear and dread, And, having once turned round, walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.”
Allusion to Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
What major theme is the novel wrapped in? (Deals with Victor and his work)
Secrecy
Sweet and beloved Elizabeth! I read and re-read her letter and some softened feelings stole into my heart and dared to whisper paradisiacal dreams of love and joy; but the apple was already eaten, and the angel’s arm bared to drive me from all hope.
Eve's banishment from Paradise
John Milton's Paradise Lost
What are both Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton's crusades in pursuit of?
Knowledge
What is the allusion made on the title page?
"Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / To mould me Man, did I solicit thee / From darkness to promote me?"
Allusion to John Milton's Paradise Lost
"Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but his state was far different from mine in every other respect. He had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy and prosperous, guarded by the especial care of his Creator"
John Milton's Paradise Lost
What does Victor denote attribute his failures to?
Dangerous Ambition
“Soon a gentle light stole over the heavens and gave me a sensation of pleasure. I started up and beheld a radiant form rise from among the trees. I gazed with a kind of wonder. It moved slowly, but it enlightened my path; and I again went out in search of berries.”
Nature
What causes the self-destruction of both Frankenstein and his monster?
Isolation/Alienation
What bible story is referred to within chapter 10?
Allusion to Genesis with the monster referring to himself as Frankenstein's Adam.
“He tried to make us act plays, and to enter into masquerades, in which the characters were drawn from the heroes of Roncesvalles, of the Round Table of King Arthur, and the chivalrous train who shed their blood to redeem the holy sepulcher from the hands of the infidels.”
This quote contains two allusions: one is to the medieval French hero and military leader Roland, who died at Roncesvalles, and the second is to King Arthur, the legendary King of Britain, and his Knights of the Round Table.
“I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind?”
Alienation/Isolation
But I was enchanted by the appearance of the hut: here the snow and rain could not penetrate; the ground was dry; and it presented to me then as exquisite and divine a retreat as Pandæmonium appeared to the dæmons of hell after their sufferings in the lake of fire.
Milton's Paradise Lost
What is the driving force of the novel?
Revenge
What is the meaning to the second allusion made within chapter 10?
Allusion to "We Are As Clouds"
Any answer works here, an allusion is left up to the interpretation of the reader.
“I was like the Arabian who had been buried with the dead, and found a passage to life, aided only by one glimmering, and seemingly ineffectual, light.”
This is an allusion to the Arabian sailor Sinbad of The Thousand and One Nights.
The die is cast; I have consented to return if we are not destroyed.
This is an allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” when the figures Death and Life-in-Death cast dice for the mariner regarding his fate.
"Frankenstein! you belong then to my enemy--to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim."
Revenge
What is the novel steeped in? (Affects both Frankenstein and the wretch)
Monstrosity
What is the allusion made in chapter 5?
Allusion to Dante's Divine Comedy
“I loved my brothers, Elizabeth, and Clerval; these were “old familiar faces;” but I believed myself totally unfit for the company of strangers.”
This is an allusion to the Romantic writer Charles Lamb’s poem “The Old Familiar Faces.”
“All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!”
Monstrosity
"Man,” I cried, “how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom! Cease; you know not what it is you say."
These words are an allusion to Jesus’s proclamation to God before his crucifixion during which he asks, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”