Characters & Relationships
Foreshadowing
Obsession
Nature
Ethics & Responsibility
100

This character is adopted by the Frankenstein family after being orphaned.

Who is Elizabeth?

100

Victor’s illness after creating the Creature foreshadows his later struggles with this feeling.  

What is guilt and self-reproach?

100

Victor becomes obsessed with understanding this scientific principle, which leads him to create the Creature.

What is the secret of life?

100

This setting represents Victor’s innocence and calm before his descent into obsession.

What is Geneva?

100

Victor fails to consider this before creating the Creature.

What is the moral consequence of creating life?

200

Victor’s relationship with this character highlights the importance of friendship as a source of support.

Who is Henry Clerval?

200

Victor’s early interest in this alchemist’s work foreshadows his future obsessions with dangerous knowledge.

Who is Cornelius Agrippa?

200

This particular field of study fascinates Victor and drives his research.

What is alchemy?

200

After his creation escapes, Victor finds comfort in the beauty of this mountain range.

What are the Swiss Alps?

200

Victor keeps his creation a secret, showing negligence in his moral duty to this group of people.

Who are his family and society?

300

Victor’s mother, whose death deeply affects him and shapes his ambition to defy mortality.

Who is Caroline Beaufort?

300

Victor’s feverish illness after the Creature’s creation foreshadows his later experience of this.

What is overwhelming guilt and despair?

300

Victor's obsession causes him to neglect this, leading to physical and mental deterioration.

What is his health?

300

This natural force, seen in Victor’s childhood, becomes symbolic of his desire to harness the powers of creation.

What is lightning or electricity?

300

Victor feels immense guilt and regret for the deaths of these two characters.

Who are William Frankenstein and Justine Moritz?

400

This character’s unjust death drives home the consequences of Victor’s secrecy. T

Who is Justine Moritz?

400

Victor’s nightmares about Elizabeth foreshadow this later tragic event.

What is Elizabeth’s death?

400

The Creature symbolizes this consequence of Victor’s overreaching ambition.

What is hubris or playing God? 

400

Victor frequently escapes to nature to alleviate his sense of guilt after this event.

What is William Frankenstein’s death?

400

Victor vows to do this in the future to prevent further harm from the Creature.  

What is destroy the Creature?

500

The Creature desires a relationship based on this, but is denied it at every turn.

What is companionship or empathy?

500

Victor’s dream about holding his mother’s corpse foreshadows his experiments with this theme.

What is death and reanimation?

500

Victor’s abandonment of the Creature after its creation represents this critical failure in his scientific ethics.

What is responsibility or moral foresight?

500

This natural disaster, witnessed by Victor as a teenager, sparks his curiosity in scientific phenomena.

What is a lightning destroying an oak tree?

500

The consequences of Victor’s experiment demonstrate the novel's cautionary stance on this aspect of scientific advancement.

What is unchecked ambition or overreaching the boundaries of nature?

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