What a Character
Creature Comforts
Kontextual Kairos
The Critical Shelley
Ad Victor-iam
100

The true murderer of Victor's younger brother

Who is the Creature?

100

The Creature is inspired by this classic English poem, seeing himself in the character of Satan

What is Paradise Lost?

100

Frankenstein is arguably the first example of this genre

What is science fiction?

100

"The ancient teachers of [science]...promise impossibilities, and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little...[and] have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature, and show how she works in her hiding-places." (49)

Who is Francis Bacon?

100

The novel begins with Victor pursuing the Creature in this frosty climate

What is the Arctic?

200

Victor and Elizabeth are in love with each other despite being related to each other in this way

What are adoptive siblings?

200

The Creature hunts down Frankenstein in Volume II so he can demand this of his creator

What is a bride?

200

Mary Shelley wrote the novel after this tragic event in her life

What is a miscarriage?

200

"Chance -- or, rather, the evil influence, the Angel of Destruction, which asserted omnipotent sway over me from the moment I turned all my reluctant steps from my father's door -- led me first to M. Krempe, professor of natural philosophy." (47)

Who is Machiavelli?

200

Victor pursues studies in this dangerous, ancient field at the University of Ingolstadt

What is natural philosophy? 

300

An old friend of the Frankenstein family, possibly in love with Victor, who is wrongly executed on charges of having killed Victor's younger brother 

Who is Justine?

300
The blind man who unknowingly teaches the Creature how to read

Who is De Lacey?

300

Mary Shelley was deeply critical of this intellectual movement within Western society, which celebrated human reason

What is the Scientific Revolution and/or the Enlightenment?

300

"She instructed her daughter in the tenets of her religion and taught her to aspire to higher powers of intellect and an independence of spirit forbidden to the female followers of [this religion]."

What is Islam?

300

Victor is convinced of the Creature's innocence when the Creature promises to do this

What is to depart from society and live in solitude?
400

Frankenstein's childhood friend, who finds helps Frankenstein recover his health after he created the Monster 

Who is Clerval?

400

ACTIVITY: In three minutes, work with your team to identify the Creature's rationale for his evil behavior. [You can use your books.]

Instructor's discretion

400
Mary Shelley, her husband Percy, and Lord Byron were three major figures in this movement, which emphasized human emotion and a return to nature

What is Romanticism?

400

"These were men to whose indefatigable zeal modern philosophers were indebted for most of the foundations of their knowledge. ... The labors of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind." (50)

Who are the ancients?

400
Victor takes inspiration in creating the Creature from these ancient figures

Who are Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus? 

500

The daughter of a "Turk" and a "Christian Arab," this character's education in French is how the Monster becomes literate

Who is Safie?

500

Name three of the crimes the Creature commits in Volume II

What is murder of a child?/What is arson?/What is framing an individual for murder?

500

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein as part of a friendly writing competition. One of the other participants in this competition wrote the first modern story featuring this supernatural creature.

What is a vampire?

500

ACTIVITY: In five minutes, work with your groups to compare Shelley's view of the human person to Machiavelli's. Are human beings, for Shelley, by nature evil? Use textual evidence. [You can use your books.]

Instructor's discretion

500

ACTIVITY: In five minutes, consider: if Victor was a hero in an ancient tragedy, what would be his hamartia? Present your argument to the class. Use textual evidence. [You can use your books.]

Instructor discretion

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