Theme
List 3 themes that recur throughout the novel
Nature, Monstrosity, Ambition, Revenge, Knowledge, etc.
Compare and contrast Victor and the Creature.
Answers may vary.
The Creature is often self-deprecating and alone. Victor is proud with a family that supports him.
Both are intelligent and seek revenge.
“God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance. Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred.”
The creature envies even Satan, who has a league of demons to keep him company. The creature’s main source of anger stems from his loneliness, which contributes to his threat against Victor.
I am compassionate and take pity on Victor. I inform Victor that his release is probable. I also let Victor know his father has arrived to visit. Later, I will tell Victor that his search for the true murderer is not likely.
Who is Mr. Kerwin?
What image sets Victor off into a fit of rage, thus tearing apart the female creature?
Victor sees the smiling face of his creation illuminated by lightning in the window of his cottage.
The influence of nature on mood is evident throughout. Provide a moment where either the creature or Victor have chance of of spiritual healing or renewal.
Mired in depression and remorse after the deaths of William and Justine, for which he feels responsible, Victor heads to the mountains to lift his spirits. Likewise, after a hellish winter of cold and abandonment, the monster feels his heart lighten as spring arrives.
How does the creature discover his own monstrous appearance?
He sees his reflection in a pool of water.
“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… It moved slowly, but it enlightened my path.” (p. 85, referring to the moon)
Once again light represents knowledge. The creature gets an inversion of this, as he is illuminated not by the sun’s light, but by the moon.Conversely, the creature is oppressed by light and so it acts as a source of pain.
A tall and dangerous creature tried to adopt me while I was playing. When I explained my family were the Frankensteins, the creature was enraged and killed me!
Who is William Frankenstein?
"The feelings of kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth. Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind.”
After saving the girl from the stream (showing the creature’s instinctive goodness), he is punished once again. This is the last straw that turns his actions toward evil.
One of the many themes in this story is Revenge. Why does the monster want revenge? List at least two reasons.
he Monster hates Frankenstein for abandoning him after his creation. The Monster is also angry with Frankenstein for making the Monster the only one of his kind. The Monster also feels hatred and envy for the whole human race because humans have treated him unfairly because of his appearance.
Why does the creature put the necklace in the folds of Justine’s dress?
He envies her for her beauty and wishes to frame her for William’s death.
“I had resolved in my own mind that that to create another like the fiend I had first made would be an act of the basest and most atrocious selfishness.”
Finally thinking of others, Victor reasons that he is creating the female monster purely to save his own skin. He refuses, for the good of humanity, but sacrificing his own happiness in the act.
I am kind and caring gentlemen; however, I was brutally murdered by an 8ft monster with yellow skin and black teeth. My dear friend, Victor, was framed for my death.
Who is Henry Clerval?
What were some of the reasons Victor considers stopping his second creation?
“She might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate, and delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness.”
“He had sworn to quit the neighborhood of man and hide himself in deserts; but she had not; and she, who in all probability was to become a thinking and reasoning animal, might refuse to comply with a compact made before her creation.”
“They might even hate each other; the creature who already lived, loathed his own deformity; and might he not conceive a greater abhorrence for it when it came before his eyes in the female form?”
“She also might turn with disgust from him to the superior beauty of man; she might quit him, and he be again alone, exasperated by the fresh provocation of being deserted by one of his own species.”
“…yet one of the first results of those sympathies for which the demon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth, who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror.”
One of the many themes in this story is Monstrosity. How is Victor a perfect representation of this theme?
One can argue that Victor himself is a kind of monster, as his ambition, secrecy, and selfishness alienate him from human society. Ordinary on the outside, he may be the true “monster” inside, as he is eventually consumed by an obsessive hatred of his creation often causing him to go mad.
How does the creature learn the story of his own creation?
He discovers Victor’s papers describing his experiments in the pocket of his coat, which the creature stole from his laboratory before leaving.
Examine the following quote: “I shall be with you on your wedding night.”
What is the creature’s promise after Victor tears apart the female creature?
My mother was a slave and I am an outcast. My love, Felix, is educating me so that I may live out my mother's dreams.
Who is Saphie?
What are the three books that the creature discovers?
Paradise Lost, Sorrows of Werter, and Plutarch’s Lives
Provide two examples from the novel so far that demonstrate the novel’s use of light as a symbol for knowledge
Walton describes the land of the North Pole as a “country of eternal light” and marvels at the opportunities for knowledge and exploration in that area.
When the creature first comes into being he describes his experiences of seeing light, both sunlight and moonlight.
The creature’s first experience with fire (associated with light) first warms him, then burns him, teaching him that getting too close to light, or knowledge, can be dangerous.
Frankenstein’s describes himself on his search for reanimation of life as being lost in the dark and searching for light. “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.”
How is the creature both like Adam and Satan from Paradise Lost?
The creature is like Adam in that he was created one of a kind and knows the loneliness that Adam must have experienced before the creation of Eve. He is like Satan in that he was created to be beloved by his creator in his image but fell from his grace as Satan did.
Examine the following quote: “I was benevolent and good, misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous. (Creature)” What is noteworthy about this?
This quote shows the creature’s flawed understanding of ethics. He believes that happiness causes goodness. This quote explains that while he was happy, he did good deeds, but because he has become unhappy he acts evil, then demands a creature to make him happy, so he will once again be good.
We are an innocent and poor family who live in a cottage. We encountered a terrible creature who attacked our ailing father. Who are we? (Name the two characters beside the unnamed old man.)
Who are Felix and Agatha
List at least 3 characteristics of a Byronic Hero.
Conflicting emotions or madness
Distaste for social institutions or norms
Being an exile, outcast, or rebel
A lack of respect for rank and privilege
A troubled past
Self-destructive tendencies