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FRANKENSTEIN Study Guide
Letters 1-4
1.
Who is
writing Letter 1 (and all the letters)?
2.
To whom is
he writing? What is their relationship?
3.
Where is
Robert Walton when he writes Letter 1? Why is he there? What
are his plans?
4.
What does
Robert Walton tell us about himself?
5.
Where is
Walton now? What do you think of Walton's question "What can stop
the determined heart and
resolved will of man"?
6.
How much
time has elapsed between Letter 3 and Letter 4? What "strange
accident" has happened to the sailors?
7.
Why does
the man picked up by the ship say he is there? What shape is
he in?
8.
What sort
of person does he seem to be? How does Walton respond to this man?
9.
How much
time has elapsed when Walton begins writing again? What has happened
in the meantime? How does the man respond to Walton's
project? How is Walton responding to the man?
10.
How much
time has elapsed when Walton begins writing again ? What has
happened in the meantime? How does the man respond to Walton's
project? Why does the man agree to tell his story?
Ch
1- 5
11.
What is
the man's background? (Do we know his name yet?) Where is he from?
12.
What is
the story of the man's mother, Caroline Beaufort? How does
the man feel toward his parents, and what responsibilities does he
feel they
had toward him?
13.
Who is
Elizabeth Lavenza and what is her story? What gift does the
man's mother give him? Do we know the man's name yet? Do we know
his
family name?
14.
Who is
Henry Clerval and what is his relation to Victor?
15.
How does
Victor characterize the interests and characters of Clerval,
Elizabeth, and himself ?
16.
Who is
Cornelius Agrippa and how does Victor find out about him ? How does
Victor's father respond, and how does Victor comment on that
response?
17.
What sort
of science ("Natural Philosophy") is Victor learning from Agrippa,
Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus? How would a modern scientist
respond to this sort of thinking?
18.
What
happens when Victor sees an oak tree destroyed by lightning and
hears an explanation? What does Victor then begin to study?
19.
Who or
what does he credit for this change in direction ? Who or what does
he blame for his "utter and terrible destruction" ?
20.
What
happens to Elizabeth and to Victor's mother as a result of
Elizabeth's scarlet fever ? How does this compare with the mother's
early history ?
21.
Why does
Victor's father send him to the university of Ingolstadt ? How old
is Victor then? (Ingolstadt is in southern Germany, in Bavaria, on
the
Danube, 43 miles north of Munich. The university
founded there in 1472 moved to Landshut in 1802 and to Munich in
1826.)
22.
What does
Victor learn from M. Krempe? How does Victor respond to him,
and on what grounds? Is this a good basis for making such a
decision? (
23.
What does
Victor learn from M. Waldman? How does Victor respond to him?
How does Victor think of his older science as opposed to modern
science ? What does M. Waldman say in describing
modern chemistry that changes Victor's mind ? What does Victor say
he will now do ?
24.
How well
does Victor progress during the next two years? What does he then
become interested in, and what ultimately does he discover ?
25.
Will he
share that knowledge with Walton? Why? (Note the "present" of the
telling breaking through the narration here.)
26.
How does
he go about creating a human being, and what does he expect as a
result of this creation ? How long does the task take? What
happens
to Victor in the process?
27.
Do you
recognize the opening words of this chapter? Remember that Shelley
gave them as the starting point of her story ?
28.
Given all
the mad doctor and monster movies we've seen, including perhaps
versions of Frankenstein, what is unexpected about the
description of
the actual creation of life here ? How much do we
learn of the actual procedure?
29.
How does
Victor respond to the actual creation of life ? What surprises him
about the way the creature he has brought to life looks? What
does that
do to Victor's response ?
30.
What does
Victor dream ? How does the dream grow out of, comment on, even
explain what Victor has done and been through?
31.
What does
the creature do ? How does Victor respond?
32.
Whom does
Victor meet arriving in a coach the next morning ? How does Victor
respond? What does Victor discover when they go to Victor's
apartment ? How does Victor respond? What happens
to him, and for how long ? Is there any more news of the creature?
Ch
6-8
33.
What is
waiting for Victor when he finally recovers? Who has nursed him
during his illness?
34.
Who is
Justine Moritz and what is her story? What comments does
Elizabeth make about her position in Swiss society ? What religion
is Justine ?
35.
Who is
William and how old is he? Have we heard of him before?
36.
What does
Victor do after his recovery ? What is Clerval's "plan of life" ?
37.
When does
Victor finally plan to return home? What do he and Clerval do while
waiting for his father's directions?
38.
What is
waiting for Victor when he returns to his apartment? What news does
his father have for him? And what is his father's name ? How does
Victor respond?
39.
How long
has Victor been away from home ? What happens the night he returns
to Geneva ? How does he respond?
40.
Whom does
Victor see that night ? When was the last time they saw each other?
How long ago was that ?
41.
What does
Victor now believe happened to William ? What does Victor assume
about the nature of the creature?
42.
Who has
been identified as the murderer, and on what evidence ? How does
Victor respond to this news? Why doesn't he say anything about the
real murderer?
43.
What
happens at Justine's trial? How does Victor respond?
44.
The next
day, why does Justine say she has confessed to the murder of William
? How does Victor respond to Justine's situation and to Elizabeth's
anguish? |