Name:______
Frankenstein Study Guide
English 9H -- Humanities
Terms to define:
- epistolatory novel
- frame story
- verisimilitude
Allusions to note:
- Who is Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and what significance does an albatross have for him?
- Who is Dante Alighieri? What is a “circle of hell”?
- What is the story of Prometheus and fire?
Title Page – Alternate title and Epigraph
1. To what does “the modern Prometheus” allude?
2. The quotation from Paradise Lost is spoken by Adam as he and Eve are expelled from the garden of Eden. What attitude does Adam express in these lines? If Frankenstein is a modern Prometheus, to which character in the novel might these lines apply – and what do they imply about Shelley’s opinion of her protagonist?
Study Questions for Letters 1-4 (pp. 17-32)
1. How does the first sentence of the letter establish the mood of the novel?
2. What, literally, is the “country of eternal light” on p. 15? What other meaning is implied by that phrase?
3. Describe the journey Walton is on and the preparations he made for the journey.
4. What in Walton’s descriptions of his travels and his ideals identifies him as a Romantic?
5. What does Walton most desire?
6. What does he mean when he states, “I will kill no albatross?” (p. 21)
7. Contrast the strange figure on the dog sled (25) with the man that Walton finds dying on the ice.
8. Describe the circumstances under which Walton encounters his mysterious stranger. What is it about the stranger that Captain Walton finds so interesting?
9. The “stranger” at one point asks Walton if he too “has drunk from the intoxicating drink” (p. 29). Explain this quotation.
10. Mary Shelley frames her novel with letters from Walton to his sister at the beginning and the end. What is the effect of this framing technique?
Quotes to identify (speaker, meaning, significance)
P. 24: What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?
Frankenstein Study Guide
Study Questions for Volume 1, Chapters 1-4
1. Describe the circumstances under which Frankenstein’s parents meet and fall in love. Is this a relationship of equals? And what in this relationship reinforces the theme of the danger of human pride?
2. On p. 35, Frankenstein discusses the philosophy that guides his parents as they raise him. How would you describe his childhood? What does he seem to think is essential in the attitude of a parent towards its child?
3. How does Elizabeth Lavenza become a part of the Frankenstein family? Some writers have criticized Mary Shelley for what they see as a very classist – almost racist – and certainly sexist attitude as evidenced through her portrayal of Elizabeth. Can you find any evidence for this accusation?
4. Compare and contrast Victor and his friend, Henry Clerval.
5. Identify Cornelius Agrippa. (No Harry Potter references necessary!) Why does he appeal to Frankenstein? How does Frankenstein imply that his father is to blame for what later would become a very unhealthy understanding of science – and how does this accusation tie in with our class’s discussion of knowledge?
6. When he was fifteen, what did Frankenstein see that made him doubt that the ancient philosophers who had so intrigued him could ever provide real knowledge?
7. What happens to the tree in chapter two – and what might be the symbolic meaning behind this act?
8. Describe Frankenstein’s relationships with Professors Krempe and Waldman. What impact do Professor Waldman’s words have on Frankenstein?
9. What kind of experiments does Frankenstein engage in when he returns home?
10. Frankenstein breaks his narrative briefly to comment on the “secret” he has discovered, and his listener’s interest in hearing that secret. What is Frankenstein’s comment on this issue?
11. What do Frankenstein’s outward appearance and his relationship with nature in chapter 4 tell us about his thirst for knowledge – what is it doing to him?
12. How is technology presented in these chapters? Is this in keeping with Romantic attitudes? Explain.
Frankenstein Study Guide
Study Questions Volume 1, Chapters 5-8
1. How is setting used at the beginning of chapter 5 to set the mood?
2. Describe Frankenstein’s monster.
a. What is Frankenstein’s immediate reaction to his creation, and on what is this reaction founded?
b. Is there anything in the behavior of the monster to suggest its personality? Is Frankenstein’s reaction justified?
c. What is a golem? How does or doesn’t this monster resemble one?
3. Why do you think Mary Shelley doesn’t describe the actual creation of the monster?
4. Who is Dante, and why is he referenced in conjunction with Frankenstein’s description of the monster?
5. Frankenstein’s meeting with Clerval is significant at this point in the novel. How does Clerval’s treatment of Frankenstein contrast with Frankenstein’s treatment of the monster? Who has a greater moral obligation?
6. Does the story of Justine’s background have any similarity to Elizabeth’s story? To Mary Shelley’s? What role does education play in Justine’s life?
7. Whom does Victor think killed William, and why? What elements surrounding this revelation are Gothic/symbolic?
8. How does Frankenstein justify not coming to Justine’s aid?
9. What comment does Shelley make on the justice system (note the significance of Justine’s name!)
10. Why, in the archetypal sense, must William be killed?
11. Note any Romantic elements you encounter in these chapters.
Frankenstein Study Guide
Study Questions
Volume II, Ch. 1-4
1. How does Frankenstein – a true Romantic – seek solace after Justine’s death?
2. Why do you think Romantics saw a connection between God and nature – how was nature designed to make you feel? Pay attention to Frankenstein’s response in Chapter 1.
3. How does the weather in Chapter 2 indicate Frankenstein’s mood and foreshadow the chapter’s later events?
4. What is the symbolic significance of Montanvert and Mont Blanc in this chapter?
5. Why doesn’t Victor kill the monster immediately?
6. Whose response is more rational – Frankenstein, or the monster? Explain.
7. The monster says, “Remember, that I am thy creature: I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.” (103). Why is this quotation significant?
8. Contrast the monster’s “upbringing” with Frankenstein’s.
9. What does the monster learn from observing the family?
10. How are we made to sympathize with the monster?
Quotes to identify (speaker, meaning, significance):
p. 101: “How dare you sport thus…mankind?...(p. 103) Remember that I am thy creature…I shall again be virtuous.”
p. 109 – “Here I then retreated….barbarity of man.”
p. 118: “Happy, happy earth!...anticipations of joy.”
Frankenstein Study Guide
Study Questions
Volume II, Ch. 5-9
1. What is the ideal family – the environment it creates, the attributes it exhibits, the role it fulfills – presented by Shelley in this novel? Consider the Frankenstein family, the DeLaceys. How do these families contrast with the relationship between Frankenstein and the Creature? How do they compare or contrast with Shelley’s own family?
2. Shelley also offers us several pairs of male-female bondings: Victor’s parents; Victor and Elizabeth, and Felix and Safie. What do these pairs have in common, and what might Shelley be saying about the role human relationship plays in our quality of life?
3. Another common element in Shelley’s novel is that of injustice. As in the case with Justine, the DeLaceys suffer at the hands of the legal system. Explain the circumstances of their case and highlight any commonalities between their case and that of Justine/Elizabeth’s father.
4. What books does the creature read, and what does he learn from each? What impact does learning have on the creature’s understanding of life and image of himself?
5. Contrast the DeLacey’s reaction to the creature before and after they see him. Should he expect a better reception from them than he has received from other people? Why or why not?
6. What is your reaction to the action the creature takes with the Delaceys?
7. Why does Shelley include the scene with the little girl?
8. Do you have any sympathy for the creature after you hear his accounts of the death of William and the framing of Justine? Where did the creature say he learned this approach to life? Explain.
9. Should Frankenstein cooperate with the creature’s demand? Why or why not?
Do you have more sympathy for the creature or for Frankenstein at the end of Part II? Explain your answer
Quotations: Identify speaker, context, significance:
1) p. 133. “Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous…solitary and abhorred.”
2) P. 143 – “This was the reward of my benevolence!...eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind.”
3) P. 145 – “Thanks to the lessons of Felix and the sanguinary laws of man…mischief.”
4) P. 150 – “My vices are the children…with an equal.”
Frankenstein Study Guide
Study Guide
Vol. III, Ch. 1-3
For each of the following quotations, identify the speaker, the context, and the significance.
1. “I was bound by a solemn promise, which I had not yet fulfilled and dared not break;…Could I enter into a festival with this deadly weight yet hanging round my neck and bowing me to the ground?” (155)
2. “…I enjoyed this scene, and yet my enjoyment was embittered both by the memory of the past, and the anticipation of the future…But I am a blasted tree…pitiable to others, and intolerable to myself.” (165)
3. “Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension…I am your master—Obey!” (172)
4. “I will be with you on your wedding night!” (163)
5. “I now felt as if a film had been taken from before my eyes and that I, for the first time, saw clearly…different conclusion. “(175)
1. Describe Frankenstein’s new project and the location he chooses. How does this experiment contrast with the energy, the emotion, and the activity of his last experiment?
2. How does the creature’s request fit into the “creation allegory” archetype we see developing in this novel?
3. Does Frankenstein make the right choice?
Study Questions
Vol. III, Ch. 4-7 (including letters)
For each chapter, complete at least two double-entry journal passages. The passages you choose should be quoted in its entirety, include the page number, and do one of the following:
o Pick up on one of the themes we’ve been following (knowledge, education, responsibility)
o Show how setting once again reflects character action
o Develop one of the allusions/allegorical structures seen in the novel
o Identify a Gothic or Romantic element in the novel
o Explain or highlight an important plot point or character change.