Frankenstein Study Guide

Where did Victor gather the materials for the experiments that he describes in these chapters?

Slaughterhouses, dissecting rooms, and vaults

In ch. 11, how do the people in the first village that the creature visits react to him

Some attack him and others run away in fear

Why is Henry Clerval an important character?

He is Victor's best friend

How tall did Victor want his new creation to be?

8 ft

In ch. 16, what does the creature do after Felix and Agatha reject him?

Burn down the cottage

How does Victor react to the creature's movement?

He feels sick and runs away from it

In ch. 12, what is one way that the creature shows a sense of morality?

He stops stealing food from the family in the cottage because he realizes they are poor.

In ch. 11, what is NOT one of the ways the creature satisfied his basic needs shortly after he came to life

He used a wild horse for transportation

In chapter 2, why did Victor initially want to find the "elixir of life"?

He wanted to banish disease from the human body.

In ch. 15, what does the creature see himself having in common with Satan (as he is portrayed in Paradise Lost)

He was envious of others.

In ch. 16, what event further confirms the creature's hatred of humans?

He was shot when he tried to save a girl from drowning

In ch. 13, what is NOT a reason that the creature lists for being powerless in society?

His lack of formal education

In ch. 11, what is NOT one of the human activities that the creature learns about from the family in the cottage

Hunting

In ch. 15, the specific questions that the creature puzzled over were mainly centered on what topic?

Identity

What is not a characteristic of the creature?

Pearly white teeth

What does Victor say a "human being in perfections" out to do?

Preserve a calm and peaceful mind

In ch. 15, what does the creature expect De Lacey to do when he approaches him?

Reserve his judgment

In ch. 12, what terrified the creature?

Seeing his own reflection

In ch. 14, besides wanting to be with Felix, why did Safie not want to live with her father in Turkey?

She didn't want to be constrained as a woman in a Muslim country.

"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." ( referring to the moon)

Speaker/context: Monster Meaning/significance: This is when the monster sees the moon for the first time

"The tortures of the accused did not equal mine; she was sustained by innocence, but the fangs of remorse tore at my bosom, and would not forego their hold."

Speaker/context: This is Victor speaking after Justine is convicted for William's murder. Meaning/Significance: Victor is saying that the remorse and guilt he is feeling is worse than what Justine is experiencing. He feels horrible that his creation was responsible for the murder. This is significant because his guilt for creating the monster only gets worse from here.

"I, the miserable and abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on."

Speaker/context: This is the creature speaking about Victor abandoning him. Meaning/Significance: Victor represents the creature's parent, so when he abandoned him and wanted to destroy him it was like an abortion. The creature sees himself as a useless piece of trash. This is significant because the creature hates Victor for this and it's what causes him to destroy everything

"Was I, then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?"

Speaker/context: This is the creature speaking about how everyone hates him and his appearance. Meaning/Significance: The creature realizes that everyone hates him because he looks like a monster. This is significant because now the creature feels bad about himself and it affects his actions.

"We called each other familiarly by the name of cousin. No word, no expression could body forth the kind of relation in which she stood to me—my more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only."

Speaker/context: Victor Meaning/Significance: Elizabeth was always meant to marry victor, and he loved her more than a sister since her joining of the family.

"But I am a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my soul; and I felt that I should survive to exhibit what I shall soon cease to be—a miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others and intolerable to myself."

Speaker/context: Victor Meaning/significance: Victor seeing the lightning bolt hit the tree so long ago. He means that he is not the man he used to be- peaceful, content, and happy. He is now miserable, "Wrecked," and hateful to himself

"Before I come on board your vessel, will you have the kindness to inform me whither you are bound?"

Speaker/context: Victor Frankenstein Meaning/Significance: Victor is asking Walton where he is voyaging because he is trying to make it to the North Pole even though he is about to die

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."

Speaker/context: Victor found something too good to be true Meaning/Significance: Frankenstein equates his discovery of creating life to Sinbad's epic escape from death. Frankenstein's "light" (discovering the secret to life) ultimately leads to his destruction.

Unhappy man! Do you share my madness? Have you drunk also the intoxicating draught?"

Speaker/context: Victor says this after Walton tells him what he is doing. Meaning/Significance: Victor says this because he himself was "mad" for knowledge and he "drank the intoxicating draught." It is significant because it begins Victor's narrative about why Walron should not be searching for knowledge.

"I had resolved in my own mind that to create another like the fiend I had first made would be an act of the basest and most atrocious selfishness."

Speaker/context: Victor says this while contemplating whether he should make another creature or not. Meaning/Significance: Victor realizes and comes to the decision that making another creature would be too dangerous to society and he thinks it would only be helping himself from the creature hurting him. This is significant because this just makes the creature want to kill everyone more.

"Seek happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries."

Speaker/context: Walton recounts Victor's warning on the dangers on ambition by "[seeking] happiness in tranquility" Meaning/significance: Walton is feeling sympathy for Victor and his experiences creating Frankenstein.

What may not be expected in a country of eternal light?"

Speaker/context: Walton says this as he prepares to travel to the North Pole Meaning/Significance: This quote means that Walton sees the NP as light and light symbolizes discovery and opportunity. This quote is significant because it shows how hopeful and naive Walton if before Victor tells him his story.

In chapter 3, what does Victor say led him to M. Krempe, the professor of natural philosophy at his university?

The angel of destruction

How does Victor's social life at college change?

Victor's best friend, Henry Clerval, enrolls at the college.

What best paraphrases the "bold question" that fascinated Victor as he progressed in his studies? *

Where did life come from?

In ch. 15, what out of the following does Adam (as he is portrayed in Paradise Lost) have that the creature desires?

a mate