Frankenstein: Chapter 7

On way to Geneva, Victor is seized by an irrational fear. What was the fear and what does Victor do?

Certain that further disaster awaits him at home, he lingers for a few days at Lausanne. Summoning his course, Victor sets out again.

Who expressed sympathies for Victor's brother and who helps Victor to order the horses for his journey?

Clerval

When Elizabeth examined the corpse, what did she find?

Elizabeth finds the locket gone; she swoons at the thought that William was murdered for the bauble

On the day of the murder, what did Elizabeth allow the boy to wear?

Elizabeth had allowed the boy to wear an antique locket bearing Caroline's picture

Victor, after seeing what he saw lurking among the skeletal trees, longs to pursue the creature and warn his family of the danger the creature represents. But his fears take over. What were his fears? And what does he end up doing?

He fears that he will be taken for a madman if he tells his fantastic story, however, and thus resolves to keep silent.

At the Frankenstein estate, Victor is greeted with a melancholy affection by whom and what news did he have?

His brother, Ernest, relates a piece of shocking news: Justine, the family's trusted maidservant, has been accused of William's murder.

Despite his joy at being reunited with Geneva, what returns to Victor?

His fear.

When Victor arrived at night, in the midst of a severe thunderstorm, what does he see?

Suddenly, a flash of lightning illuminates a figure lurking among the skeletal trees; its gigantic stature betrays it as Frankenstein's prodigal creature. At the sight of the "demon," Victor becomes absolutely certain that he is William's murder: only a monster could take the life of so angelic a boy.

Who believes in Justine's innocence?

The family -particularly Elizabeth -- passionately believes in her innocence, and avers that their suffering will only be magnified if Justine is punished for the crime. They all dread Justine's trial, which is scheduled to take place at eleven o'clock on the same day.

On an evening walk with the family, the boy apparently disappeare3d and was found dead when?

The following morning

Compare and contrast what the day looked like at the time of Victor's brother's murder with what greeted Victor when he arrived at night.

The lightning storm that greets Victor is a staple of Gothic narrative. It evokes the classical (not to mention clichéd) preamble to any ghost story: "It was a dark and stormy night..." It also reflects the state of imbalance and chaos in which Victor finds his family. Though William's murder is described as taking place on an idyllic day in spring, it is chill and stormy when Victor arrives shortly thereafter.

Where was the missing locket found?

The missing locket was found on her person on the night of the murder.

Letters, in general, play a central role in the novel: it begins and ends with a series of letters, and many important details of plot and character are related through them. For what purpose is this done by Shelley?

They enable Shelley (who has, for the most part, committed herself to Victor's first-person narration) to allow the voices of other characters to interrupt and alter Victor's highly subjective account of the novel's events.

At Ingolstadt, what do Victor and Henry receive? And from whom?

They receive a letter from Victor's father, William, that Victor's youngest brother was murdered.

The account of William's death is written in highly disjointed language: the sentences are long, and frequently are interrupted by semicolons, as though each thought is spilling into another. Why do you think this is so?

This indicates the magnitude of the distress felt by the narrator's father as he writes.

Victor's reaction to the letter reveals a great deal about his character. How?

Though he is wracked with grief, his thoughts soon turn to his own anxiety at returning to his home after so long an absence. His selfabsorption begins to seem impenetrable to the reader.

What happens to Victor at the sight of his native city?

Victor is moved to tears at the site of his native city, since his estrangement from it has been so prolonged.

What does the father implore Victor to do?

Victor's father implores him to come home immediately, saying that his presence will help to soothe the ravaged household

Upon seeing the creature through Frankenstein's eyes, the reader is inclined to jump to the same conclusion that he does. Which is what?

Victor's hatred of the creature reaches an almost hysterical pitch in this scene, as is indicated by his diction: he refers to his creation as a "deformity," a "wretch," a "filthy demon." The reader, too, immediately wishes to blame the creature even though we have no real grounds for doing so. The reader is thus made subtly complicit with the creature's outcast state

Victor's uneasiness about returning to his home after such a long absence foreshadows what?

Victor's uneasiness also foreshadows the moment of horror that greets him at Geneva; the reader has come to share his distress, and is thus as horrified as he by what the lightning illuminates.

Victor's decision to keep the monster's existence a secret in order to preserve his reputation reveals him as what?

as both selfish and foolhardy. A child has been killed, and a monster brought to life: in a world so severely out of balance, Frankenstein's reputation ought be the furthest thing from his mind.