Frankenstein

• What impact does the final line of chapter six have on the story thus far?

‘My own spirits were high, and I bounded along with feelings of unbridled joy and hilarity.’ – Victor feels good and has high spirits, which shows how big the change will be when he hears the bad news from his father.

• What sort of man is Victor’s father? Why is he important in the novel?

Victor’s father is caring towards his son, and is a good father figure. He is important in the novel because you would assume that if Victor had a good role model for his father that he himself would make a good one, but for some reason he isn’t and he abandons the creature.

Unstable – lack of control of his emotions.

• How does Shelley make the reappearance of the creature so dramatic?

It is after the death of William, and Victor and the readers know that the creature killed William. It is dramatic because the creature is capable of murder, and so is now much more scary and problematic. It is dramatic because Victor senses the creature more than he can see it.

• Why does the landscape and weather reflect Victor’s state of mind?

The storm reflects Victor’s state of mind because he is very upset and emotional and angry, and there are a lot of thoughts racing through his mind,

• Why doesn’t Victor tell anyone about the creature?

Because he doesn’t think people will believe him and he might be ashamed and afraid of what he has created.

• Justine could be seen as an ironic name for a character who suffers such injustice.
  Consider the significance of other names in the novel; how are they important?

Victor is ironic because it means victory or to win, but Victor is not winning because all these terrible things are happening in his life.

• Is Victor “the true murderer”?

No, but he is responsible for the creature and therefore responsible for the death of William.

• Do you sympathise with Victor in this chapter? Why / why not?

No because he is unable to tell the real truth, and he was the one that let the creature out in the first place.

2/3/20

• Describe the reunion- summarize the action.

When Victor and The Creature first meet, Victor is very violent and angry towards The Creature, while The Creature remains calm and polite. It seems as though Victor is not going to listen to what The Creature has to say until the last minute when he decides to. Volume Two then switches to the perspective of The Creature, as he explains what happened between the two years that he was created and then met Victor again.

• Reflect on how you currently view Frankenstein and The Creature. Who is ‘in the right’?

Currently I sympathise with the Creature. He has been outcast by every human who has seen him, as everyone judges him on his appearance. He acts based on his emotions, and his feelings of abandonment are the result of Frankensteins treatment to him. So therefore it makes Frankenstein in the wrong as his abandonment has caused the creature so much pain.

I do think however, that you can’t completely justify The Creature’s murder by blaming Frankenstein because we know how aware The Creature is of himself and his emotions. Maybe he doesn’t know laws of murder but he does not right from wrong and clearly has control over his impulses, and is smart enough to frame the murder, so that doesn’t make The Creature right for killing William.

• Explain what Frankenstein means when he says, “If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst and desire, we might nearly be free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows and a chance  word or scene that that word may convey to us.”

Human’s sophistication has made us so caught up in our made up society. If we were separated from this society and we just lived like animals – or cavemen, then we wouldn’t have to suffer with our abstract ideas and emotions. There would be no expectations, or money or language, and life would be very basic (hunger, thirst, desire). When Frankenstein says ‘we might nearly be free’, he is referring to both being free from society, and the freedom that comes with living so basically. We often think that we live with a lot of freedom, but we don’t realise how controlled it is (with expectations and laws).

 

• Summarize the beginning of the Creature’s life, as told from his point of view. Explain what else might experience this and consider the purpose behind the inclusion of this part of the story (what is Shelley trying to achieve).

Shelley is trying to get us to sympathise with The Creature by hearing his side of the story. Up until that point in the novel, we assume that The Creature is a murderous monster, but after hearing his perspective, we change our mind. We understand the emotions that he feels, and how his experiences lead him to killing William.

•  Before he is very old, the Creature has two negative encounters with humans. Describe each of these encounters and find one quote that highlights the reactions the Creature experiences. Reflect on how these early experiences appear to position the Creature in relation to future encounters with humans.

His curiosity first leads him to go into the village, where he ends up scaring everyone. He decides to stay away from humans after this, assuming they are all like this, but still not understanding how different he is from them. He then finds the cottagers and spends many months admiring them and trying to understand them. He cares very much about them and would love to get to know them but is cautious due to his last interaction with humans. When he finally decides to talk to the blind man, the children come home and are very scared of the Creature and try to hurt him. He becomes very upset by this as the cottagers were people that he cared most about and just wanted to be friends with. He decides that all humans are evil and that he hates humans. 

• There is a moment when the Creature seeks out his reflection in a mirror (pool of water) and he tells us, “I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers- their grace, beauty and delicate complexions: but how I was terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool! At first, I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was, in reality, the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest of sensations of despondence and mortification.” Reflect on the connection between ‘being a monster’ and appearance. Do you agree with the idea that we, as humans, form many of our perceptions based on appearance? What are the pros and cons of this tendency?

The only person who didn’t think that the Creature was a monster was the blind old man – simply because he couldn’t see what he looked like. The blind man did not suspect that he was a monster based on his personality, which shows how quick to judge we are. We form perceptions to help us survive, but because the Creature looked like a monster, he was treated like one, even when he never acted like one. We can’t control the way we look yet we judge so heavily on the ways that others look as if it defines them.