English IV: Frankenstein Study Guide Questions

The creature's words had a strange effect on him and he felt compassion for the creature and wished to console him.

How does Victor change during the conversation?

Victor says no to the creature.

What is Victor's first response?

Victor promises to deliver him a female and that she will accompany him into his exile.

What is Victor's final decision in response to the creature's request?

Victor doesn't have the courage to start his work up again. He is now feeling better and his spirits are high. His health has been restored.

Describe the change in Victor once he returns home.

Alphonse thinks that Victor is in love with another and that he is so bound in honor to Elizabeth that he doesn't want to admit it. Victor reassures Alphonse that he will one day marry Elizabeth.

What does Alphonse fear is the cause of Victor's unhappiness? How does Victor respond to that fear?

To create the female creature. He wanted the creature out of his life before he allowed himself to have peace.

What is the real reason for Victor's journey?

Henry was joyful and became alive through the beauty's of nature while Victor was occupied by gloomy thoughts.

How are Victor and Henry different?

Henry's death is foreshadowed.

What is foreshadowed at the end of this chapter?

In Henry, Victor sees himself before he created the Monster, as Henry was still eager to learn and experience new things. Victor had by then lost his joy and interest in new adventures and new learning—he was tormented by the results of his earlier unbridled pursuit of knowledge.

Describe Victor's behavior in London. Why does he act like this?

3 years.

How long has it been since the "birth" of the first creature?

Victor fears that the female creature might refuse to leave society. He fears that's he will hate the creature and find other men more beautiful. Victor fears that they will have children and release devils across the world. He fears the female wont keep the promise.

What fears suddenly occur to Victor?

The creature threats that his hours will pass in dread and misery. He says that he will take away Victor's happiness. The creature says that he will be with him on his wedding night.

What specific threat does the creature make?

Victor believes he can't go home or else the creature will hurt the one's he loves.

Why does Victor believe he cannot go home? What does he fear will happen?

Victor had to pack up his chemical instruments. He threw the half-finished creature into the water.

Before he leaves, how does Victor "clean up"?

The villagers assumed, based on circumstantial evidence (including seeing a man in a boat), that Victor was the murderer; Victor figured it was the Monster. Victor's reaction confirms their suspicion. Victor confessed, in his own language, that he was the murderer and fantasized that the Monster was coming for him.

Why is Victor accused of? What seems to confirm the townspeople's suspicion?

Alphonse, Victor's father, visits Victor. The visit of his father was like that of Victor's good angel who gradually recovered his health.

Who visits Victor in prison? How has he helped Victor?

Fearing the Monster intended to destroy the rest of his family, Victor hurried home with his father. Tormented by fears the first night on the ship, he took laudanum, a drug, to help him sleep, but even double the usual quantity did not give him peace.

Describe Victor's mental state at the end of the chapter. How does he deal with his suffering?

Victor confesses that he killed Justine, William, Henry. Victor's father is confused and thinks Victor has gone mad.

What does Victor confess to his father? What is his father's response?

Victor received a letter from Elizabeth, asking if he had fallen in love with another woman, explaining that she loves him and would understand. Elizabeth admits that she loves him but doesn't want to force him into a marriage with someone he doesn't love.

What is Elizabeth's main concern/question to Victor in her letter?

On the day of the wedding, Elizabeth was melancholy, and a presentiment of evil pervaded her. She was perhaps also thinking about Victor's dreadful secret.

How is Elizabeth feeling/acting on the day of the wedding?

Victor became fearful when night came along. He was very anxious and watchful. Every sound terrified him.

Describe Victor's mental state.

Elizabeth is killed by the creature. Elizabeth was killed because of the creature's promised revenge. The murderous mark of the creature's grasp was on her neck. Victor saw the creature at the window with a grin on his face and pointed at Elizabeth's corpse.

What happens to Elizabeth? Why? How does Victor know?

At first, Victor faints. When Victor awakens, he sees the creature and tries to shoot the creature but fails and the creature disappears into the lake. Victor is in an agony of despair.

What is Victor's response to this event?

Victor fears that the creature will be after his father and Ernest. So, Victor makes plans to return to Geneva. Victor's fear of the death of what is left of his friends and family. The idea of the monster murdering what left of his family spurns Victor to action.

What does Victor still fear and what spurns him to continue his actions?

Alphonse died from an apoplectic fit and died in Victor's arms. He died from too much sadness.

What happens to Alphonse once Victor returns home?

Victor tells the magistrate everything about the creature he made and who he killed. Victor did this to secure the best means of ending the creature's life.

What does Victor tell the magistrate? Why?

The magistrate doesn't believe Victor fully and thinks he is mad. He says that it would be almost impossible to capture him.

How does the magistrate respond?

Victor's revenge for the monster keeps Victor alive.

What keeps Victor alive?

The creature was at the cemetery. Victor knew it was him by his loud and fiendish laugh. The creature spoke saying he was satisfied with Victor's miserable state. Victor saw him run away with more than mortal speed.

Who else is there? Why? What proof does Victor have of this presence?

Victor fears that his task will be unfulfilled. Victor asks Walton that if he were to die, that he would satisfy Victor's vengeance.

What does Victor fear? What does he ask Walton to do?

Walton believes Victor's tale because he told it with an appearance of the simplest truth. Victor shows Walton the letters of Felix and Safie and the apparition of the monster seen from the ship brought the greatest conviction of the truth.

Why does Walton believe Victor's tale?

Victor refuses to tell Walton how he created the creature because Victor doesn't want Walton to increase his miseries and to just learn from Victor's own mistakes.

What does Victor refuse to tell Walton? Why?

Victor refuses to go south and says that hopefully his vengeance can give him strength. Victor refused to give up his purpose.

What is Victor's response? Why?

Victor says that he leaves the choice of what to do with the creature up to Walton and that if he were to ever approach him to kill him. Victor admits that he could have done better in regards to the creature's life.

What are Victor's final words regarding his choices regarding the creature?

Victor tells Walton to seek happiness in tranquility and to avoid ambition, even in science and discoveries.

What is Victor's final words to Walton?

Walton hears the creature's voice in Victor's room.

What is the noise Walton hears in Victor's room?

Walton sees the creature hung over Victor's coffin expressing his guilt. The creature feels awful for destroying Victor's happiness and asks to pardon him.

Describe what Walton sees in Victor's room.

The creature said that he desired love and fellowship but he was seen as a demon.

What does the creature say about Victor's version of the story of the creature's life?

The creature says that he will revenge his injuries, cause fear mainly towards Victor, and make his life a living hell.

What threat does the monster make? How does the reader know the creature is capable of this?

The man with the little girl shot the creature. The feelings of kindness and gentleness left his heart and he now has a burning hatred for human beings. He vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind.

What happens when the creature saves the little girl? What does he realize after that?

Robert Walton is writing letters to his sister, Margarette Saville.

At the beginning of the novel, who is writing the letters and to whom?

Walton is on an expedition to look for a navigable northwest passage. The narrator is in St. Petersburg on his way to Archangel and he is on his way to the north pole with the goal to understand earth magnetism, set foot on the new land, and find a new route of passage. He is looking for the North Pole. He wants to discover a land that no one has set foot upon.

Where is the narrator going? What does he hope to accomplish on his journey?

He is inspired to go because he feels like he has a steady purpose in life. This adventure was always a dream of his. He tried to be a poet, but it did not work out for him. This passage gives him a purpose to be the first one to set foot on the North Pole Land

What inspired Walton to go on this journey? What profession had he tried before this?

Walton feels lonely and wishes he had a friend he could talk to.

What complaint (want) does Walton have on his journey to the North Pole?

The ship was stuck by surrounding ice.

What problem does the crew run into in the beginning of the chapter?

The crew saw a gigantic man in a dog sled. Ironic because he wants to go somewhere where no one has been before and they see 2 men dog sledding.

What strange sight does the crew see at the beginning of the chapter?

The stranger demands to know what direction the ship is headed and if they are going north.

What does the stranger demand to know in the beginning of the chapter?

Walton mentions that the stranger is silent and appears uneasy when anyone except Walton enters the cabin. Walton says that the stranger has great manners. Walton mentions that he is beginning to love him as a brother and that he finally found a friend.

How does Walton feel about the stranger in the beginning of the novel?

The stranger feels compelled to share his story because he thinks that the strange incidents connected with it all will afford a view of nature, which may enlarge Walton's faculties and understanding. He wants Walton to learn from the stranger's own mistakes and to not make the same mistake he did- tells a creation story.

Why does the stranger feel compelled to share his story at the beginning of the novel?

The new narrator is Victor Frankenstein. He is from Geneva.

Who is the new narrator at the beginning of Chapter 1? Where is he from?

Victor's father was respected by all who knew him for his integrity and indefatigable attention to public business. Victor's mother, Caroline Beaufort, possessed a mind of an uncommon mould and her courage rose to support her in her adversity. She procured plain work. Caroline and Victor's father met because of Victor's friend, and father of Caroline, Beaufort. After Beaufort died, Victor's father protected Caroline and eventually married her.

Describe Victor's parents. How do they meet?

Victor has a very happy childhood. His parents were very tender to him and Victor's improvement and health was their constant care.

What kind of childhood does Victor have?

Victor's cousin, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Victor's father's sister. Alphonse's sister married a man in Italy and she ended up dying. Her husband wrote to Alphonse stating that he wants him to take in his daughter, Elizabeth. Alphonse accepts and immediately went to Italy to get Elizabeth

Describe Victor's cousin. How does she come into their family?

Victor is calmer and more philosophical than Elizabeth. But he has a bad temper and he also has a longer endurance. Victor was more realistic when looking at the world, while Elizabeth used her imagination.

How are Victor and Elizabeth different?

Henry Clerval was the son of a merchant of Geneva, an intimate friend of Victor's father. He was a boy of singular talent and fancy. When he was 9 years old, he wrote a fairy tale and read many books of chivalry and romance. Together, Victor and Henry would act the plays of Robin Hoods, St. George, and more.

Describe Victor's only other friend.

Natural philosophy is the study of nature and science. The works of Cornelius Agrippa interested Victor.

What is "natural philosophy"? Which natural philosophers interest Victor?

Victor hopes to discover the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life.

What does Victor hope to accomplish by studying natural philosophy?

Victor witnessed a thunderstorm. The lightning struck an oak tree, and all that was left was a stump.

What specific natural event introduces Victor to the power of electricity and helps him realize that he has been studying outdated information?

Victor is going to the University of Ingolstadt to be a student.

Where will Victor be going at the beginning of Chapter 2?

Elizabeth caught the scarlet fever, but her illness was not severe and she recovered quickly. Caroline, however, also caught the scarlet fever and died.

What misfortune occurs before Victor leaves to Ingolstadt?

Caroline wants Victor and Elizabeth to get married. Caroline also told Elizabeth to be the mother figure to her cousins (Victor's siblings).

What does Caroline want Victor and Elizabeth to do?

M. Krempe is one of Victor's professors who teaches natural philosophy at Ingosladt. Victor mentioned the books he has read about natural philosophy but Krempe says that those are thousands of years old and that Victor must begin his studies anew. He wrote down a list of several books for Victor to read. Mr. Krempe is a little squat man with a gruff voice and repulsive countenance.

Describe M. Krempe.

M. Waldman is a fellow professor who lectures upon chemistry. He is very different from M. Krempe and is around 50 years old, but with an aspect of benevolence. He was a short man with a few gray hairs. He has a very sweet voice. Waldman's lecture interested Victor because of when he said "these philosophers, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature, and shew how she works in her hiding places. They ascend into the heavens; they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows."

Describe M. Waldman. What does Waldman say in a lecture that Victor again interests Victor in natural philosophy?

Victor sees Waldman as a true friend. He is a very gentle man.

What is Victor's attitude toward Waldman?

2 years

How long has Victor been gone from home in Ingolstadt?

Victor is interested in alchemy and also became acquainted with anatomy, physiology, and death.

What interest keeps Victor in school?

Victor discovered the cause of the generation of life. He is capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.

What does Victor discover in Ingolstadt?

Victor says that the acquirement of knowledge will aspire him to be greater than nature allows. He also mentions that although he possessed the capacity of bestowing animation, yet to prepare a frame for the reception of it, with all its fibers, veins, and muscles, remained a work inconceivable difficulty and labor. He won't let his friend find his destruction and misery.

Why doesn't he share the specifics about his discovery with Walton?

Frankenstein planned to create a human being. He planned to make the being of gigantic stature (eight feet).

What does Frankenstein plan to do with this newfound knowledge? What does he envision before he actually attempts it?

Victor is pale and sickly, and he stops contacting his friends and family. He claims that "a resistless and almost frantic impulse urged [him] forward," and he feels that he lost "all soul or sensation" except for the one goal: making his creature. Victor seems to be obsessed.

What happens to Victor physically and mentally while he is working on the creature?

The setting is one in the morning with rain pattering against the windowpanes on a dreary night of November.

Describe the setting when Victor creates the creature.

The creature has black hair, yellow skin, white teeth, white eyes, shriveled complexion, and black lips.

Describe the creature.

Horror and disgust filled his heart. The appearance of the creature disgusted Victor so he ran out of the room and went to bed.

What is Victor's reaction to his creation?

The creature's "hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me."

What does the creature do first when he sees Victor?

Victor compares the creature to a devil and is still disgusted about his looks. He felt horror and disappointment. His dreams became a hell to him. Victor didn't even dare to go back to his apartment.

Describe Victor's condition after he sees the creature.

Henry Clerval

Who arrives immediately after the creature's "birth"?

Henry asks Victor to write letters to his father and cousin more often.

What does he ask Victor to do?

Elizabeth

After Victor creates the creature, who does her receive a letter from?

Justine's mother was a widow with four children. Justine's mother could no longer endure her so Justine is now a servant at the Frankenstein's home.

Who is Justine? How/Why does she come into the Frankenstein's home?

Elizabeth asks that Victor writes more often and to let them know if he is ill.

What is Elizabeth's request in her letter after Victor makes the creature?

Waldman attributed Victor's feelings to modesty and changed the subject from improvement to the science itself, with a desire, as Victor saw, of drawing Victor out. Krempe was not equally docile. He said harsh retorts to Victor. Krempe was saying how brilliant Victor was and how he was at the top of the university.

How do Victor's professors interpret Victor's unwillingness to discuss science?

Victor found consolation in the works of the orientalists. Reading them made Victor feel better and his life turned into a warm sun and a garden of roses. He also did some exercise with Henry.

What does Victor do to pass the time with Henry?

The Frankenstein family went on a walk in Plainpalais. William went missing and could not be found. Alphonse found William on the grass livid and motionless with the print of the murderers finger on his neck. William was strangled to death. Elizabeth thinks that it is her fault because she gave William one of her mother's lockets.

What has happened to William? Summarize the events.

Alphonse and Elizabeth long for Victor to be back to comfort them.

What purpose would Victor serve by being back at home?

Nearly six years

How long has Victor been away?

Victor saw a lake and snowy mountains. He crossed the lake by boat to get to Plainpalais. There was a storm and Victor could see the lightning playing on the summit of Mont Blanc.

What scenes does Victor observe while traveling home?

Victor thinks he saw his creature. He suspects that he killed William.

What does Victor think he sees? What does he suspect about the appearance?

2 years

How long has it been since the creature was brought to life?

Elizabeth said that Justine is one of the most amiable and benevolent of human creatures. Elizabeth talks about how much she values Justine and says that she is innocent.

What does Elizabeth believe about Justine?

Victor claims that his pain is the worst. He feels much sorrier for himself and his pain than he does for Justine. He thinks that her knowledge of her own innocence, despite her conviction, must make it easier for her to face her fate than his guilt and his knowledge of the role he's played in this tragedy.

How does Victor believe that he has suffered more than Justine?

Victor spent most of his nights on the water and he was tempted to drown himself.

Where does Victor often spend his nights? What is he tempted to do?

Victors family goes to the valley of Chamounix to have serenity.

Where does Victor decide to go at the end of the chapter after Justine's death? Why?

The creature wants to talk to Victor in his hut on the mountain to tell him his story. Victor follows.

What does the figure want from Victor?

The creature

Who is the new narrator for Volume II Chapter 3?

The creature first encounters an old man in his house and the man shrieked loudly and ran from his house. The creature then encounters a village with people and the children shrieked and one of the women fainted. The whole village was roused and some fled, attacked the creature, threw stones, and more.

What happens when the creature encounters people for the first time?

The family has a father and his two children. The old man plays an instrument. The two children seem sad.

Describe the three inhabitants of the cottage.

The creature finds a small hovel, a squalid shed attached to the back of a cottage.

What dwelling does the creature eventually find?

They retired to their house at Belrive.

Where do the Frankensteins go to escape their grief?

Victor says that he is the true murdered and that he feels the never-dying worm alive in his bosom, which allowed of no hope or consolidation. Anguish and despair penetrated the core of his heart. Victor says that he bores a hell within him in which nothing could extinguish.

How does Victor feel at the end of the chapter/trial with Justine?

Victor decides to stay silent or else people will think he has gone mad.

Why doesn't Victor tell anyone about his creation?