Frankenstein Study Guide - AP Lit

Agatha De Lacey

• The daughter of the family the creature watches

• Exiled from France with family because Felix helped Safie’s father escape prison

Alphonse Frankenstein

• Father of Victor, William, and Ernest

• Tells Victor to move on past the deaths

• Dies after hearing the news of Elizabeth’s death

Caroline Beaufort

• Mother to Victor, William, and Ernest

• Adopts Elizabeth

• Cares for Elizabeth while sick, which causes her to get sick and die

• Her death spurs Victor’s obsession of conquering death through science

Creature/Monster

• Victor’s creation

• Murders/cause of death for William, Henry, Elizabeth, Justine, and Alfonse Frankenstein

• Relates to Adam and Satan

Elizabeth Lavenza

• Adopted by the Frankenstein

• Deeply saddened by all the deaths

• Is in love with and eventually marries Victor

• Murdered by the creature because Victor does not build the creature his own wife

Felix De Lacey

• The son of the family the creature watches

• In love with Safie

• Exiled from France with family because _____ helped Safie’s father escape prison

• Kicks the creature out of their home when he sees the creature

Henry Clerval

• Best friend of Victor 

• Wants to travel to India to learn language

• Gets lots of joy from nature

• Helps Victor when he is depressed

• Murdered by the creature

Justine Moritz

• Name is a word play on “justice”

• Accused of murdering William Frankenstein because of the locket of Mrs. Frankenstein

• Pleads guilty to the crime even though innocent

• Believes confession would save her from damnation

• Killed for the murder of William

Kirwin

• Magistrate who accuses Victor of murdering Henry

• Shows some kindness to Victor by calling his father, ordering a doctor, and giving him the nicest prison cell

Margaret Saville

• Sister of Robert Walton

• Receivers of the letters Walton is writing 

• Relates to Mary Shelley (Same initials) to reflect her own experiences as a young mother

Old Man De Lacey

• Father of the family the creature is watching

• Blind

• Exiled from France with family because Felix helped Safie’s father escape prison

• Wants to help the creature because he believes he is good

Prof. Krempe

• Dismissive and condescending teacher

• Ridicules Victor for reading outdated scientists

Prof. Waldman

• Supportive and kind teacher

• Introduces Victor to modern scientific techniques

Robert Walton

• Author of the letters in the beginning of the novel and the end

• Helps Victor in his final moments and becomes his friend

• Only witness to the creature crying at Victor’s funeral and admitting to committing suicide in the North

• Represents the overarching ambition and isolation of Victor and the creature

Safie

• The Turkish woman Felix is in love with

• Leaves her home country and her father to find Felix because she wants freedom and her lover

• Different type of woman, NOT PASSIVE

Victor Frankenstein

• Creator of the creature

• Causes the deaths of many innocents

• At first glance relates to God

• Relates to the Ancient Mariner

William Frankenstein

• Youngest brother of Victor and Ernest Frankenstein

• Murdered by the creature

Biblical Allusion

• "I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel." (pg 105)

  • The creature

Mythological Allusion

• Victor is like Prometheus, he steals the secret of life and then is punished

• Novel was also called “The Modern Prometheus”

Apostrophe

• “Oh, earth! How often did I imprecate curses on the cause of my being! The mildness of my nature had fled, and all within me was turned to gall and bitterness” (pg 150)

  • The creature

Hyperbole

• “...and was silent when I would have given the world to have confided the fatal secret” (pg 201)

• Victor

Irony

• “I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities forever” (pg 95).

  • Victor, man who created life now wants death

Litotes definition

understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary

Litotes ex

• “I was not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity.” (Chapter 2)

  • Victor

Metaphor

"I am a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my soul." (pg 174)

• Victor

Paradox

• “Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow;/Nought may endure but mutability!” (pg 103).

  • The only thing constant is change

  • Excerpt from a Percy Shelley poem

Personification

• “Death snatches away many blooming children…” (pg 192)

  • Victor

Rhetorical Question

• “What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Where did I come from? What was my destination?” (pg 138).

  • The creature

Simile

• "I wandered like an evil spirit." (Chapter 24)

  • The creature

Synecdoche

• "His hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me." (Chapter 5)

  • Hands = creature

Why does the creature turn on man?

• He is rejected by the DeLacy’s  (“adopted” family abandoned him)

• Now seeks revenge on Victor for making him this way

Climax of the story

• Elizabeth’s death

• Triggers Victor’s final vow to destroy the creature

What is the structure of the novel?

frame structure (story within a story)

What type of novel is this?

• Gothic

• Epistolary

Who are the narrators?

• Robert Walton

• Victor Frankenstein

• The creature

What is the purpose for the narrators?

To see their struggles and perspectives

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

• A mariner kills an albatross and brings a curse upon his ship, he is then forced to wander the earth warning others of his mistake

• Leads the creature to consider his own predicament

• Wants to know who he is, where he came from, and where he is headed

Lives

• Biographies on famous Greek and Roman leaders

• Fills him with a love for virtue and a hatred for vice

• Expands his view of the world

Paradise Lost

• About Satan falls from heaven and Adam and Eve’s are expulsion  from Eden

• Causes the creature to consider his own creation

• Forces him to realize how “wretched, helpless, and alone” he is 

Ruins of Empire

• Critiques the rise and fall of civilizations

• Teaches the creatures about human history, society, and social inequality

• Mostly teaches him social injustice

Sorrows of Werter

• A novel about a man who experiences an unrequited love and then commits suicide

• The creature relates to his suffering 

• Teaches him about human passion, but also despair