Frankenstein (AP English Literature and Composition) Notes

Letters/Prologue:

• Character: Parallels between him and the Monster, with both of them wanting companionship (major theme establishment). The ship crew discovers Victor Frankenstein out in the arctic.

• Setting: The Antarctic, I think?

• Structure: structured as letters made to ‘s sister.

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Volume I:

• Chapter I:

  • Character: this is our proper introduction to Victor Frankenstein, whose penchant for science and knowledge knows no bounds, as informed from his family (Clerval and Elizabeth) and his academic life (M. Krempe)

  • Setting: 18th century Germany, where the study of the “ancient” science (or scientific theories created before the Renaissance) is greatly discouraged.

  • Structure: the chapter is basically Victor’s starting point and of what starts informed Victor to become the person he became.

  • Narration: the chapter is told entirely from Victor’s perspective.

  • Figurative Language:

    • Historical allusions to renaissance and medieval German scientists (Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus), Robin Hood, etc.

• Chapter II:

  • Character: further expands on Victor’s origins from chapter I, such as her mother’s death due to an illness. His mother’s death made Victor contemplate what losing a loved one truly is like: “that the brightness of a beloved eye can be extinguished…” M. Waldman is introduced who, unlike his father or previous professors, more empathetic to Victor and his wants, advising him to go into a variety of subjects in natural philosophy, including chemistry and mathematics. He even “smiled at the names of Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus, but without the contempt that M. Krempe had exhibited.” Waldman was the perfect type of person to push Victor forward into becoming the scientist we all know him as. “Thus ended a day memorable to me; It decided my future destiny.”

  • Setting: the setting shifts as Victor leaves his family and friends to Ingolstadt, a university in (then) Landshut.

  • Structure: Shift of focus towards Victor’s experience with his university professor M. Waldman and fields of study such as natural philosophy.

  • Narration: the chapter is told entirely from Victor’s perspective, so we are told in detail about his personal life but little about the lives of others, such as M. Waldman (only what he was like to him).

  • Figurative Language:

    • Metaphor: “They ascend into the heavens; they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe.”

    • Meaning: Victor describes relatively modern scientific breakthroughs and research.

• Chapter III

  • Character: Victor is infatuated with chemistry and mathematics, and he begins to “play God” and create life out of deceased human matter.

  • Setting: still in Ingolstadt, Germany, where Victor decides to stay to do his living organic mosaic.

  • Structure: Building up to Victor’s life’s work and his thought process over several months.

  • Narration: Victor acknowledges that he’s “moralizing the most interesting part of the story” to the crew, so he proceeds with the plot.

  • Figurative Language:

    • Personification: “I pursued nature to her hiding places.”

      • Meaning: Victor is breaking both natural and scientific boundaries with his experiment.

• Chapter IV:

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• Chapter V:

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• Chapter VI:

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• Chapter VII:

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• Chapter VIII:

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• Chapter IX:

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• Chapter X:

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• Chapter XI:

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• Chapter XII:

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• Chapter XIII:

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• Chapter XIV:

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• Chapter XV:

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• Chapter XVI:

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• Chapter XVII:

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• Chapter XVIII:

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• Chapter XIX:

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• Chapter XX:

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• Chapter XXI:

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• Chapter XXII:

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• Chapter XXIII:

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