The agonies of remorse poison the luxury there is otherwise sometimes found in indulging the excess of grief.
--Victor Frankenstein
Chapter 1
- At his father’s suggestion, why does Victor repulse at the idea of marrying his cousin Elizabeth? Is there a hint of the gothic to this idea? Explain.
- For what reasons does Victor decide to travel abroad? What term does he label his two year sojourn? How does Elizabeth feel about all this? What are the terms upon which Victor makes this decision?
- Compare the description of nature on page 107 with another in the novel. Note the similarities and differences as well as the function of each passage.
- Who is quoted on page 108? Why? What does it add to this text, i.e. how does it enrich the text?
- Based on the passage at the end of this chapter, what is the poetry of early romanticism all about?
- Are these scenes of travel necessary for the novel? If so, what function might they serve? Might there be other reasons perhaps? Speculate.
- Whose tomb does Victor visit while in Oxford? (Also see Gray’s Elegy.) How might this inform one of the subthemes of this novel?
- How has Victor’s relationship to the sublimity of the natural scene changed? What image in volume I reappears in this chapter? Why? What is the significance of its reappearance?
- Recall and relate some of the passages which might identify Victor with Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner.
- Is the mood Shelley creates in this volume different from that of the prior volumes? If so, how do you know? Where does the difference lie? And, how did she achieve this effect? (Does Shelley’s method change? Does she introduce any new "tricks"?—Also see chapters 1 & 3 of this Volume.)
Chapter 3
- What new concerns does Victor realize or take up about his creature’s proposal? Are they valid concerns or compelling reasons? Do you find this passage convincing? Are you supposed to find it convincing? How might a different treatment of these ideas add or take away from the novel, e.g. if this passage was written in dialogue?
- Upon first seeing the creature in Scotland. Victor relates: “As I looked on him, his countenance expressed the utmost extent of malice and treachery.” Is Victor really justified in saying this? Why or why not?
- In a fit of anger, the creature says to Victor: “Are you to be happy, while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness?” What does this seems to suggest about the way in which the creature envisions and understanding his relationship to Victor? In what ways might they be considered two sides to a coin? Is the creature justified in calling Victor his “tyrant” and “tormentor”?
- As Victor clears away his instruments and gets rid of his new project he relates: “I almost felt as if I had mangled the living flesh of a human being.” Why would Victor, or even Shelley, bother to mention this?
- What are some things Victor apparently learns about himself in this chapter?
- Compare the description of the natural scenery on the water in this chapter to other passages of natural scenery in the novel. Discover a basis of comparison.
- Why do you think Shelley made Victor experience what it is like being accused for a crime he, or one, did not commit?
1. Why does Victor say, “but I was doomed to live”? How has Victor’s attitude toward death changed? What does he seem to have learned, if it is indeed a lesson, about nature, death and life? Does this accord with our notion of fate? Explain.
(Hint: How has death become and end-in-itself and what does this idea have to do with fate? To what end does Victor now see his life? Does it really give his life meaning? Also, on another register, what does this attitude towards life and death have to do with the theme of suicide?)
2. Why do you think Mary Shelley bothered to include the interview with the nurse? Should this episode evoke associations with another episode prior in the novel that was perhaps not “shown”?
3. Mary Shelley wrote in her preface,
I busied myself to think of a story…one which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken trilling horror—one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.
To what extent has Shelley accomplished this? Utilizing all your critical resources of formal analysis, discuss whether Shelley has accomplished her aim; more importantly, discuss how she has or has not achieved her desired effect.
Hint: Perhaps close read a particularly dramatic passage, or better, compare a passage in this volume with one from either of the previous volumes to see if there is any different in method, if there has in fact been a shift in aim in this third volume.
4. During this whole episode, what were the people in Ireland looking for in Victor? Is this somehow ironic?
5. Hearing some men accuse himof having a bad conscience, Victor cries, “and whose death is to finish the tragedy?”[emphasis added] What does Victor mean by this? Does he see his life as nothing but a drama and he is but a mere actor? Is this true? Is his life a tragedy or is he referring to something else? (Is life a dream?) To what extent can we sympathize with him? What does the word tragedy imply?
Chapter 5
1. What lesson does Victor’s father relate to him at the beginning of this chapter? Set this lesson in context of the novel as a whole.
2. Does Victor really bear the weight of the world upon his shoulders as he seems to suppose? Explain.
3. Set this letter from Elizabeth in context.
(a) Could Mary Shelley have accomplished her purpose without putting the contents in the form of a letter? In short, why is this letter inserted here?
(Note: Also see question one for chapter four of this volume.)
(b) The letter from Elizabeth seems also to serve as a transition of sorts. Taking the idea of pacing into account, discuss the story structure of this volume—you might perhaps also compare it with the prior two as well.
4. Victor says,
Alas! What freedom? Such as the peasant enjoys when his family have been massacred before his eyes, his cottage burnt, his lands laid waste, and he is turned adrift, homeless, pennyless, and alone, but free. Such would be my liberty, except that in my Elizabeth I possessed a treasure; alas! Balanced by those horrors of remorse and guilt, which would pursue me until death.
How might this be related to the allusion to Percy Shelley’s poem “Of Mutability” and perhaps the revolution?
5. How does Victor’s father council and console Victor regarding despair and melancholy? Is it good advice? Is Alphonse a good father? Explain.
6. What is the function of the natural landscape of the final scene of this chapter?
7. How does the allusion to Mont Blanc enrich this final scene? How might we relate this final scene to Percy Shelley’s poem “Of Mutability” and “Mont Blanc”?
Chapter 6
Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
--Victor Frankenstein
- What function does the description of the landscape serve at the beginning of this chapter?
- What realization does Victor make which brings him in closer identification with his creation? Elaborate.
- Is Victor’s criteria for distinguishing dreams from reality convincing? How might this insight be related to novel writing?
- In trying to convince the magistrate the “Truth” of his account he seems to have “learned” something about himself. What is it that he learned? What would make you belief Victor’s tale?
- “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” Have we encountered this idea before? If so, related the passages and explain.
- Does Victor fit our idea of a hero? Why or why not? Elaborate.
- Is Victor’s final outburst in this chapter important? Why or why not? What does it have to do with our study of Romanticism?
…I have endured misery, which nothing but the eternal sentiment
of a just retribution burning within my heart could have enabled me
to support…
1. Why is the monster’s laughter so effective at the beginning of this chapter? How does Victor’s avowal of vengeance bring us close to a fuller understanding of tragedy? How do Victor and the monster complement each other?
2. What is Victor’s life like now? Can he be considered a type in literature and popular media? If so, name some and draw the comparison.
3. Victor confesses:
Oh! With what a burning gush did hope revisit my heart! warm tears filled my eyes, which I hastily wiped away, that they might not intercept the view I had to the deamon; but still my sight was dimmed by the burning drops, until, giving way to the emotions that oppressed me, I wept aloud.
Why did Victor let out “a wild cry of ecstacy” when he once again spotted the creature out in the Arctic?
4. Who is Victor’s “guiding spirit” (145)?
5. In what ways is the death of the monster, the death of Victor? We have established that the monster was born “good”; then how can he be evil? Is this how one, or the self, is defined?
6. What does Victor make Walton promise? Why does he make this request? Is it justified?
7. Is it appropriate that Victor finishes his tale in the Arctic before Walton? Why or why not?
8. What is Walton’s function in the novel?
9. Compare Walton’s account of Victor to the Victor that we know from Victor's own account. Does Walton’s relationship with Victor change at any point? If so, why do you there is this change? Explain.
10. Compare this final account Victor gives of the process and effects of his discovery on page 147 with his prior accounts.
11. Victor says,
If I were engaged in any high undertaking of design, fraught with extensive utility to my fellow-creatures, then could I live to fulfil it. But such is not my destiny.
Compare the reason Victor gives for not creating a companion for his creature. Is there a contradiction? What seems to have changed Victor’s attitude towards “his destiny”?
12. Is there a “moral” to this tale? If so, what is it? Perhaps there is more than one? Does there have to be one? Elaborate.
13. According to Victor, why are childhood friends special?
14. What does Walton think about the power of rhetoric?
15. What is happening on Walton’s ship? Is this important on a dramatic, further, thematic level?
16. In Victor’s final moments, does he regret or repent? Elaborate.
17. What is Victor’s final assessment of his duties? Do you agree? Elaborate.
18. What were Victor’s last words to Walton? Are they important? Why or why not?
19. What do we learn about the creature, in terms of character, from his confession upon Victor’s deathbed? Also, according to the creature’s confession, in what other ways can he be identified with Victor?
20. According to the monster, how was he led to a life of vengeance?
21. Was Walton right to have let the monster go? Elaborate.
22. Recount the creature’s attempt to vindicate his actions. Has the creature suffered injustice? Why or why not?
23. What is the creature’s attitude toward death? How did he come to take up this attitude?
24. What might the creature mean when he relates that he shall ascend his funeral pile “triumphantly”?
25. Who is the hero of this novel? Is there only one? Elaborate.