Summer Reading Guide

Mary Shelley’s

Frankenstein

Introduction

In the introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley explains how she came to write her famous novel.  In the summer of 1816, she and Percy Shelley were living near the poet Lord Byron and his doctor-friend John Polidori on Lake Geneva in the Swiss Alps.  During a period of incessant rain, the four of them were reading ghost stories and to each other when Byron proposed that each try to write one.  For days Shelley could not think of an idea.  Then, while she was listening to Lord Byron and Percy discussing the probability of using electricity to create life artificially, according to a theory called galvanism, an idea began to grow in her mind…The next day, she started work on Frankenstein.  A year later, she had completed her novel.  It was published in 1819 when Shelley was nineteen years old.

Frankenstein is an example of a gothic novel, a type of novel popular between 1760 and 1820.  The main ingredients of the gothic novel are mystery, horror, and the supernatural.  The word gothic itself has several meanings.  It can be harsh or cruel, referring to the barbaric Gothic tribes of the Middle Ages.  It can also mean “medieval,” referring to the historical period associated with castles and nights in armor.  In literature the term applies to works with a brooding atmosphere that emphasize the unknown and inspire fear.  Gothic novels typically feature wild and remote settings, such as haunted castles or wind-blasted moors, and their plots involve violent or mysterious events.

While the atmosphere of Shelley’s Frankenstein is nightmarish, the novel is much more than a horror story.  Shelley’s central characters—a young student of science and the man-like being he creates—are both morally complex.  Through their conflict, Shelley poses profound questions about science and society and about the positive and destructive sides of human nature.  These questions struck a chord with Shelley’s readers in the early 1800s—a time of startling breakthroughs in science and technology and a growing faith in the power of science to improve human life.  Today, in a world where scientific advances such as cloning and genetic engineering seem to be redefining itself, her questions are no less relevant.  (Frankenstein Study Guide, McGraw-Hill Inc.)

As You Read

Fully answer each of the following questions in complete sentences (3 points each).

CHAPTERS 1-5

1.) What is the background of the man found floating on the ice? (Do we know his name yet?)  Where is he from?

2.) Who is Elizabeth Lavenza, and what is her story?

3.) Who is Henry Clerval, and what is his relation to Victor?

4.) What sort of science is Victor learning from Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus?  What does Victor begin to study after seeing an oak tree destroyed by lightning?

5.) What does he learn from M. Krempe and then M. Waldman?

6.) How does Victor go about creating a human being?  How long does it take?  What happens to Victor in the process?

7.) How does Victor respond to the creature he has created?  What does the creature do?

CHAPTERS 6-8

8.) Who is Justine Moritz, and what is her story?

9.) Who is William, and how old is he?  What happens to him?

10.) What does Victor now believe about the nature of the creature?

11.) Who is put on trial and then confesses to William’s murder?  Why did she say she did that?

CHAPTERS 9-12

12.) What journey does Victor go on?  Where does he travel through, and where does he stay?

13.) When we hear the creature speak for the first time, what does he say?  What does he ask of Victor, and why did he cause the murders?

14.) How does he learn language?  Why might he have trouble learning words such as “good,” “dearest,” and “unhappy”?

15.) What bothers the creature when he thinks about revealing himself to the family?  How does he respond to his own appearance when seeing it?

CHAPTERS 13-15

16.)  What book does Felix use to teach Safie?  What does the creature learn from this book?  How does what he learns about human relationships make him feel?

17.) What other three or four things does the creature read, and what does he learn from each?

18.) What does he hope will happen when he meets De Lacey?  What actually happens?

CHAPTERS 16-18

19.) What happens to the De Lacey’s?  How does the creature respond, and what does he do to the cottage?

20.) When he travels away and finds Victor, what does the creature demand of Victor?  How does Victor respond?

CHAPTERS 19-21

21.) Why does Victor change his mind about creating the female?  Who watches him destroy the female?

22.) Who is Mr. Kirwin, and how does he treat Victor?

23.) Why is Victor arrested, and what happens at his trial?

CHAPTERS 22-24

24.) What does Elizabeth say in her letter, and how does Victor respond?  What are the wedding plans?

25.) What happens on Victor’s wedding night?  How does the creature respond?

26.) Describe Victor’s pursuit of the monster.  Where do they go, and what does the creature do?

Critical Thinking

Fully answer the following questions in three-four complete sentences.

27.) (5 points) One of the tragedies of Frankenstein is the refusal of other characters in the novel to recognize the monster as a full human being.  Make a list of the qualities that make us human.  Which of these qualities does the monster have, and which does he not have?

28.) (5 points) Compare Victor Frakenstein to the monster he created.  In what ways are their life experiences similar?  How are they different?  Note their relationships with nature, desires for family, and any other similarity you find.  Do the two become more similar as the novel goes on?

29.) (5 points) Victor attributes his tragic fate to his relentless search for knowledge.  Do you think this is the true cause of his suffering?  In what ways does the novel present knowledge as dangerous and destructive?

30.) (7 points) What as Christians can we learn from this story?  How can you apply them to your life?

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