Frankenstein
, Vol. 1
Discussion Questions
Things to Consider:
Nature
Science & Ambition
Religion
Language: Speech, Reading, & Writing
Roles of Men and Women
Relationship b/w Parents & Children
Sexuality
Birth & Death
Doppelgangers for Victor: Walton and the Creature
** Homework Questions **
Be sure to make use of any footnotes to the readings to help answer these questions.
49-50:
Why is Walton going to the North Pole? How do his motivations compare with Victor's (see pp. 69 and 81-82)
53:
What lack does Walton feel most strongly? (see also 60).
55:
Explain Walton's reference to an albatross.
62:
Why has Victor agreed to tell his story to Walton?
68-70:
Why isn't his father successful at first in persuading Victor to stop reading Agrippa? How does his father get him to stop?
82
:
Why does Victor refer to his laboratory as a "workshop of filthy creation" (82)?
85
:
Explain the significance of the dream Victor has on the night of his "success."
103
:
When Victor says, "The mere presence of the idea was an irresistible proof of the fact"(103), to what is he referring? What does he mean?
104
:
Why does Victor call the creature "my own vampire, my own spirit released from the grave"(104)? What does that mean?
113:
Has Justine killed William? Why does she confess?
Other Discussion Questions:
53:
Describe Walton's education.
67
:
What is Natural Philosophy?
67-68:
Why does Victor get into Agrippa?
75
:
Explain Victor's statement: "I was required to exchange chimeras of boundless grandeur for realities of little worth" (75).
79
:
Explain Victor's statement:
"To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death" (79).
89-94:
What is the nature of Victor's illness? Why does it fatigue him, even after several months recovery time, to write a letter?
96
:
What is an orientalist?
101
:
Why is Victor so anxious about returning home?
102
:
Describe the mood Shelley develops in her description of the setting of Geneva.
113:
Why do so many people confess to the murder of William?
99: Elizabeth
108, 115: Victor
113: Justine
