EOY Questions Flashcards
What is a ‘frame narrative’ and why do you think Shelley used it in this novel?
The frame narration is like a set of Russian dolls, one inside another, a ‘story within a story’. In Shelley’s novel it allows us to see the same events from the perspective of different character.
Why do you think Shelley wanted the monster to narrate a section of the book?
The Romantics were very interested in hearing the perspectives of marginalised people/characters, those in society who don’t usually have a voice. This could be minorities or people in poverty or, in this novel, the outcast monster.
What do we call the style of narration when someone is reflecting or looking back?
Retrospective
What is the phrase we use to describe a narrator who readers cannot entirely trust? For example, the narrator may make mistakes or say things we know to be untrue.
An unreliable narrator
What do we call it in novels or films when an earlier moment is revisited, for example, when Victor goes back in time to recall the making of the monster?
A flashback
What is the literary term for any device that provides readers with a hint about what’s to come later in the story?
Foreshadowing
What is an allusion?
An implied or indirect reference to a person, event, or thing or to a part of another text.
Shelley subtitled the novel ‘Or, the modern Prometheus’. Why?
It is an allusion to Greek mythology. Prometheus stole fire from the Gods of Mount Olympus and gave it to the humans, the fire symbolising how mankind gained knowledge and enlightenment. For acting against the Gods, who wanted to keep the power of fire to themselves, Prometheus was harshly punished. Shelley borrows from the tale of Prometheus a sense of consequence resulting from seeking enlightenment and power. Victor is her modern incarnation of Prometheus.
When describing Victor’s creation of the monster, Shelley alludes to the following: the creation of Adam by God in the bible. Explain the allusion.
Shelley contrasts God’s creation of Adam to Victor’s creation of the monster. Victor sees his creation as beautiful and yet repugnant, versus the creation story taken from the Bible in which God sees his creation of Adam as “good.”
When describing Victor’s creation of the monster, Shelley alludes to the following: ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. Explain the allusion.
The mariner is cursed because he has killed the albatross, showing a criminal disregard for a creature of nature. Everyone on the ship is cursed (the mariner because he killed the bird—and the crew that eventually condoned his action). Their sentence is death. Victor also goes against nature and many people suffer as a result.
When describing Victor’s creation of the monster, Shelley alludes to the following: Dante’s ‘Inferno’. Explain the allusion.
Shelley makes use of a reference to Dante’s Inferno to describe the horrific detail when describing Victor’s creation as something not even Dante could not have conceived in his monstrous vision of hell.
Describe two acts that could be described as showing benevolence. (Make them up, not from the novel)
There are obviously many different real-life examples you can describe here, so you will need to revise the word ‘benevolence’ and compose a sentence using it
independently.
What was Galvanism?
The idea that scientists could use electricity to stimulate or restart life.
Mary Shelley was the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft. What was she famous for?
She was the author of one of the greatest feminist texts, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
‘The year without a summer’, as 1816 became known, provided the perfect backdrop to the writing of Frankenstein. Why?
The eruption of Mount Tamboro in Indonesia in April 1815 sent clouds of volcanic ash billowing into the atmosphere. The sun was obscured; levels of rainfall increased and temperatures fell and gave everything a dark, sinister and perhaps even a supernatural quality – very fitting for Shelley’s novel.
