Frankenstein Flashcards
Chapter 1
-Victor begins narrating his family story from his father, mother, cousin and wife
-Mentions the death of Victor’s mother (Caroline) after obtaining scarlet fever from Elizabeth
Chapter 2
-Elizabeth and Victor grew up together as best friends
-Victor’s friendship with Henry Cerval flourishes as well
-As a teen Victor became increasingly fascinated with the mysteries of the natural world
-He chances upon a book by Cornelius Agrippa, a sixteenth-century scholar of the occult sciences, and becomes interested in natural philosophy. He studies the outdated findings of the alchemists Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus with enthusiasm.
-He witnesses the destructive power of nature when, during a raging storm, lightning destroys a tree near his house. A modern natural philosopher accompanying the Frankenstein family explains to Victor the workings of electricity, making the ideas of the alchemists seem outdated and worthless. (In the 1818 version, a demonstration of electricity by his father convinces Victor of the alchemists’ mistakenness.)
Chapter 3
-At the age of 17 Victor leaves his family in Geneva to attend the university of Ingostadt
-Victor’s mother contracts Scarlet fever from Elizbeth
-Arriving at the university, he finds quarters in the town and sets up a meeting with a professor of natural philosophy, M. Krempe. Krempe tells Victor that all the time that Victor has spent studying the alchemists has been wasted, further souring Victor on the study of natural philosophy. He then attends a lecture in chemistry by a professor named Waldman. This lecture, along with a subsequent meeting with the professor, convinces Victor to pursue his studies in the sciences.
Chapter 4
-Victor attacks his studies with enthusiasm, ignoring his family and social life
-Fascinated by the mystery of life Victor begins to study how the human body is built and how it falls apart
-After several years of tireless work Victor mastered his classes is one step closer to discovering the secret of life
-Victor becomes privately hidden in his apartment – he begins the construction of the animate creature neglecting everything becoming pale and obsessed.
Chapter 5
-One stormy night, Victor completes his creation
-When the creation comes to life its awful appearance horrifies him
-Victor tries to sleep but becomes encompassed by nightmares of Elizabeth and his dead mother’s corpse
-He wakes up to discover the monster looming over his bed with a grotesque smile
-Victor spends the night pacing in his courtyard. The next morning, he goes walking in the town of Ingolstadt, frantically avoiding a return to his now-haunted apartment.
-Victor meets his friend Henry and brings him back to his apartment relieved to see no monster
-Victor becomes ill and Henry nurses him back and receives a letter from Elizabeth after his recovery
Chapter 6
-Elizabeth’s letter expresses his concerns about Victor’s illness
-She also tells him that Justine Moritz, a girl who used to live with the Frankenstein family, has returned to their house following her mother’s death.
After Victor has recovered, he introduces Henry, who is studying Oriental languages, to the professors at the university. The task is painful, however, since the sight of any chemical instrument worsens Victor’s symptoms; even speaking to his professors torments him. He decides to return to Geneva and awaits a letter from his father specifying the date of his departure. Meanwhile, he and Henry take a walking tour through the country, uplifting their spirits with the beauties of nature.
Chapter 7
-On their return to the university Victor finds a letter from his father telling Victor that his youngest brother William has been murdered
-Victor thus departs immediately for Geneva
-Walking in the woods Victor sees the monster lurking
-The next day after returning home Victor learns that Justine has been accused of murder
Chapter 8
-Justine confesses to the crime believing that she will gain salvation
-Elizabeth and Victor believe she is innocent but Justine is soon executed
-Victor becomes consumed with guilt
Chapter 9
-After Justine’s execution Victor became extremely melancholy
-Victor considers suicide and restrains himself thinking of Elizabeth and his father
-Hoping to cheer up everyone Alphonse takes the family to a home in Belrive
-Victor wanders off alone absorbing the beauty of nature
Chapter 10
-On a rainy day Victor wakes to find his old feelings of despair resurfacing
-He decides to travel to the summit of Montanvert hoping that a view of eternal nature will improve his spirits
-When reaching the glacier at the top Victor is momentarily consoled by the sublime spectacle but then notices the creature
-Victor curses the monster but the monster eloquently speaks where he narrates the events of his life
Chapter 11
-Sitting by the fire in his hut, the monster tells Victor of the confusion that he experienced upon being created
-The monster describes his flight from Victor’s apartment into the wilderness and his gradual acclimation to the world through his discovery of the sensations of light, dark, hunger, thirst.
-On day the monster finds a fire and is pleased at its warmth but becomes dismayed when he burns himself
-He realises that fire can be used for many purposes
-In search for food the monster finds a hut and enters it. His prescence causes an old man to shriek and run away
-The monster then proceeds to a village where more people flee at the sight of him. The monster takes refuge in a small hole near a cottage and within the cottage sees a young man, young women and an old man
Chapter 12
-Observing his Neighbours for an extended period of time the monster notices that they often seem unhappy but he is unsure why
-He eventually realises that their despair results from poverty to which he did by stealing his food
-Torn by his guilt conscience, the monster stops stealing their food and attempts to save them from hardship
-The monster becomes aware that his neighbors are able to communicate with each other using strange sounds. Vowing to learn their language, he tries to match the sounds they make with the actions they perform. He acquires a basic knowledge of the language, including the names of the young man and woman, Felix and Agatha. He admires their graceful forms and is shocked by his ugliness when he catches sight of his reflection in a pool of water. He spends the whole winter in the hovel, unobserved and well protected from the elements, and grows increasingly affectionate toward his unwitting hosts.
Chapter 13
-As winter thaws into spring the monster notices the cottagers seem unhappy
-. A beautiful woman in a dark dress and veil arrives at the cottage on horseback and asks to see Felix. Felix becomes ecstatic the moment he sees her. The woman, who does not speak the language of the cottagers, is named Safie. She moves into the cottage, and the mood of the household immediately brightens. As Safie learns the language of the cottagers, so does the monster. He also learns to read, and, since Felix uses Constantin-François de Volney’s Ruins of Empires to instruct Safie, he learns a bit of world history in the process
-Now able to speak and understand the language perfectly, the monster learns about human society by listening to the cottagers’ conversations. Reflecting on his own situation, he realizes that he is deformed and alone. “Was I then a monster,” he asks, “a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned?” He also learns about the pleasures and obligations of the family and of human relations in general, which deepens the agony of his own isolation.
Chapter 14
-After sometime, the monsters constant eavesdropping allows him to construct the history of the cottagers
-The old man, De Lacey, was once an affluent and successful citizen in Paris; his children, Agatha and Felix, were well-respected members of the community. Safie’s father, a Turk, was falsely accused of a crime and sentenced to death. Felix visited the Turk in prison and met his daughter, with whom he immediately fell in love. Safie sent Felix letters thanking him for his intention to help her father and recounting the circumstances of her plight (the monster tells Victor that he copied some of these letters and offers them as proof that his tale is true).
-The letter’s relate that Safie’s mother was a christian-arab who had been enslaved by the Turks
-She inculcated in Safie an independence and intelligence. Safie was eager to marry a European man and thereby escape the near-slavery that awaited her in Turkey. Felix successfully coordinated her father’s escape from prison, but when the plot was discovered, Felix, Agatha, and De Lacey were exiled from France and stripped of their wealth. They then moved into the cottage in Germany upon which the monster has stumbled. Meanwhile, the Turk tried to force Safie to return to Constantinople with him, but she managed to escape with some money and the knowledge of Felix’s whereabouts.
Chapter 15
-The monster finds an abdandoned leather satchel containing some clothes and books
-Eager to learn more about the world, he brings the books back to his hovel and begins to read
-Unaware of the fantasy of these books, the monster reads them literally and comphrends the horrific nature of himself and his creator
-Dismayed by these discoveries, the monster wishes to reveal himself to the cottagers in hope they might befriend him
-As he attempts to talk to delancy, Felix and the others run the monster away
