frankenstein

Question 1

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Answer 1

walton is about to set out on journey @sea to reach the north pole
written from russia in 18th century
purpose of journey is to discover northern passage to countries on other side of world and determine north poles magnetism
plans to rent a ship hire a crew and depart northern russia in june and isn’t sure when he’ll be back or if he ever will be

Question 2

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Answer 2

march 28th the next year
from russia walton writes that he’s lonely and worried that his upbringing was too refined that it’s made him too sensitive for brutality of the sea
resolution is to carry out his journey as fixed as fate
confesses love and passion for dangers at sea

Question 3

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Answer 3

july 7th
short letter
describes journey as a triumph
his men are loyal and weather has been fine though there have been ice in the sea which could mean it will get worse

Question 4

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Answer 4

walton says his crew have seen a huge savage figure in a dogsled speeding across the ice
next morning his crew members found a man normal sized and european by the ship
walton comes to love him as a brother the more he strengthens from the cold of the sea
walton tells stranger he’s on a quest for knowledge which upsets him - stranger is at end of his life which walton ignores and is more interested in strangers sensitivity to nature
walton promises his sister that he’ll take the story of the stranger as a narrative

Question 5

context of chapter 1 volume 1

Answer 5

the stranger (frankenstein) that robert meets tells his story, says he was born in naples and grew up in geneva (switzerland), his dad (alphonse) married his best friends daughter (caroline) after the friend died
when frankenstein was 5 his mum found a pretty blond orphan called elizabeth lavenza, in an italian village and adopted her
everyone adored her - she became more than a sister to him, they referred to eachother as cousins rather than brother and sister

Question 6

context of chapter 2 volume 1

Answer 6

frankenstein (victor) talks about his perfect childhood and how him and elizabeth got on perfectly too - although she favoured poetry and he favoured the hidden laws of nature and physical secrets when reading
elizabeth and victor both share a friendship with henry clerval (a schoolmate), like victor henry possesses a ambition to leave his mark on human history
growing up victor becomes fascinated with natural philosophy and reads a lot one day when he’s observing a lightning strike a tree - he realises that laws of science are beyond human understanding and decides to study more factual like maths rather than philosophy but says he eventually returned to it which leads to utter destruction

Question 7

context of chapter 3 volume 1

Answer 7

before victor turns 17, elizabeth gets scarlet fever, the mother can’t resist herself and looks after elizabeth but ends up getting ill too, elizabeth recovers but the mother dies
her dying wish is for victor and elizabeth to marry, still grieving victor says bye to clerval (henry, school friend), elizabeth and his dad and goes to uni in ingolstat, germany
meets professor of philosophy - M. krempe who tells him all of his studies have been a waste of time, victor then meets M waldman a chemistry professor, who inspires victor to dedicate himself further to his studies and supports his ideas

Question 8

context of chapter 4 volume 1

Answer 8

victor becomes so caught up in natural philosophy that he ignores everything else and his family, hasn’t seen them in 2 years
he progresses rapidly and after studying for 2 years he find the secret to creating life
he decides to build a race of beings starting with one creature, (the monster) and spends months alone in his apartment building a body to reanimate

Question 9

context of chapter 5 volume 1

Answer 9

after months of effort, he’s successful in bringing the creature to life but once the creature is alive the appearance of him horrifies victor as he thinks of him as a monster, he runs out of the room to try and sleep then runs outside for the night, he runs into clerval who’s come to uni to embark on a voyage of discovery
victor is happy when he sees that the monster isn’t in the apartment still - victor falls ill with a nervous fever and clerval looks after him without telling anyone about the illness- he gives him a letter from elizabeth

Question 10

context of chapter 6 volume 1

Answer 10

elizabeth writes a letter updating victor on his brothers and how justine (a former servant for them) has come to live with them after her mother died
victor introduces clerval to his professors, victor finds that natural philosophy stresses him out so he gives up the studies for a while and studies middle eastern language with clerval
at the end of term victor and clerval wait to travel back to geneva and they take a tour around germany which rekindles victors love for nature

Question 11

context of chapter 7 volume 1

Answer 11

when victor returns from germany he gets a letter from his dad saying his youngest brother william has been murdered (by monster)
victor and clerval go to geneva - town gate is locked when they get there, victor visits spot where his brother died - sees lightning
victor sees figure that looks like the monster - realises monster killed william which means he’s responsible since he created the monster
he arrives home and his other brother ernest tells him that justine has been accused for the murder, they found a picture of victors mother in her pocket
victor says that she’s innocent but nothing else as he’s scared people will think he’s insane if they know
victor is confident justine won’t be convicted of the crime

Question 12

context of chapter 8 volume 1

Answer 12

victor feels guilty and wishes he could confess in justines place, but it wouldn’t make any sense
justine remains innocent at the trial but can’t explain why the picture was in her pocket - she’s sentenced to death
victor speaks as a member at court who says justine has already confessed to crime, victor and elizabeth visit justine in prison and explains that she felt pressured to confess by her jailors - she confessed a lie
next day justine is executed - victor feels overwhelming guilt

Question 13

context of chapter 1 volume 2

Answer 13

• victor despairs that his good intentions have resulted in such horror
• the frankensteins go to their family home in belrive to escape the grief
• victor still has suicidal thoughts and desires revenge against the monster
• victor decides to travel to chamonix, france hoping the trip will provide relief, he looks at the waterfalls and it reminds him of happier times

Question 14

context of chapter 2 volume 2

Answer 14

• victor continues to feel despair
• tries to escape it through nature while climbing a mountain and sees the monster
• curses it to have destruction
• monster talks to him and begs him to listen to his story

Question 15

context of chapter 3 volume 2

Answer 15

• monster talks about early days of being created and how he learnt about fires and how he felt hungry and cold
• wherever the monster goes his appearance scares everyone so he decides to avoid them, and finds a place near a cottage
• observes the family inside it - a man and woman and an older man and watches them do their daily tasks

Question 16

context of chapter 4 volume 2

Answer 16

• monster wonders why family is unhappy and sees that it’s because the old man is blind and the family is poor and hungry
• monster gathers wood for them and leaves it outside their cottage at night
• learns their language and that the young man is called felix and the girl is called agatha
• one day the monster sees himself in reflection of a pool of water and understands why people get scared, yet he becomes convinced that he could get the family to see past his appearance if he’s nice to them

Question 17

context of chapter 5 volume 2

Answer 17

• an arabian women called safie comes to the cottage and everyone’s mood gets better, especially felix
• safie doesn’t speak the family’s language and felix teaches her from a history book, the monster learns as she does
• as the monster learns about society and humans he realises that he has no society of his own, which makes him miserable

Question 18

context of chapter 6 volume 2

Answer 18

• monster learns that the family are called the de lacey’s, and that safies dad was a wealthy turkish man living in paris who was wrongly accused of a crime
• felix offered to help her dad escape from prison and fell in love with safie
• the dad offered safies hand in marriage in exchange for helping them escape, they all escaped to italy but then felix role was discovered and they lost their wealth and the de lacey’s were banned by the government
• felix returned to his family assuming that safies dad would uphold his promise but he went back on it, saying he didn’t want his daughter marrying a christian
• safies mum who was a christian arab had taught her to be independent and curious however this wasn’t encouraged by her dad in his islamic society so when safies dad tried to force her to go to turkey with him she escaped to find felix

Question 19

context of chapter 7 volume 2

Answer 19

monster says how he read paradise lost and relates to the poem about the garden of eden and feels like he’s adam yet others see him as satan because he doesn’t love his creator
monster says how he read some of victors journal entries which turned out to be about his creation
the monster decides to reveal himself in hope that the de lacey’s will see past his ugliness, when everyone but the old man are out he goes in and introduces himself but then they get back and attack him and he flees

Question 20

context of chapter 8 volume 2

Answer 20

family’s rejection of the monster makes him angry and he spirals but the beauty the next day calms him and he decides to approach de lacey again
but they’ve moved out, his last link of society is destroyed and he burns the cottage down and heads to geneva to find victor
at one point he finds a girl drowning in a lake and saves her but then is shot, so feels more revenge
he finds william and thinks he’ll be too young to be scared of him but is wrong and william shouts for frankenstein, the monster hearing the name enraged him and he strangles william to death
monster finds a barn to sleep in that night but sees a beautiful girl sleeping there, he puts the picture of william in her pocket,
monster demands for victor to make him a female companion

Question 21

context of chapter 9 volume 2

Answer 21

victor refuses to make the monster a girlfriend because he fears it will cause more destruction and death, the monster argues his violence stems from misery and loneliness and victor is responsible for that misery
monster says they will both flee to south america and avoid human contact forever if he makes him a woman
victor agrees, monster says he will monitor his progress and then leaves

Question 22

context of chapter 1 volume 3

Answer 22

victor begins to question how wise it is to create another monster so puts it off, realises to do it he needs to go to england
his father senses his distress and thinks it stems from a reluctance to marry elizabeth, victor assured him it’s not - his father suggests they marry immediately as it would cure the family’s sorrow but he doesn’t want to marry with the monsters request hanging over him and uses the trip to england as an excuse to put the wedding off
they agree he will go for less than a year and clerval will join him to persue his studies

Question 23

context of chapter 2 volume 3

Answer 23

victor and clerval arrive in london in october, victor avoids people unless they have info that will help him create a second monster
clerval in contrast - is how victor used to be, excited by learning and wanting to meet and talk to everyone
they travel to scotland and then victor leaves clerval with a friend and travels alone, he goes to a remote island in the orkneys and sets his lab up and works on the second monster

Question 24

context of chapter 3 volume 3

Answer 24

one night victor worries that the second monster won’t want to stay away from humans or that the two of them would produce a ‘race of devils’ and then he sees the monster grinning at him at the window, victor destroys his work and the monster howls in agony and disappears
hours later he returns and vows revenge and promises he will be with him on his wedding night - victor thinks he means to kill him and leave elizabeth as a widow (foreshadows)
a letter arrives from clerval suggesting they go back to travelling and victor goes to dump his equipment and takes a nap in his boat but he wakes up in rough weather and can’t get back to shore so panics
when he lands a group of angry townspeople gather round his boat and he is suspected of a murder that occurred the previous night and sent to meet the local magistrate (mr kirwin)

Question 25

context of chapter 4 volume 3

Answer 25

victor learns that a man in his mid 20s was found dead on shore with black marks on his neck and various witnesses say that a boat like victors was seen at sea, he’s taken to see the body and is clerval - he remains bedridden and dilusional for 2 months
when he gets better he sees he’s still in prison, mr kirwin treats him kindly and says he will be freed
victors father came to see him - 2 weeks later he’s released because they didn’t have any proper evidence against him, victor returns to geneva with his father

Question 26

context of chapter 5 volume 3

Answer 26

victor and his dad stop in paris so victor can get his strength back - his dad tries to get him to reingage with society but victor feels he doesn’t have a right to, he tells his dad how he murdered all of the people but his dad thinks he’s deranged
victor gets a letter from elizabeth saying she wants to marry him but worries he’s got someone else from his travels - he writes back saying he wants to marry immediately but adds he has a bad secret he’ll tell her the day after they marry
a week later victor and his dad arrive in geneva - the wedding is 10 days later, victor and elizabeth sail to a cottage in italy for their honeymoon, victor worries about the monsters promise and elizabeth tries to reassure him and points out the beauty of nature but it doesn’t help

Question 27

context of chapter 6 volume 3

Answer 27

a storm arrives after they get to the cottage, victor is armed with a gun for the monster and elizabeth goes to bed for her own safety, victor hears a scream and elizabeth has been murdered by the monster, he tries to shoot him but misses
victor goes back to geneva and tells his father, he dies a few days later from the shock
victor goes mad for a few months, he retells the whole story to a local magistrate who doesn’t believe him
victor wants to seek revenge

Question 28

context of chapter 7 volume 3

Answer 28

victor leaves geneva and visits graves of his family and hears laughter of monster, tries to track him for months in the arctic regions led by clues and notes form the monster, he sees him and is a mile away but the ice breaks with his sled beneath him
walton’s ship rescues him and the narrative becomes present and victor is dying on the boat, begs walton to get revenge from the monster if he sees him
walton writes to his sister saying they have to go back because it’s getting too dangerous and his crew are scared, walton says he’d rather die than go back
victor dies - he hears a noise in the cabin and it’s the monster and the monster says he hates himself for what he’s done and promises to kill himself and then disappears