Frankenstein

Question 1

Characteristics of Romanticism:

Answer 1

1. Obsessive interest in the medieval era
2. Emotion over reason
3. Appreciation of the beauties of nature
4. Interest in the exotic, mysterious, occult, and weird
5. Preoccupation with the hero
6. Love of artists
7. Naturalistic or kinship sentiment
8. individual over society
9. emphasis on imagination
10. freedom over control and authority

Question 2

Who is the protagonist of Frankenstein?

Answer 2

The doomed protagonist and narrator of the main portion of the story. Studying in Ingolstadt, Victor discovers the secret of life and creates an intelligent but grotesque monster, from whom he recoils in horror. Victor keeps his creation of the monster a secret, feeling increasingly guilty and ashamed as he realizes how helpless he is to prevent the monster from ruining his life and the lives of others.

Question 3

Who is the main narrator of Frankenstein?

Answer 3

Robert Walton

The Arctic seafarer whose letters open and close Frankenstein. Walton picks the bedraggled Victor Frankenstein up off the ice, helps nurse him back to health, and hears Victor’s story. He records the incredible tale in a series of letters addressed to his sister, Margaret Saville, in England.

Question 4

Who are Victor’s family?

Answer 4

Alphonse Frankenstein

• Victor’s father

Caroline Frankenstein

• Victor’s mother

Elizabeth

• adopted child of the Frankensteins
• wife
• dies hand of monster

Question 5

What is a Byronic Hero?

Answer 5

a self tormented outcast who is cynical and contemptuous of societal norms and is suffering from some unnamed or mysterious sin or dark past. Yet still handsome and attractive. The “bad boy.”

Question 6

Theme (Frankenstein): Ambition

Answer 6

One of Victor’s chief motivators for creating the monster is to create life; his ambitions drive him to near insanity. While he creates the monster, he barely sleeps, eats, or take time to consider the possible consequences of his actions. However, as the quotation indicates, Frankenstein expresses remorse over his choices and discourages others from going down the same path.

Question 7

Theme (Frankenstein): Revenge

Answer 7

The reason Frankenstein’s creation decides to murder his creator’s entire family is motivated by revenge; furthermore, a lot of the characters’ actions are fueled by retribution. In the first quotation, Frankenstein’s creation is about to kill Victor’s brother (William) because he is angry at humans for depriving him of companionship. In the second quotation, after committing the crime, the monster revels in the fact that he can make humans and desolate as they have made him feel.

Leading to his death, Victor is also on a tiresome pursuit of revenge for his family. He gives up all his prospects – and eventually, his life – for vengeance.

Question 8

Theme (Frankenstein): Life and death

Answer 8

Another central theme in Frankenstein is life and death. In the first quotation, Frankenstein wanted to break the hold that death has over the world by resurrecting the dead. However, he loses his own life (his potential career, his family, and his motivation to live). In the second quote, Victor reflects on the struggle between the monster and himself; he is like God (the creator), and the monster (the created) is similar to the human population. The monster – which he gave life to – take away his own life in the end.

Question 9

Theme (Frankenstein): The Danger of Knowledge

Answer 9

Victor tries to reach further than any human before him by creating life. Similarly, the sailor Robert Walton wants to travel further than any man before him. However, the pursuit of knowledge proves to be dangerous. In the first quotation, Robert thinks that the peril he and his companions face is worth it to acquire knowledge. In the third quotation, Victor expresses the same sentiment. However, Victor learns that this path will eventually lead to ruin; Frankenstein dies, and the sailor abandons his journey.

Additionally, Shelley wrote Frankenstein during the Industrial Revolution. During this period, many advances were made, some of which were very dangerous.

Question 10

Theme (Frankenstein): Alienation

Answer 10

Frankenstein suggests that alienation from society is both the cause and effect of villainy. At the beginning of the story, the monster had no intention of causing anyone harm; he helped the cottagers, as well as the drowning girl. However, after his creator and society rejected him, the monster wends down a horrible path and declares war on humanity. In the second quotation, the monster urges Robert to sympathize with his situation because society is to blame as well. However, Frankenstein argues that the monster was inherently evil, so he is naturally rejected by society.

Question 11

Theme: Life, Conciousness, and Existance

Answer 11

1. In what ways is Victor like God? In what ways is he not? Are we supposed to admire Victor, or be alarmed—very alarmed—at his life’s goal?
2. Does Victor have a responsibility to the monster beyond giving it life? Does every creator have a responsibility to what he creates? What does that mean in the context of “creation” as opposed to, say, motherhood or fatherhood?
3. Shelley seems to think that the monster is basically a blank slate. He’s born without any sense of who he is and learns through his reading and interactions with people. Is she suggesting that we’re all born good and then turned evil by society?
4. The monster appears to be a blank slate, but Frankenstein seems to suggest that it was his “destiny” to turn out the way he did. Are these contradictory ideas?

Shelley suggests that all men, women, and monsters are born essentially the same, and we’re made different by our experiences.

Frankenstein suggests that our experiences are only part of our personalities; we’re all born with essential parts of our consciousness formed.

Question 12

Symbolism (Frankenstein): “Ancient Mariner”

Answer 12

It is an allusion to the “Ancient Mariner.” In the “Ancient Mariner,” the albatross saves the party from a storm and provides wind to their sails, so Robert means that he will heed to those who help him. When he listens to Victor’s plea not to become obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge, Robert listens to him and returns home, meaning he is not like the mariner.

Question 13

Symbolism (Frankenstein): thirst for knowledge

Answer 13

The exploration that Walton is on symbolizes the frenzied thirst for knowledge that possesses Frankenstein. Like the ice, it stretched out in every direction, meaning that the end is unknown to man, and it is dangerous and irregular because it is unknown and mysterious.

Question 14

Symbolism (Frankenstein): Adam and God

Answer 14

The monster compares himself to Adam and Victor to God. Firstly, he says that he was like Adam – full of potential and virtue – but he became like a fallen angel, also God’s creation but villainous and evil. He says that if Victor makes him happy by giving him an “Eve,” he will no longer be evil.

Question 15

Symbolism (Frankenstein): Adam symbolizes the monster

Answer 15

Another Biblical allusion, Adam symbolizes the monster. He was the “first of his kind,” similarly to how Adam was the first human being. However, then the monster says that he and Adam are “different in every other respect,” which means that while Adam was created to be excellent and beautiful, Frankenstein’s monster was atrocious and forsaken by his creator.

Question 16

The alternative title for Frankenstein meaning:

Answer 16

The alternative title for Frankenstein is The Modern Prometheus. In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a titan that purloins fire from Zeus for the humans. As punishment he was tied to a rock, and an eagle ate his liver daily. His story is a symbol for Victor, who “stole” the ability to give life from supernatural beings, and his punishment is to feel the pain of losing his wife, brother, and father daily.

Question 17

Theme: Ignorance is Bliss

Answer 17

• The power of human reason, through science and technology challenged many traditional precepts about the world and man’s relationship with his creator.
• Shelley details this theme in her book, making an allusion to the counter-humanist idea in chapter four (Letters IV) when Victor warns Walton not to follow in his footsteps, saying, “Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.”
• To Shelley and many others of her time, some riddles of nature should never be discovered by man. Those mysteries should be left alone.
• Even the alternate title, The Modern Prometheus, undeniably relates this point. Prometheus, a figure in Greek mythology, took fire from the gods in order to give it to man and consequently suffered eternal punishment. Clearly, Victor Frankenstein is this mo

Question 18

Theme: Humans are cruel to those who are different

Answer 18

• Human injustice towards outsiders breeds violence. The monster laments over man’s cruelty to those who are different.
• Frankenstein’s monster is an outcast-he doesn’t belong in human society. Yet the monster’s alienation from society, his unfulfilled desire for a companion with whom to share his life, and his ongoing struggle for revenge, are all shared by his creator. As the story develops, Victor becomes increasingly like his creation.
• Both live in relative isolation from society, both hate their own miserable lives, and both know suffering.
• Shelley, through this theme, paints a very bleak portrait of man and his relationship with outsiders, as well as the cruel vengeance of society.

Question 19

Theme: 3. Relationships are fragile

Answer 19

Many, if not all, of the relationships in Frankenstein end in pain and loss. This is especially true of those that are connected to Frankenstein. Perhaps by the inclusion of this anecdote of his parents, the author is attempting to illustrate that even though there is a chance of pain and loss whenever one enters a relationship, there is also a great benefit. The illustrations of Victor’s father and Beaufort’s relationship and then how Victor’s father stepped in to not only save Caroline but eventually marry her serve to prove that even though there is a risk in any relationship, they are necessary and good. Conversely, the lack of human and compassion relationships causes the Creature to becomes cruel.

Question 20

Theme: Selfishness is destructive

Answer 20

• Consider Victor and his selfish scientific work. His scientific pursuits absorb him and its two years before he visits his family.
• As Victor attempts to create a human being, he progressively becomes less human. He tortures living creatures, neglects his family, haunts cemeteries.
• As his morals suffer, so does his health. He becomes pale and emaciated.

Question 21

Themes: indicts society for its sexist viewpoints

Answer 21

A last, subtler theme, indicts society for its sexist viewpoints.

• Throughout his narrative, Victor portrays women as weak, suffering, subservient beings who live for and depend on the men in their lives.
• Surely Shelley experienced this in her own life, though she may or may not have agreed with it. Ironically, the monster-the one who Victor calls a barbarian-has a very progressive notion of the opposite sex.
• He believes that men and women are largely equal, not being brought up in Frankenstein’s pre-feminist culture.
• The monster’s desire for a female companion does not convey a desire to rule over a woman or a belief that a woman should be dependent on him, but it simply shows his need for an equal companion with whom to share his sufferings.

Question 22

Motifs in Frankenstein:

Answer 22

• Consequences of irresponsibility in the pursuit of knowledge
• Consequences of pride
• Consequences of society’s rejection of someone who is unattractive
• Destructive power of revenge, Frustration, Vengeance
• Parent-child conflicts
• Intolerance/Cruelty
• Sympathy • Achievement, Sensitivitity
• Exile—what happens to a person pushed outside of society
• Responsibility or lack of responsibility
• Outcasts: The creature becomes more violent as a result from being shunned from society.
• Isolation: The solitary character in Frankenstein can apply to both the creator and his creation as they both live their lives in social isolation.

Question 23

Irony in Frankenstein:

Answer 23

• Creature is more sympathetic, more imaginative and more responsible to fellow creatures
• Creature has many pleasing qualities but is an outcast because he’s not physically attractive
• The monster ultimately controls the creator. The protagonist and his creation demonstrate an imagination ungoverned by moral values. Frankenstein’s creation questions the role of imagination in our lives and consequences of separating it from ethical implications. (A favorite horror device of the Gothic movement is finding a person trapped by his own circumstance.) He longs to destroy that which he desperately created
• Mr. DeLacy, who is blind, recognizes the creatures compassion and friendship.

Question 24

Allusions:

Answer 24

Prometheus: benefactor of Mankind in Greek myth. Gave fire and technology to man. Father of civilization.

• Dr. Frankenstein as the maker of “Frankenstein” is a Modern Prometheus.
• He uses Science to probe the depths of nature and to steal the secret of life, just as Prometheus stole Fire from Zeus.
• Both Prometheus and Dr. Frankenstein are tragic victims on account of their “thefts” on behalf of civilization
• However, Prometheus is a martyr and Dr. Frankenstein is shown to be culpable.
• Like Prometheus, Victor was impatient with limitations and felt the universe held from humans something we deserve. Once we become intoxicated by the quest we will stop at nothing to get it. Promethean fever causes us to be dangerously out of touch with reality through the misuse of imagination and creativity.

Question 25

Sickness:

Answer 25

Throughout Frankenstein , several characters, but especially Victor, grow sick during periods of extreme stress. Frankenstein demonstrates such illness after he creates the monster and especially after his friend, Clerval, dies. Other characters, such as his mother and father, also experience extreme sickness, yet to Victor, at least, sickness serves as an escape from life’s harsh reality. It also seems to foreshadow horrible, future events-Victor always seems to realize the terrible hold fate has over him.

Question 26

Weather/Nature

Answer 26

The weather also serves as a quiet metaphor throughout the novel. Like sickness, it too, foreshadows coming events. For example, the storm of the night of William’s murder seems to foreshadow the impending misery brought on by the monster. Both Victor and the monster have their spirits lifted during warm weather. To Victor, the Alps are a place of self-reflection and spiritual awakening. Yet the cold, stormy weather (the arctic north near the end of the story, for example, or the rain storm on Victor’s wedding night), indicates deep depression and thoughts of death, underscoring how desperate Victor’s and the monster’s circumstances have become while reminding them of their impending doom. Clearly, the weather corresponds to the characters’ attitudes. Likewise, Victor’s love but eventual disillusionment with nature reveals his love and disillusionment with life itself, after the monster makes his life a living nightmare. As always, Frankenstein’s love turns to contempt and self-loathing as his creature grows increasingly vengeful.

Question 27

What questions did Mary Shelley deal with?

Answer 27

1. Should there be limits to scientific inquiry?
2. What’s the relationship between human rationality and human emotion?
3. What’s the role of the individual in relation to society, or to the family?

Question 28

Theme: Fate and Free Will

Answer 28

In Frankenstein, people are masters of their own destinies. Victor only blames fate because he’s looking for an excuse.

No one in Frankenstein can be held responsible for his actions, because fate is stronger than free will.

We can’t exactly see Victor singing “Born This Way” (but we like to imagine it). At the same time, that’s basically his anthem: over and over, he tells us that he just couldn’t help it. It was destiny. It was fate. He was meant to discover the secret of life. Great! So, Frankenstein definitely agrees that we’re born to certain paths; we’re controlled by our genes (or whatever they thought of as genes in the early nineteenth century), and we just can’t help it.

Not so fast. First, Mary’s revisions to the 1831 edition made fate way more important than it was in the original 1818 edition (source). Second, there’s the whole issue of the monster, who seems to make some pretty clear choices about his behavior. Sure, he blames his looks and his dad and, well, everyone he encounters. But does that mean he didn’t have a choice?

So, truth: does Frankenstein believe in free will? Or does it believe in fate? And what kind of fate does it seem to believe in—God? Destiny? Karma? Cause-and-effect? Genes? Upbringing?

1. Is the monster evil because of his family (or lack thereof), or is he evil because he’s assembled from a collection of corpse parts?
2. The early nineteenth century may not have known about DNA, but it placed a lot of emphasis on “breeding,” like who your parents were (and their parents, and their parents). Is that just another word for “nurture” in the timeless “nature vs. nurture” debate, or is the emphasis on parentage more like our understanding of genetics?

Question 29

Theme: Sacrifice

Answer 29

Victor wants to destroy the monster more out of a desire for revenge than any noble ideas about self-sacrifice.

Frankenstein criticizes the very idea of self-sacrifice as individualistic and selfish.

You know who sacrifices himself to save humanity? Jesus. And, if you were an ancient Greek or Roman, Prometheus. Does that make Victor a god-like figure? Or does he just want to think of himself as a god-like hero? After all, Victor’s self-sacrifice also includes the sacrifice of those he loves, so—work with us here—it seems more an act of inhumane, self-absorbed injustice than like love for humanity. In Frankenstein, Victor decides to be a hero in his own mind rather than preserving the lives of those he loves. Thanks, but we can do without that kind of sacrifice.

1. Is Victor sacrificing himself or his family when he chooses to destroy the monster? Does he realize that he’s going to be sacrificing his family along with himself?
2. When Victor destroys the monster’s mate instead of finishing it, is he truly enacting a self-sacrifice, or is he using self-sacrifice as an excuse to exact revenge on the monster for killing William and making Victor feel so guilty?
3. Is Victor a Christ figure? Is he a Prometheus figure? (Check out “What’s Up With the Title?” for thoughts on that.) What are the differences between a Christ figure and a Prometheus figure?

Question 30

What is the purpose of the alterative title “The Modern Prometheus?”

Answer 30

Now let’s get to the good stuff. The book’s subtitle is “The Modern Prometheus,” a reference to Classical myth about a Titan named (surprise!) Prometheus. Prometheus makes man (as in, the first man) out of clay—and then makes the big mistake of stealing fire from the Gods so that man can, you know, survive. And then he’s punished in a ridiculously painful manner involving birds tearing out and eating his liver. Every single day.

What does this have to do with Frankenstein? Well, a lot. First, check out “Symbols” for our thoughts on fire. And then come back (we’ll wait), and think about how Victor Frankenstein decidedly doesn’t take care of the monster the way Prometheus cared for man. And then prepare to have your mind blown when you learn that the philosopher Immanuel Kant called Ben Franklin the “Prometheus of modern times” in reference to his experiments with electricity (source). Franklin —Frankenstein —does that spark (groan) any ideas?

Question 31

How does Victor justify his actions?

Answer 31

Luckily, Frankenstein gives us a really detailed account of his personality as a child. “The world,” he says, “was to me a secret which I desired to divine” (2.1); “Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature … are among the earliest sensations I can remember”; and “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn” (2.4).

Anyone else getting a little mad scientist vibe, here? The point is, Victor tells us (1) that he’s curious, and more importantly, (2) he’s always been this way. By insisting that he’s been curious since he was a little kid, he almost makes it so we can’t blame him for his actions. He was just born this way.

Victor even gives us a little more evidence that he’s just victim of his genes by pointing out that he had a happy childhood:

My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence. We felt that they were not the tyrants to rule our lot according to their caprice, but the agents and creators of all the many delights which we enjoyed. When I mingled with other families I distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate my lot was, and gratitude assisted the development of filial love. (2.3)

But is that convincing? Is Victor really trying to absolve himself of any responsibility by insisting that he just couldn’t help himself?

Not entirely … because he also seems to blame his father and his teachers. When he starts obsessing over the alchemist Cornelius Agrippa, he blames his father for not “tak[ing] the pains to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded” (2.7) and then leaving him to “struggle with a child’s blindness” (2.9). And then, when he finally goes off to university, his teacher of natural philosophy M. Krempeis a “little squat man with a gruff voice and repulsive countenance” (3.12)—which sends him straight off to study chemistry with the sexy M. Waldman:

This professor was very unlike his colleague. He appeared about fifty years of age, but with an aspect expressive of the greatest benevolence; a few grey hairs covered his temples, but those at the back of his head were nearly black. His person was short but remarkably erect and his voice the sweetest I had ever heard. (3.14)

Again, Victor makes excuses. He couldn’t help being interested in chemistry because M. Krempe was uglyand M. Waldman was essentially George Clooney. He couldn’t help wanting to know the secrets of nature. He couldn’t help that his father didn’t tell him not to waste time with alchemists. It’s destiny’s fault: “Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction” (2.12). Does this sound like a man who’s repentant that he created (in more ways than one) a terrible monster?

Question 32

Intellectual questions of Shelley’s time:

Answer 32

1. Should there be limits to scientific inquiry?
2. What’s the relationship between human rationality and human emotion?
3. What’s the role of the individual in relation to society, or to the family?

Question 33

Theme: Science

Answer 33

It’s a warning about the abuse and misuse of science by ignorant or irresponsible individuals. Frankenstein’s problem? No one ever bothered to teach him ethics or responsibility or good old common sense. Frankenstein might not be anti-science as much as pro-humanities.

Questions About Science

1. How is alchemy portrayed in Frankenstein? What does alchemy even mean in the context of this book? Is Frankenstein’s monster the product of alchemy or of science?
2. What’s the difference, in this book anyway, between “alchemy” and “science”? Does Victor see them as the same thing? Is this the real problem here, that he’s calling it “science” when it is clearly not? Or is what he does science after all?
3. What is it about science that is terrifying enough to merit a cautionary tale about obsessively pushing the boundaries of that field? Doesn’t it seem rather quaint to be afraid of nineteenth-century science? What about 21st century science? Has our discourse (language) changed when we talk about science, or is Frankenstein still relevant?

Victor considers his creation to be an act of science, but he thinks the rest of society would call it an act of evil. In fact, Frankenstein argues that there is no difference between the two.

Frankenstein thinks science is neutral; it’s the scientists we have to watch out for.

Question 34

Theme: Appearence

Answer 34

Beauty may only be skin deep, but, as Shmoop’s campus gym once advertised, no one can see your brain from twenty feet away. Sure, Frankenstein seems to criticize the idea that beauty indicates inner virtue. The monster may be ugly, but deep down he’s just a lonely guy who wants somebody to love. At the same time, all the nicest people in the book (Elizabeth, Safie, Felix, and Agatha) are also beautiful—and the monster may start out good, but he sure doesn’t waste time becoming a murderer. Are we supposed to agree that inner beauty is all that matters? Or would Shelley just call that simplistic thinking?

Questions About Appearances

1. Frankenstein is full of the beauty of the natural world. What does this have to do with the monster’s ugliness? Is he ugly because he was created by man?
2. The monster believes it is his ugliness that keeps him alienated from society. Is that true? Does he murder because he’s ostracized? Or is he ostracized because he murders?
3. Why do you think goodness is linked to outer beauty and evilness linked to ugliness? What does media today indicate about the relationship between beauty and goodness, or ugliness and evil?

In Frankenstein, there’s no difference between inner and outer beauty: what’s outside always ends up reflecting what’s inside.

Shelley suggests that appearances can indicate someone’s inner self, but only because society inevitably reacts to beautiful people in a way that makes them able to be good—and to ugly people in a way that makes them turn out evil.

Question 35

Theme: Family

Answer 35

Victor, the monster, and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air have one thing in common: Parents just don’t understand. If only Victor’s dad had taken the time to explain why Agrippa wasn’t worth reading instead of just muttering about the trash kids these days read, maybe the whole tragedy would have been averted. Or so he says. Frankenstein might seem to suggest that having a good family is the solution to all of society’s problems (like murderous monsters), but we’re not so sure. The one nice family we see ends up exiled in a cottage in the middle of the woods. It’s not much of an advertisement for family togetherness.

Questions About Family

1. What is the significance of the peasant family in relation to the rest of the story? Is it supposed to be a model for us to emulate? Or are there problems with their family, too?
2. Why is it important that Walton is writing letters to his sister? Would the action have held different significance if he were writing to his wife or a friend? (Think about the other sister figures in this text, as well as the other wife or lover figures.)
3. William’s death foreshadows further tragedy in the book. But does it also have meaning in the sense that William is Victor’s brother? Why is the brother the first to go?

Victor’s mother’s death is the impetus for his creating the monster. Because such an event was beyond his control, Victor is morally exonerated from responsibility for the tragedy that follows.

Walton’s need for a friend mirrors the need the monster has for a mate. Gender doesn’t matter in Frankenstein’s relationships: the point is closeness and intimacy, not sex.

Question 36

Theme: Exploration

Answer 36

Waltondoesn’t exactly start his first letter by writing, “The North Pole … the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the S.S. Prometheus,” but he might as well. Like Victor, Walton is definitely trying to boldly go where no man has gone before. Only, unlike Star Trek, their journeys don’t end up in mutual tolerance and reflective captain’s logs: Victor’s ends in tragedy, and Walton’s ends in defeat. Frankenstein might not be completely anti-science, but we’re pretty sure Shelley would have agreed with the Prime Directive.

Questions About Exploration

1. Some critics have suggested that exploration in Frankenstein is a metaphor for the scientific method. True, or not so true? How so?
2. After Victor dies, Walton gives up on his exploration and returns to England. What’s up with that?
3. What is the distinction between exploration and obsession? Why might these two things have such different outcomes? According to Frankenstein, can a person be committed to an endeavor without being obsessed?

Walton’s desire for geographic exploration has the same potential for catastrophic results as Victor’s studies in alchemy and science. Shelley’s warning, therefore, extends far further than to purely scientific fields.

Shelley would have refused to get a smartphone and spent a lot of time muttering about how the Internet was ruining civilization.

Question 37

Theme: Sacrifice

Answer 37

You know who sacrifices himself to save humanity? Jesus. And, if you were an ancient Greek or Roman, Prometheus. Does that make Victor a god-like figure? Or does he just want to think of himself as a god-like hero? After all, Victor’s self-sacrifice also includes the sacrifice of those he loves, so—work with us here—it seems more an act of inhumane, self-absorbed injustice than like love for humanity. In Frankenstein, Victor decides to be a hero in his own mind rather than preserving the lives of those he loves. Thanks, but we can do without that kind of sacrifice.

Questions About Sacrifice:

1. Is Victor sacrificing himself or his family when he chooses to destroy the monster? Does he realize that he’s going to be sacrificing his family along with himself?
2. When Victor destroys the monster’s mate instead of finishing it, is he truly enacting a self-sacrifice, or is he using self-sacrifice as an excuse to exact revenge on the monster for killing William and making Victor feel so guilty?
3. Is Victor a Christ figure? Is he a Prometheus figure? (Check out “What’s Up With the Title?” for thoughts on that.) What are the differences between a Christ figure and a Prometheus figure?

Victor wants to destroy the monster more out of a desire for revenge than any noble ideas about self-sacrifice.

Frankenstein criticizes the very idea of self-sacrifice as individualistic and selfish.

Question 38

How is Victor the Romantic Hero?

Answer 38

Victor appears to see nature as being beyond his control. It’s massive, overpowering, frightening, and yet somehow “beautiful”: in other words, it’s sublime.

But even here, we think Victor isn’t entirely honest with himself. When he first gets to the valley, he communes with nature: “Dear mountains! my own beautiful lake! how do you welcome your wanderer? Your summits are clear; the sky and lake are blue and placid. Is this to prognosticate peace, or to mock at my unhappiness?” (7.20).

Notice how he can’t help talking about “his” mountains and lake, as though nature exists just to make him feel better? Okay, we could forgive him that—but then we remembered that he describes himself as always wanting to “penetrate the secrets of nature” (2.7).

Hm. We’re no Freudians, but we can’t help thinking that Dr. Frankenstein might still have some issues to work out—and, given what happens to this perfect Romantic and everyone he loves, that Mary Shelley might have some issues to bring up with her husband.

Question 39

Character analysis: the Monster (Heart of Gold)

Answer 39

When the monster describes himself, it’s all sunshine and light. He has visions of “amiable and lovely creatures” keeping him company (15.11); he admires Agatha and Felix as “superior beings” (12.17); he describes himself as having “good dispositions” and tells De Lacey that “my life has been hitherto harmless and in some degree beneficial” (15.25); and he uses “extreme labour” to rescue a young girl from drowning” (16.19). But no matter what he does, his actions are always misinterpreted. Felix and Agatha think he’s come to attack their father; the public assumes he’s trying to murder the young girl instead of rescuing her; William Frankenstein assumes that he’s going to kill him.

The moment he’s accused of trying to murder the girl is a real turning point for the monster.

This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone. The feelings of kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth. Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind. (16.19-20)

Essentially, Shelley seems to be saying that we (society) get the monsters we deserve. By neglecting and shunning people with socially unacceptable appearances or behaviors, we create mass murderers. (Hm, sounds surprisingly like an anti-bullying PSA.) If we accept the monster’s word—that he was born good and made evil—then one of the book’s major moral points is that we as a society have a responsibility to reach out to our outcast members.

Question 40

Character analysis: the Monster as a superhero

Answer 40

In Victor’s “Character Analysis,” we suggested that Shelley wrote him based on the Romantic ideas of her husband and his friends: an individual who went beyond society’s norms to bring enlightenment back to us poor mortals. And we saw how well that worked out for Victor. But what if we saw the monster as a Romantic figure, too? Check out his description of himself:

I was dependent on none and related to none. The path of my departure was free, and there was none to lament my annihilation. My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred. (15.5)

If you leave out the bit about the “hideous” person, this is a pitch-perfect description of a Romantic hero: a radically independent dude who won’t let the man tell him what to do, a kind of superhero who sets out to solve the mysteries of life. (If you want to hear this theory with more $10 words, check out this 1964 article.)

And if you want more proof that Shelley may have intended the monster to be heroic, check out this description of his strength:

I was not even of the same nature as man. I was more agile than they and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs. (13.17)

Monster? Maybe. But if you closed your eyes, he’d sound a lot like a better version of humanity.

Question 41

The Monster: Adam or Satan?

Answer 41

If you’re feeling pretty conflicted about the monster right now, that’s because he’s supposed to be essentially dualistic. Is he good or evil? Is he a lesser type of man, or a greater type of man? Is he Adam—or is he Satan?

The Adam/ Satan duality is super important, because one of the monster’s favorite books is Paradise Lost. In Paradise Lost, Milton suggests that Satan is jealous ofAdam for having Eve and a sweet garden to live in. Sounds a lot like the monster, right? Sure. Unless we think of him as a better type of man, and as (along with Mrs. Monster) the founder of a new breed of ugly but heroic creatures. Look at the way he describes his plan for the future:

I will go to the vast wilds of South America. My food is not that of man; I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment. My companion will be of the same nature as myself and will be content with the same fare. We shall make our bed of dried leaves; the sun will shine on us as on man and will ripen our food. (17.9)

Eating berries, living in the “wilds,” sleeping in the leaves, not to mention being “created” rather than born: it sounds a lot like Book 5 of Paradise Lost. So, which is it?

Well, both. The whole point (we think) is that the monster is both. He’s both good and bad. He’s a little scientist, trying to figure out the secrets of life—and then setting fire to the ants he’s been studying with a microscope. (Figuratively, folks.) He loves people, but he hates them. He wants to run away and live in the woods, and he just wants his mommy to love him. In other words, he’s a lot like us.

Question 42

How is Walton a “mad scientist?”

Answer 42

When the story opens, Walton is like Victor Lite. Instead of wanting to penetrate the secrets of nature, he wants to reach the North Pole—but in every other way, these guys have a lot in common. Like Victor’s, Walton’s education was “neglected” (Letter 2.2); like Victor, he’s really attached to his sister (although in this case, he’s not supposed to marry his sister, so we guess that’s an improvement).

At the same, Walton is also kind of like the monster. He’s lonely: “I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine … I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve or amend my plans” (Letter 2.2). (He’s also kind of a snob, if you ask us.) And, like the monster, he’s self-educated: “Now I am twenty-eight and am in reality more illiterate than many schoolboys of fifteen” (Letter 2.2).

Both of these qualities—being lonely and being self-educated—are dangerous, and Walton helps us understand why. Unlikethe monster and Victor, who never bother to check with a friend to see if they sound totally crazy, Walton knows that he needs to run his ideas by someone else.

And so Walton survives the novel. Seriously. Even though we’re really worried about him at the beginning—taking a bunch of Russian sailors off on a suicide mission to the North Pole—he ends up turning around and heading home, even though he comes back “ignorant and disappointed” (24.41).

But see, that’s where he’s wrong. He may not have reached the North Pole, but he’s learned something better: He’s learned his limits. And notice that he’s also the only one who ends up having an extended conversation with the monster? We could all learn something from Walton.

Question 43

Who is Elizabeth in the story?

Answer 43

Caroline Frankenstein adopts Elizabeth when she’s five from a family of poor Italian people (it’s okay, though: she’s really the daughter of an Italian nobleman). Almost all we know about her is her looks: she’s “a creature who seemed to shed radiance from her looks” (1.6); she’s “thin and very fair. Her hair was the brightest living gold … her blue eyes cloudless” (1.6); when she grows up, she has “loveliness surpassing the beauty of her childish years” (7.45).

Oh, sure, she’s also full of “sensibility and intellect” (7.45), “soft looks of compassion,” and “a gentle voice” (22.20, 21), but we get the feeling that those are secondary considerations. To Victor, she’s a beautiful piece of property. His mother presents her as a “pretty present” (1.7), and he “interpreted her words literally” (1.7). He says some things about “dying to make her happy” (22.17) and “paradisiacal dreams of love and joy” (22.17), but it’s hard to take them too seriously. Elizabeth is a tool—she’s “bought” by his mother and used by Mary Shelley to make a point.

We tried, but we just couldn’t get too upset about her death. And, somehow, we suspect Victor wasn’t all that upset, either.

Question 44

Tone of Frankenstein:

Answer 44

Maybe it’s just us, but we get a bad feeling when we read Walton’s first letter to his sister:

I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death and to induce me to commence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when he embarks in a little boat, with his holiday mates, on an expedition of discovery up his native river. (Letter 1.2)

You know how when you go see a horror movie, and it starts out with some really happy scene—say, some kids in a boat or skinny dipping in the ocean in the middle of the night—you just know that something bad is about to happen? That’s how we read Walton’s description of himself as a child in a little boat. Sure, maybe we’re just projecting. After all, Frankenstein was written 150 years before Jaws..But Shelley was a savvy lady, and we’re pretty sure she knew what she was doing.

Because there are so many different narrators, the tone shifts slightly throughout the text. Walton is a little more reserved and reportorial; Frankenstein is fatalistic (“Destiny was too potent” (2.12); the monster is enraged. But everyone seems to agree: bad things are going to happen.

Question 45

1. Whats up with the ending?

Answer 45

At the end of Frankenstein, Walton describes the monster’s last move:

He sprang from the cabin window as he said this, upon the ice raft which lay close to the vessel. He was borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance. (24.71)

We don’t know for sure that he carries out his intention of burning himself to death, but it seems pretty likely. With Victor gone, the monster has no reason to live—no one left to kill; no one’s approval to seek. But then there’s the original ending, the one that Shelley published in 1818 before Percy revised it for her. In that ending, it’s a little more ambiguous:

He sprung from the cabin window as he said this upon an ice raft that lay close to the vessel & pushing himself off he was carried away by the waves and I soon lost sight of him in the darkness and distance.

What’s the difference? There are two: First, the monster “push[es] himself off.” In other words, he takes the action. We have the passive “carried away” and “borne away” in both versions, but the earlier one gives the monster some agency. Instead of being a passive victim of fate, he seems more in control of his own destiny.

And then there’s the big one: “I soon lost sight of him.” It’s subtle but important: in 1831, there’s no (or very little) question: the monster is “lost in darkness.” In 1818, however,Walton loses sight of him. He’s still out there somewhere, beyond the reach of human eyes—and maybe just waiting to come back. (Want to read this interpretation with a lot more citations? Check out literary scholar Anne Mellor’s book chapter.)