Frankenstein
Chapters 1 – 4
Answer the following questions completely. Provide textual evidence and a page number where appropriate. These
questions are a homework grade, but they will also serve as your reviews for quizzes and tests.
Chapter 1
1. What do we know about the speaker’s background? (Do we know his name yet? Where is he from? Etc.)
2. What is the story of the man's mother, Caroline Beaufort?
3. How does the speaker feel toward his parents, and what responsibilities does he feel they had toward him?
4. Who is Elizabeth Lavenza, and what is her story?
5. How does the speaker describe young Elizabeth?
6. What gift does the speaker’s mother give him? How does her choice of words affect his attitudes?
7. What is the speaker’s name?
Chapter 2
8. Who is Henry Clerval and what is his relation to Victor?
9. How does Victor characterize the interests and characters of Clerval, Elizabeth, and himself? Jot down just the
phrases that speak to the interests or character traits of each individual.
Clerval
Elizabeth
Victor
10. Who is Cornelius Agrippa, and how does Victor find out about him?
11. How does Victor's father respond, and how does Victor comment on that response?
12. What would we call the sort of science ("Natural Philosophy") Victor was learning from Agrippa, Paracelsus, and
Albertus Magnus? How do you think a modern scientist would respond to this sort of thinking?
13. What happens to the oak tree that is destroyed, and how does Victory respond after hearing the explanation?
14. Who or what does he credit for this change in direction? Who or what does he blame for his "utter and terrible
destruction"?
Chapter 3
15. What happens to Elizabeth and to Victor's mother as a result of Elizabeth's scarlet fever? How does
this compare with the mother's early history? What is Caroline’s wish?
16. Why does Victor's father send him to the university in Ingolstadt ? How old is Victor then? (Ingolstadt is
in southern Germany, in Bavaria, on the Danube River, 43 miles north of Munich. The university founded there
in 1472 moved to Landshut in 1802 and to Munich in 1826.)
17. Why is Henry Clerval unable to pursue a "liberal education"?
18. What is Victor’s initial foreshadowing description of M. Krempe?
19. What academic criticism and advice does Krempe give Victor?
20. Compare and contrast M. Krempe with M. Waldman.
21. By the end of the chapter, what has Victor decided to study?
Chapter 4
22. In the two years Victor has been in Ingolstadt, what has he never done?
23. At the point when Victor was ready to leave, what “phenomena…peculiarly attracted [his] attention”?
24. Note the spot where Victor interrupts his own narrative to comment directly to Walton. Why? What is the
effect?
25. Where and how did Victor get the “raw material” for his project?
26. Explain how Alphonse responded to Victor’s extended absence.
27. How does Victor interpret his father’s response?
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43.
Why do you think he wishes his father had acted differently?
What effect does his intense work have on Victor’s health?
What exactly is Victor attempting to do?
What does Victor accomplish on that “dreary night of November”?
How is his creation described?
What is it, exactly, that makes Victor rush out of the room from his creation? What should he have done?
What are Victor’s fitful dreams about?
What description of the creature is given as he looks on Victor?
Victor leaves a second time. WHY does he flee his creation? Does he owe the creature anything?
Why has Clerval come to town?
How does his visit remind us—even if it doesn’t have much effect on Victor—of the nature of family obligations?
What happens to Victor at this point (so it’s important that Clerval is there)?
Elizabeth’s letter: What does Elizabeth mean by “servant”—what is the role Justine plays in the family?
What description is given of William? How does Shelley want the reader to feel about this child?
What will Clerval study at the university?
Be very clear about the news reported in VF’s father’s letter. What valuable item does she tell Victor’s father is
missing?
Note two important elements on p. 57-58 (“My journey was very melancholy…anguish I was destined to endure”)—the
restorative power of nature and the foreshadowing in the last full paragraph.
44. Of course you need to be aware of what VF saw during the flash of lighting –what assumptions does he make as
a result?
45. “. . . and I resolved to remain silent” (middle of 60; paragraph beginning “Day dawned”). About what? Why?
What do you think of this decision?
46. Be able to explain PRECISELY why Justine Moritz is accused of William’s murder.
47. SO. What possible motivation could the creature have for murdering William? If you were VF, what would you
do to convince the town of Justine’s innocence?
48. Why does Justine “confess”?
49. THINK a minute. What was Victor’s original reason for the experimenting that led to the creature? What was he
trying to accomplish? Well, why doesn’t he try to bring these two dead members of the Frankenstein household
back to life?
50. Where does Victor go to escape the “house of mourning” the family home had become, and what is the
foreshadowing at the end of Chapter 9?
51. How does Victor refer the creature when he sees him?
52. Review the summary of Milton’s Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno. What allusions are present?
53. To what does the creature attribute his actions?
54. What does the creature want?
55. What argument does the creature make in support of his request?
56. Why does Victor agree?
57. Where do they go together?
58. In this exchange, what have we learned about the creature?
Chapters 11 (The creature is speaking)
59. What are the major developments in the life of the creature? What places does he visit?
60. What are the steps in the awakening of his senses?
61. Explain the Creature’s discovery of fire.
62. Think about Prometheus. What does fire represent?
63. Where does he go between the forest and the DeLacey house cottage?
64. How do people react to him?
65. Where exactly does he find to stay, and how does his dwelling allow him to observe the DeLacey household?
Chapter 12
66. From his experiences with humans up until this point, what is the creature’s perception of humans in general?
67. Tell me about the DeLaceys.
68. What does the creature learn about family life from watching these people? How does he show his own
generosity?
69. After observing them for a winter, what does the creature decide he must learn to do (and is able to do by the
end of the chapter) before attempting to introduce himself to the DeLaceys?
Chapter 13
70. Pay close attention to the Safie story. What is the basic history of the family? (Be thorough! This should take
several sentences.)
Chapter 14
71. More important points: keep track of the creature’s education—what and how does he learn? How does he
learn language?
Chapter 15
72. In Ch. 15, what books did he read? Why these (as a plot device—where did he find them?)?
73. What does the Creature learn from these books?
74. What are the reasons for the creature’s decision to make himself known to the DeLacey’s?
75. How does he plan to introduce himself?
76. What happens?
Chapter 16
77. Summarize the Creature’s behavior after he is rejected. Is it justifiable?
78. What things does the creature consider doing while upset?
79. Find the quote where the creature observes feeling the restorative powers of nature as Victor has observed in
the past. Write it here:
80. Retrace the William/Justine story from the creature’s point of view—what are the actual details he shares?
81. What does the creature want from Victor?
Chapter 17-19
82. Lots of the language is closely paralleled to Paradise Lost (review the summary on your Chapter 10 questions).
Pay attention to the use of the word “fiend” and “fiendish.”What are effects of hatred and rage on the creature?
83. Explain Victor’s rationale for agreeing to the creature’s request for a mate.
84. Returning to Geneva, VF can’t get started on his “work,” and he has a conversation with his father pertaining to
Elizabeth. What exactly does the father think is the cause of Victor’s malaise (downhearted spirits)?
85. Explain the plan—what he shares with his father, what he doesn’t, and how Clerval gets drawn into the whole
thing.
86. “But in Clerval I saw the image of my former self” (137 or first page of Ch 19). Explain what VF means.
87. Note that the friends split up—who goes where? What’s the plan for reuniting?
Chapters 20-22
88. Scary visit from the creature—what does Victor choose to do to the companion creature he was making? What
were the specific reasons for his rationale?
89. Study the next conversation (a few hours later) closely; Exactly what threat does the creature make to VF?
90. What does Victor do with the rest of his project?
91. Know the essential outline of the jail episode. Briefly summarize it as your answer.
92. Who washed up dead?
93. Who eventually arrives to tend Frankenstein through his illness and ultimately bring him back to Switzerland?
(Know the general plot outline for this section.)
94. Explain the gist of Elizabeth’s letter (Ch 22).
95. What promise does VF make to her concerning his rather odd, detached, and distracted behavior?
96. So they head off on their honeymoon. Remember what the creature had promised/threatened/warned. If you
were Frankenstein, what would you do?
Chapters 23-24
97. Pay attention to Victor’s actions and decisions within the first page and a half of Ch. 22.
What’s wrong with this picture? What was he THINKING?
98. Explain his plea to the magistrate.
99. Victor is very low at the beginning of Ch. 24. What feeling/attitude/motive keeps him going?
100.
Explain exactly how Victor and the creature are alike at this point.
101.
Follow the broad outlines of the chase (timeline, chart, arrows, whatever helps you remember).
On p. 186 or middle of Ch. 24 you pick up with the letters from Walton to his sister, the “frame” of the
ones at the beginning.
102.
What lesson is VF trying to teach Walton?
103.
Does Walton learn the lesson? How do we know?
104.
Note the gist of Victor’s last words. What happens to him?
105.
Note the Creature’s final “soliloquy” starting on p. 196. By p. 198, Shelley is probably asking the reader
for judgment. SO what do you think? Do we have 2 monsters or 2 victims at the end of the book? Support your
response with textual evidence.
106.
What does the creature say he’s going to do?