Frankenstein Journal Questions
Directions: In addition to your reading each night, you will also need to answer the following questions. To get full credit,
answers must consist of at least TWO complete sentences with an example. The example does not need to be a direct
quote, but those are always preferred. Be prepared to expand one into an analytical paragraph in class.
Chapters 1-2
1. How does Victor’s statement that “the world was to me a secret which I desired to divine” serve as characterization?
2. What is Shelley’s intent when she has Victor characterize Elizabeth as “the saintly soul (who) shone like a shrinededicated lamp in our peaceful home?” What role does this characterization set for Elizabeth?
3. Describe Victor’s experience with lightning. How was it a turning point in his life?
Chapters 3-4
1. Explain why Henry Clerval’s father disapproves of education.
2. During his summer experiment, Victor admits “his eyes were insensible to the charms of nature.” What role might
nature (or the lack of it) play for Victor?
3. Explain how Victor thinks that his creation will regard him.
4. Analyze how Victor violates his own advice: “A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful
mind, and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility.”
Chapters 5-6
1. Discuss the irony of Victor’s failing health and seemingly loss of humanity as the monster comes to life.
2. Describe how Victor’s dream takes on the mood of a horror story.
3. Show how the passage from Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” applies to Victor Frankenstein.
4. Summarize how M. Waldman and M. Krempe speak of Victor when he and Clerval visit them. What is the irony of this?
Chapters 7-8
1. By incorporating written letters into the story, Elizabeth and Alphonse are allowed to participate in the narrative and
make Victor seem more human and alive. Do you agree or disagree? Support your answer with details from the novel.
2. Contrast Victor’s feelings about the Swiss landscape during the day with how he views it at night.
3. How is Frankenstein affected by the knowledge that the creature may be responsible for the death of William? In
Chapter 7, what statement suggests that he views the creature as part of himself? Do you agree with Frankenstein that he
bears some responsibility for the death? Why?
Chapters 9-10
1. Compare Shelley’s description of the setting to Victor’s mood.
2. Examine why Mary Shelley inserts the last stanza of Percy Shelley’s “Mutability” into the narrative.
3. Explain how knowledge heightens the creature’s frustration with his situation.
4. How is Victor’s reaction toward the Valley of Chamounix a departure from his previous views of nature?
Chapters 11-12
1. Re-read the first 3 paragraphs of Chapter 11 and elaborate on your thoughts and feelings regarding the difficult
awakening of the monster as he truly comes to life.
2. Determine the irony in the creature looking upon the DeLaceys as “superior beings.”
3. Who seems the better human in Chapter 12, Victor or the monster? Support your answer.
Chapters 13-14
1. Evaluate how the creature’s reflections demonstrate his innate humanity.
2. Think about Chapter 14. How are the monster and Safie alike? How are they different?
3. Explain the irony of Safie’s father not wanting her to marry Felix, a Christian.
Chapters 15-16
1. Explain how knowledge heightens the creature’s frustration with his situation.
2. Summarize the creature’s encounter with the drowning girl. How does this incident further fuel the creature’s hatred
for mankind and need for revenge?
3. Discuss the presence and meaning of the power of nature within these chapters.
4. How does the change in narration to the creature’s point of view affect the reading of the novel? Do you feel sympathy
for the creature when he is rejected by humanity?
Chapters 17-18
1. Examine how the creature believes companionship will help his temperament.
2. Compare the creature’s feelings to those of Captain Robert Walton at the beginning of the novel.
3. Summarize how the setting and scenery of his journey finally affect Victor’s mind and spirits.
4. What is Victor’s greatest fear as he leaves for England? Describe the irony in his decision to continue.
Chapters 19-20
1. Identify and analyze the passage(s) that tells how Victor views his life in regards to the monster and his demand.
2. How is Victor’s view of the Scottish Orkneys a reflection of his emotional state?
3. Explain why Victor destroys the creature he is forming.
Chapters 21-22
1. Romantic/Gothic literature commonly uses nature as an omnipotent force. Cite two examples from these chapters
where Shelley uses nature as such a force.
2. Describe Victor’s emotional response to his acquittal.
3. Explain why Elizabeth thinks Victor is depressed and troubled.
Chapters 23-24
1. Explain how Elizabeth and Alphonse’s deaths change Victor’s focus in life.
2. What is ironic about Victor’s statement: “…how ignorant are thou in thy pride of wisdom”?
3. Describe how Victor and the creature’s roles have reversed.
4. For Victor and his father, what purpose would a quick marriage to Elizabeth serve? Discuss the impact on Elizabeth.
What role does she continue to play? Does her death alter or perpetuate that role?
In Walton, Continuation
1. How does Victor’s speech parallel his quest for the creature?
2. What is the purpose of Shelley’s irony when Walton recognizes he has found the friend he is looking for only to watch
him die?
3. When Walton listens to his men and turns his ship homeward rather than risk their lives, is he accurate in his statement
that he has “lost (his) hopes for glory?” Explain.
4. Why does the creature choose to die at the end of the novel? What does his choice suggest about his connection to
Frankenstein?