Name _______________________________
Date Due ____________
Class Period __________
Discussion Questions: The Creature’s Story
Directions: Use the following questions as a guide as you examine Chapters XI-XVII of Frankenstein.
This work will be due at the start of class, Friday, January 29, 2016.
1. At the end of Chapter X (10), what factors motivate Victor Frankenstein to agree to listen to
his creation’s story?
2. The first several pages of Chapter XI (11) narrate specifically the creature’s growth in
consciousness, much as an infant (in a longer chronological period) would awaken gradually
to life. What are some details of the creature’s innocent awakening which move you? Do any
seem unusually poignant? Why/why not?
3. The creature’s successive mistreatment by every human being he meets gradually changes
his response to people. Does this personality change seem normal to you under the
circumstances? Name a modern example of this sort of personality change as presented in
film, television, news media, or real life.
4. What are some human lessons the creature learns from surreptitiously observing the De
Laceys (the “Cottagers”)? Name at least three.
5. How does Safie’s arrival affect Felix? What does Shelley’s description of Safie and Felix’s
relationship cause readers to feel? How could this event have the potential to cause the
creature pain or misery?
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Name _______________________________
Date Due ____________
Class Period __________
6. How do you think the story would differ if Felix, Safie, and Agatha did not appear during the
creature’s conversation with the old man at the end of Chapter XV (15)?
7. At the end of Chapter XIII (13), the creature comments on his “additional love and reverence
for my protectors (for so I loved, in an innocent, half-painful self-deceit, to call them).” In
consideration of that comment, how does Felix’s action at the end of Chapter XV (15) affect
the creature?
8. In addition to hearing the conversations of the De Laceys, the story of Safie, and the history
of his “beloved cottagers,” the creature also discovers books that further influence him.
What are these books? How does he respond to each?
9. How does the creature learn details of his own creation? How do those details differ from
the story of the creation of the first man (Adam)?
10. The creature confirms some of Victor’s most horrible suspicions about him. Summarize the
story the creature tells from his arrival in Geneva to seeing Justine in the barn.
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