Study Questions

As promised, here are a number of questions that will help you reflect on Frankenstein. A downloadable copy is also available in MS Word on the Ames Library website.

Study questions for Frankenstein
Modified from http://www.unl.edu/sbehrend/html/sbsite/StudyQuestions/Frankenstein.htm and http://classes.berklee.edu/llanday/fall01/tech/frankenstein.htm

1. Who was Prometheus? Why is the novel subtitled "the Modern Prometheus"?

2. Why is the novel initially set aboard a ship? Can you think of any other famous works which are set aboard ships? Why did Mary Shelley choose to use that particular setting here? Does it mean anything beyond the immediately apparent physical setting?

3. How do the narrative frames of the novel function? What are the layers of the story and how are they related by narrator, time, space, and content? Where--and who--is at the center of the story?

4. What sort of man is Walton? Does he serve any thematic function in the novel, or is he included largely as a "storyteller"--that is, is he included simply as a mechanical narrative device?

5. In what ways do Walton's letters prepare us for the tale he tells? What difference (if any) do these letters make in the way we react to the rest of the novel?

6. Work out a character sketch of Victor Frankenstein, concentrating on his values and psychological makeup. What does he value? What motivates him? What appear to be his "moral standards"?

7. The first three chapters tell us about Victor Frankenstein's childhood and youth; the fourth, about his "discovery" of the principle of life. For movie fans these chapters may seem irrelevant: after all, we want to see the Creature being created and--amid bursts of smoke and flashes of lightning--"born." Why, then, does Mary Shelley devote so much space to Victor's childhood environment and his education? Why do we need this stuff, anyway?

8. Volume I, Chapter iv the Creature is created. Where is the focus in this section? On the process of creation? On the Creature? Somewhere else?

9. Why does Victor work so diligently to bring the Creature to life and then become so abhorrent when he succeeds? Is Mary Shelley working with any "prototype" or "pattern" here? Has this sort of experience or behavior occurred anywhere else that you can think of, in literature, art, or elsewhere?

10. In chapters II.ii-xi, the Creature tells his story. Notice the place Victor Frankenstein meets his Creature. Why is this setting particularly appropriate? The novel now begins to zero in on its major themes. Of what does the Creature accuse Victor?

11. What do Chapters II.iii–vii reveal about the Creature's "natural instincts"? What gives him pleasure? What does he value? (Consider, for instance, how he describes the DeLaceys and their cottage.) Of what does the Creature's education consist?

12. In II.viii what does the Creature finally decide he must do, and why?

13. In II.ix what argument does the Creature offer in support of his demand? Why? Is it a reasonable argument?

14. In III.iii (p 116) why does Victor Frankenstein decide to discontinue his efforts to create a "bride" for the Creature?

15. On p. 117 we begin to see most clearly in Frankenstein's isolation from his fellow creatures a parallel to the Creature's own situation (see also pp. 123, 128). In what other ways are Victor and the Creature beginning to be strikingly similar? Have you encountered this sort of "parallel-making" anywhere else in literature or the arts? If so, where?

16. In III.vii note the surrealistic environment of the "chase" scenes. Are we getting into a different sort of novel than we were originally led to expect? If so, what is the nature of the difference?

17. On pp. 147-48, 151-52 we have Victor Frankenstein's final words--any significance? What about the Creature's final words p. 153-56?

18. Who is the novel's protagonist? Antagonist? "Hero"?

19. In an influential essay, the Romantic scholar and critic Harold Bloom wrote that the reader's sympathy lies with the Creature, but in his book The Romantic Conflict (1963) Allan Rodway says the reader's sympathy lies with Victor Frankenstein. Who is right?

20. What is a "monster"?

21. How are Nature and Technology represented in the novel? How is the modern conflict between the natural and the artificial dramatized in the novel? How is human nature portrayed?

22. How is gender treated in the novel? How is Nature gendered? Science? Creation? Consider the passionate relationships in the novel; how does gender inflect them?

23. What kinds of places are imagined in the novel? How do the interior states of the characters fit in with the exterior spaces in which they find themselves? How are different environments contrasted?

24. Frankenstein has remained vivid and alive through a series of visions and revisions of Shelley's novel. On August 25 we will view James Whale’s 1931 version of Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff (see Redfield’s article on the Frankenstein Talk Blog, or at http://www.rc.umd.edu/praxis/frankenstein/redfield/redfield.html). In addition to this film, dozens of others have been inspired by Shelley’s novel. Other than the obvious remakes, can you think of other films and/or novels that deal with Frankenstein and extend some of the same concerns in some way?