Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Novel
Notice the epigraph from Paradise Lost. What impact does this have on your reading of the story?
What is at stake in Mary Shelley’s tale of the novel’s inspiration and creation?

The Frame
Why do we hear Walton’s voice first and last? What kind of man is he?
Is our location important? Where are we?
Why is this novel written in letters? What does it mean to write a letter or tell a story?
Consider that we hear Victor only through Walton and (until the very end) the monster only through Victor. Are these narrators reliable?

Education of Young Monsters
Parallel the education of Victor and his creation.
How is Victor educated? What does he desire to know?
Contrast Victor’s interests with Henry’s.
Notice the verb choice when Victor talks about “penetrating” nature which he genders as female (pg. 39, others). What’s going on there?
Read the chapters in which the monster details his education carefully. How is he like a child here? How unlike?
What does the monster learn from the deLaceys? What do we learn?
Why are the specific books the monster finds important? What do they each teach the monster?
How is the monster like Adam or Lucifer? How is he different?

Race, Class and Gender
What kinds of critique of race, class, and gender does the novel attempt?
How is this complicated?
Consider Justine’s role as a woman, servant and orphan.
Why does the monster frame Justine?
Two of the women in the story are foreign-born. What might this mean?
What information and what kind of opportunities are available to the women in the novel?

The Body
Consider the physical nature of characters and things in the novel. The monster, the dead bodies, etc.
What does it mean to be made as the monster is made, from pieces?
What affect does his work have on Victor’s body?

Friends, Family, More
What is the importance of friends and family in the text? For Walton? For Victor? For the monster?
What impact does his mother’s death have on Victor? Read his dream. When does he dream it?
How are familial relationships presented throughout the novel?
Do you notice anything incestual about Victor and Elizabeth’s relationship?
How is Victor’s relationship to mankind different from the monsters? Does he see this distinction?

Love, Marriage and Sex
In what ways are love and sex constructed by the novel?
Consider the positions of Madame Frankenstein, Elizabeth and Safie in entering their marriages. What is unusual here?
Consider the scene in which Victor destroys the female monster.
What does the monster mean when he tells Victor “I’ll be with you on his wedding night?”
How is the bridal scene represented? Why?
How could the monster be read as Victor’s id?

Invention, Creation, and Childbirth
What is the difference between invention, creation and childbirth?
Consider what Professor Donelan said in class - do you agree that the monster is an invention rather than a creation? Why or why not? What defines either?
Read the creation scene. Consider it both in light of Biblical creation or physical childbirth.
Consider Victor as both a godlike creator and a mother.
What is the role of the feminine or female in the creation of the monster?

Romance and Realism
Consider our discussion of Romanticism and Realism. Can you recognize elements of each of these in the novel?
What kind of character is Victor? Henry? Elizabeth? The Monster?
What role does Romantic poetry play in the novel?

The “Extraordinary Man” and Ego
Why does Victor do what he does? Why does he believe he has the right? Is Walton similar?
Do you believe Victor’s representation of himself?
Why doesn’t Victor defend Justine with the truth?
Consider the myth of Prometheus. Were his actions justifiable? Why or why not?

The End
Who is the “good spirit” that leaves food out for Victor during his pursuit?
How does the monster respond to Victor’s death and why?

Science Fiction and Adaptation
What elements of this story make it science fiction?
Can you think of texts that incorporate these elements?
Why are later versions of the Frankenstein story so wildly different from the one Mary Shelley wrote?