Frankenstein
Web Quest
You will be researching and completing the following activities. Please label
your paper into sections for each activity or use a separate sheet(s) of paper
for each activity. All the information you find may be copied and pasted
into a Word document and then modified into paragraph format. Don’t
worry about plagiarism with this assignment. Some of the material, like film
and book reviews, you will need to copy word for word. You may use the
websites listed or just do your own searching.
Activity 1
Who was Mary Shelley?
Use the web sites below to find information to the following questions.
1. When and where was Mary Shelley born?
2. Where did she grow up (if different than birth place)?
3. What inspired her to write Frankenstein?
4. What else has she written?
5. What was her personal life like? Husband? Friends? Kids? Etc.
6. Where did she live as an adult?
7. When was Frankenstein published?
8. How did critics review the novel when it was first published?
My Hideous Progeny: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – use the link at the left.
http://home.worldonline.nl/~hamberg/
Literary Gothic: Mary Shelley
http://www.litgothic.com/Authors/mshelley.html
Activity 2
Frankenstein on Film
Use the web sites below to find information to the following questions.
1. How many films were made using the “Frankenstein” character(s)?
(just give a rough estimate)
Now choose two films and answer the following about them. ONLY
SCHOOL APPROPRIATE FILMS, PLEASE
2. What is the title?
3. What year was it made?
4. Who was the director?
5. Who were the actors (main characters)?
6. What is the plot outline?
7. What were some of the reviews written by critics?
8. What is the rating on the movie (R, PG-13, etc.)?
Frankenstein – use the links!!
http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/frankenstein.html
Activity 3
Is Frankenstein a Gothic Novel?
Use the web sites below to find information to the following questions.
1. First, look up the word gothic or Gothicism in a dictionary and
write its definition. You can use http://www.m-w.com
2. Find some information linking Frankenstein to the gothic genre.
Why do critics think it is gothic?
3. Why is it considered one of the best gothic novels?
My Hideous Progeny: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – use the link at the left.
http://home.worldonline.nl/~hamberg/
Literary Gothic: Mary Shelley
http://www.litgothic.com/Authors/mshelley.html
Gothic fiction from Wikipedia Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_novel
Activity 4
Romantic Movement
1. Why was it called the Romantic Movement?
2. What did this era, if anything, have to do with Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein?
3. What advances in medicine and science were taking place?
English Romanticism
http://www.uh.edu/engines/romanticism/
Frankenstein: The Historical Content
http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/frank.comment1.html