Frankenstein Themes Worksheet
As you read Mary Shelley’s novel, take note of the following themes and topics. Use marginal notes to keep
track of the topics as you read. Identify by the end of the story at least one quotation for each subpoint.
Identify the page number and chapter for each passage, write out the selected quote, and provide a minimum
two sentence identification (analysis) of how the passage displays the theme. Analysis that simply
interprets the passage will receive no credit. You will submit your work at the end of the unit. You will have
a total of fifteen quotations, one for each passage and two bonus quotations.
A. Victor Frankenstein:
1. Victor Frankenstein’s achievements
2. Victor Frankenstein’s ethical failures
B. The creature:
1. The creature’s humanity: his education, his desires, his
intelligence and emotions
2. The causes of the creature’s violence
3. Society’s perceptions of and reactions to the creature
C. The quest for knowledge:
1. The dangers and responsibilities involved with creation and
discovery (and the Prometheus myth)
2. The dangers and limits of scientific knowledge
3. The dangers of overstepping mortal and/or moral boundaries,
of “playing God”
D. Relationships:
1. Parent-child relationships and responsibilities
2. The need for human relationships, for friends, family, spouse
Letter II (4) – “I have no friend, Margaret: when I am glowing with enthusiasm of success, there will be none
to participate in my joy; if I am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavor to sustain me in dejection.”
Walton feels the isolation of being out of this boat in the middle of the Arctic with a bunch of strangers. He
feels alone, desperately writing letters to his sister to feel some sort of companionship. It seems as though
Shelley is starting the novel off with a suggestion that without someone to share accomplishments with, there is
no real joy in that accomplishment. Human companionship is important, not only for celebration of successes,
but humans need companionship to help them through hardships as well.
3. Qualities of humans: the divisions between reason and emotion,
between intelligence and feeling
E. Literary qualities:
1. Gothic qualities in the novel
2. Romantic qualities in the novel