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Frankenstein Study Guide
English 9H -- Humanities
Terms to define:
1. epistolatory novel
2. frame story
3. verisimilitude
Allusions to note:
1. Who is Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and what significance does an albatross
have for him?
2. Who is Dante Alighieri? What is a “circle of hell”?
3. What is the story of Prometheus and fire?
Title Page – Alternate title and Epigraph
1. To what does “the modern Prometheus” allude?
2. The quotation from Paradise Lost is spoken by Adam as he and Eve are
expelled from the garden of Eden. What attitude does Adam express in these
lines? If Frankenstein is a modern Prometheus, to which character in the
novel might these lines apply – and what do they imply about Shelley’s
opinion of her protagonist?
Name:____________________________________________________________
Study Questions for Letters 1-4 (pp. 17-32)
1. How does the first sentence of the letter establish the mood of the novel?
2. What, literally, is the “country of eternal light” on p. 15? What other meaning
is implied by that phrase?
3. Describe the journey Walton is on and the preparations he made for the
journey.
4. What in Walton’s descriptions of his travels and his ideals identifies him as a
Romantic?
5. What does Walton most desire?
6. What does he mean when he states, “I will kill no albatross?” (p. 21)
7. Contrast the strange figure on the dog sled (25) with the man that Walton
finds dying on the ice.
Name:____________________________________________________________
8. Describe the circumstances under which Walton encounters his mysterious
stranger. What is it about the stranger that Captain Walton finds so
interesting?
9. The “stranger” at one point asks Walton if he too “has drunk from the
intoxicating drink” (p. 29). Explain this quotation.
10. Mary Shelley frames her novel with letters from Walton to his sister at the
beginning and the end. What is the effect of this framing technique?
Quotes to identify (speaker, meaning, significance)
P. 24: What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?
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Frankenstein Study Guide
Study Questions for Volume 1, Chapters 1-4
1. Describe the circumstances under which Frankenstein’s parents meet and
fall in love. Is this a relationship of equals? And what in this relationship
reinforces the theme of the danger of human pride?
2. On p. 35, Frankenstein discusses the philosophy that guides his parents as
they raise him. How would you describe his childhood? What does he seem
to think is essential in the attitude of a parent towards its child?
3. How does Elizabeth Lavenza become a part of the Frankenstein family?
Some writers have criticized Mary Shelley for what they see as a very classist
– almost racist – and certainly sexist attitude as evidenced through her
portrayal of Elizabeth. Can you find any evidence for this accusation?
4. Compare and contrast Victor and his friend, Henry Clerval.
Name:____________________________________________________________
5. Identify Cornelius Agrippa. (No Harry Potter references necessary!) Why
does he appeal to Frankenstein? How does Frankenstein imply that his
father is to blame for what later would become a very unhealthy
understanding of science – and how does this accusation tie in with our
class’s discussion of knowledge?
6. When he was fifteen, what did Frankenstein see that made him doubt that
the ancient philosophers who had so intrigued him could ever provide real
knowledge?
7. What happens to the tree in chapter two – and what might be the symbolic
meaning behind this act?
8. Describe Frankenstein’s relationships with Professors Krempe and
Waldman. What impact do Professor Waldman’s words have on
Frankenstein?
Name:____________________________________________________________
9. What kind of experiments does Frankenstein engage in when he returns
home?
10. Frankenstein breaks his narrative briefly to comment on the “secret” he has
discovered, and his listener’s interest in hearing that secret. What is
Frankenstein’s comment on this issue?
11. What do Frankenstein’s outward appearance and his relationship with
nature in chapter 4 tell us about his thirst for knowledge – what is it doing to
him?
12. How is technology presented in these chapters? Is this in keeping with
Romantic attitudes? Explain.
Name:____________________________________________________________
Frankenstein Study Guide
Study Questions Volume 1, Chapters 5-8
1. How is setting used at the beginning of chapter 5 to set the mood?
2. Describe Frankenstein’s monster.
a. What is Frankenstein’s immediate reaction to his creation, and on what is
this reaction founded?
b. Is there anything in the behavior of the monster to suggest its personality?
Is Frankenstein’s reaction justified?
c. What is a golem? How does or doesn’t this monster resemble one?
3. Why do you think Mary Shelley doesn’t describe the actual creation of the monster?
4. Who is Dante, and why is he referenced in conjunction with Frankenstein’s
description of the monster?
5. Frankenstein’s meeting with Clerval is significant at this point in the novel. How
does Clerval’s treatment of Frankenstein contrast with Frankenstein’s treatment of
the monster? Who has a greater moral obligation?
Name:____________________________________________________________
6. Does the story of Justine’s background have any similarity to Elizabeth’s story? To
Mary Shelley’s? What role does education play in Justine’s life?
7. Whom does Victor think killed William, and why? What elements surrounding this
revelation are Gothic/symbolic?
8. How does Frankenstein justify not coming to Justine’s aid?
9. What comment does Shelley make on the justice system (note the significance of
Justine’s name!)
10. Why, in the archetypal sense, must William be killed?
11. Note any Romantic elements you encounter in these chapters.
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Frankenstein Study Guide
Study Questions
Volume II, Ch. 1-4
1. How does Frankenstein – a true Romantic – seek solace after Justine’s death?
2. Why do you think Romantics saw a connection between God and nature – how was
nature designed to make you feel? Pay attention to Frankenstein’s response in
Chapter 1.
3. How does the weather in Chapter 2 indicate Frankenstein’s mood and foreshadow
the chapter’s later events?
4. What is the symbolic significance of Montanvert and Mont Blanc in this chapter?
5. Why doesn’t Victor kill the monster immediately?
Name:____________________________________________________________
6. Whose response is more rational – Frankenstein, or the monster? Explain.
7. The monster says, “Remember, that I am thy creature: I ought to be thy Adam, but I
am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere
I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good;
misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.” (103).
Why is this quotation significant?
8. Contrast the monster’s “upbringing” with Frankenstein’s.
9. What does the monster learn from observing the family?
10. How are we made to sympathize with the monster?
Name:____________________________________________________________
Quotes to identify (speaker, meaning, significance):
p. 101: “How dare you sport thus…mankind?...(p. 103) Remember that I am
thy creature…I shall again be virtuous.”
p. 109 – “Here I then retreated….barbarity of man.”
p. 118: “Happy, happy earth!...anticipations of joy.”
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Frankenstein Study Guide
Study Questions
Volume II, Ch. 5-9
1. What is the ideal family – the environment it creates, the attributes it
exhibits, the role it fulfills – presented by Shelley in this novel? Consider the
Frankenstein family, the DeLaceys. How do these families contrast with the
relationship between Frankenstein and the Creature? How do they compare
or contrast with Shelley’s own family?
2. Shelley also offers us several pairs of male-female bondings: Victor’s parents;
Victor and Elizabeth, and Felix and Safie. What do these pairs have in
common, and what might Shelley be saying about the role human
relationship plays in our quality of life?
Name:____________________________________________________________
3. Another common element in Shelley’s novel is that of injustice. As in the case
with Justine, the DeLaceys suffer at the hands of the legal system. Explain the
circumstances of their case and highlight any commonalities between their
case and that of Justine/Elizabeth’s father.
4. What books does the creature read, and what does he learn from each? What
impact does learning have on the creature’s understanding of life and image
of himself?
5. Contrast the DeLacey’s reaction to the creature before and after they see him.
Should he expect a better reception from them than he has received from
other people? Why or why not?
6. What is your reaction to the action the creature takes with the Delaceys?
Name:____________________________________________________________
7. Why does Shelley include the scene with the little girl?
8. Do you have any sympathy for the creature after you hear his accounts of the
death of William and the framing of Justine? Where did the creature say he
learned this approach to life? Explain.
9. Should Frankenstein cooperate with the creature’s demand? Why or why
not?
Do you have more sympathy for the creature or for Frankenstein at the end of Part
II? Explain your answer
Name:____________________________________________________________
Quotations: Identify speaker, context, significance:
1) p. 133. “Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so
hideous…solitary and abhorred.”
2) P. 143 – “This was the reward of my benevolence!...eternal hatred
and vengeance to all mankind.”
3) P. 145 – “Thanks to the lessons of Felix and the sanguinary laws of
man…mischief.”
4) P. 150 – “My vices are the children…with an equal.”
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Frankenstein Study Guide
Study Guide
Vol. III, Ch. 1-3
For each of the following quotations, identify the speaker, the context, and
the significance.
1. “I was bound by a solemn promise, which I had not yet fulfilled and dared
not break;…Could I enter into a festival with this deadly weight yet
hanging round my neck and bowing me to the ground?” (155)
2. “…I enjoyed this scene, and yet my enjoyment was embittered both by the
memory of the past, and the anticipation of the future…But I am a blasted
tree…pitiable to others, and intolerable to myself.” (165)
3. “Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself
unworthy of my condescension…I am your master—Obey!” (172)
4. “I will be with you on your wedding night!” (163)
5. “I now felt as if a film had been taken from before my eyes and that I, for
the first time, saw clearly…different conclusion. “(175)
Name:____________________________________________________________
1. Describe Frankenstein’s new project and the location he chooses. How does
this experiment contrast with the energy, the emotion, and the activity of his
last experiment?
2. How does the creature’s request fit into the “creation allegory” archetype we
see developing in this novel?
3. Does Frankenstein make the right choice?
Study Questions
Vol. III, Ch. 4-7 (including letters)
For each chapter, complete at least two double-entry journal passages. The
passages you choose should be quoted in its entirety, include the page number, and
do one of the following:
o Pick up on one of the themes we’ve been following (knowledge,
education, responsibility)
o Show how setting once again reflects character action
o Develop one of the allusions/allegorical structures seen in the novel
o Identify a Gothic or Romantic element in the novel
o Explain or highlight an important plot point or character change.