Frankenstein Close Reading Questions

Name ________________________________________________________________ Period ___________

Chapters 1 – 5
1) Chapter 1 :  I was their plaything and their idol, and something better—their child, the innocent and
helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was
in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me.
According to Victor, what responsibilities did his parents have in raising him? What does this passage tell us
about Victor's character?

2) Chapter 1: You find the quotes! Be sure to highlight the quote in your text and include the pages
numbers in your written response. Use the SNIP TOOL on your computer to screenshot the passage and
highlight. Copy and paste your findings below.

Find and highlight two passages that reference nature (hint: flowers or animals, specifically). How does
each passage connect to the Romantic Movement? (discuss each passage and include page numbers)

Quote 1: Quote 2:
Explanation of Quote 1: Explanation of Quote 2:

3) Chapter 2:  I confess that neither the structure of languages, nor the code of governments, nor the
politics of various states possessed attractions for me. It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I
desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and
the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in
its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.

What is Victor's motivation and how does it connect to the elements of Gothic Literature?

4) Chapter 2: I had gazed upon the fortifications and impediments that seemed to keep human beings
from entering the citadel of nature, and rashly and ignorantly I had repined.

 My father was not scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child's blindness, added to a student's
thirst for knowledge.

Explain the two metaphors in these two quotes (what is being compared?). What do they reveal about
Victor's early studies?
Frankenstein Close Reading Questions
Metaphor 1:
Metaphor 2:

5) Chapter 2: When I was about fifteen years old we had retired to our house near Belrive, when we
witnessed a most violent and terrible thunderstorm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura,
and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. I remained,
while the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight. As I stood at the door, on a
sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards
from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing
remained but a blasted stump. When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a
singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I
never beheld anything so utterly destroyed.
What do the storm and the tree symbolize? How do these symbols represent the elements of Romantic and
Gothic literature?

6) Chapter 3:  Chance—or rather the evil influence, the Angel of Destruction, which asserted omnipotent
sway over me from the moment I turned my reluctant steps from my father's door—led me first to M.
Krempe, professor of natural philosophy.

What thoughts does Victor reveal in this quote? This quote is an example of what literary element?

7) Chapter 3: "The ancient teachers of this science," said he, "promised impossibilities and performed
nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted and that
the elixir of life is a chimera but these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and
their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into
the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding-places. They ascend into the heavens;
they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe. They have
acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the
earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows."

What does Waldman say about modern science? How do his words impact Victor?
Frankenstein Close Reading Questions

8) Chapter 4: I see by your eagerness and the wonder and hope which your eyes express, my friend, that
you expect to be informed of the secret with which I am acquainted; that cannot be; listen patiently
until the end of my story, and you will easily perceive why I am reserved upon that subject. I will not
lead you on, unguarded and ardent as I then was, to your destruction and infallible misery. Learn from
me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge
and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires
to become greater than his nature will allow.

Frame narrative: How has Robert reacted to Victor's scientific breakthrough? How do Victor's beliefs go
against the principle of Romanticism?

9) Chapter 4: The summer months passed while I was thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit. It was
a most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest or the vines yield a more
luxuriant vintage, but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature.
Winter, spring, and summer passed away during my labours; but I did not watch the blossom or the
expanding leaves—sights which before always yielded me supreme delight—so deeply was I engrossed
in my occupation.

How does Shelley characterize Victor in these passages? Keeping Romanticism in mind, what could this
foreshadow for Victor?

10) Chapter 5: How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom
with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had
selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of
muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly
whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed
almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion
and straight black lips.
Why does Victor use the word catastrophe? What does Victor's word choice and the creature's description
possibly foreshadow?
Frankenstein Close Reading Questions

11) Chapter 5:
Like one who, on a lonely road,
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And, having once turned round, walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.

[Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner."]

Why did Shelley choose this passage from Rime of the Ancient Marnier for this part of the chapter? How
does the message of the Ancient Mariner apply to Victor at this point in the novel?

12) Chapter 5: By very slow degrees, and with frequent relapses that alarmed and grieved my friend, I
recovered. I remember the first time I became capable of observing outward objects with any kind of
pleasure, I perceived that the fallen leaves had disappeared and that the young buds were shooting
forth from the trees that shaded my window. It was a divine spring, and the season contributed greatly
to my convalescence. I felt also sentiments of joy and affection revive in my bosom; my gloom
disappeared, and in a short time I became as cheerful as before I was attacked by the fatal passion.

Victor becomes very ill for a few months. What aids his recovery? What might Shelley be stating with
Victor's change in health?