“It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the
accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that
almost amounted to agony, collected the instruments of life around me, that I
might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It
was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes,
and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the
half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it
breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” (p.43)
Frankenstein Reader's Guide
Introduction
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
is widely considered to be amongst the greatest literary works ever produced,
and is even cited by some circles to be the keystone of the science fiction genre.
Although the novel was initially met with mixed reviews—with Sir Walter Scott proclaiming
Shelley an “original genius” (Colavito, 2008, p.92) and John Wilson Crocker
admonishing its “disgusting absurdity” (Nichols, 1996, p.126)—Frankenstein flourished into a cultural
phenomenon The image of Frankenstein is certainly iconic, with Boris Karloff’s
portrayal of the creature in the 1931 adaptation having become the basic
template for most subsequent portrayals and spin-offs—from Herman Munster to
Franken Berry. Today, almost two centuries after the novels first publication,
the word Frankenstein has been ingrained into human consciousness, so much so
that a person could go their entire lives without having read the book or ever
having seen an adaptation and still have an idea of what the word means. It’s
even used as a modern root for new words like Frankenstorm. What is it about
this book, created from a contest between friends, that has so ingrained itself
in the fabric of modern culture?
There are
many stances one could take when trying to explain the prescience of Frankenstein. It is considered to have
birthed the science fiction genre, while at the same time being broadly
applicable in several other genre categories including Romanticism, Horror,
Gothic, and Dystopian. Frankenstein presents
dichotomies that generate thoughtful discussion; light vs. dark, fire vs. ice,
morality vs. progress, male vs. female—the list goes on. The themes and motifs
of Frankenstein are not presented
randomly either, but rather work together to create a unique tale that touches
several issues at once without becoming consumed by them. Of course, there’s
also the fact that the story of Frankenstein
doesn’t have to be complicated at all. Readers can take it at face value as
a story of a scientist whose experiment goes awry and still be enthralled with
it.
About the author
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, nee Godwin, was born on August
30th, 1797. She was the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, famous
author of A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman¸and William Godwin, author or Political
Justice. Shelley’s mother died shortly after giving birth to her, leaving
Godwin to raise her and her sister Fanny by himself. Her father later remarried
to Mary Jane Clairmont, with whom Shelley had a tumultuous relationship. She
eventually met and fell in love with Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was still
married at the time. After the death of his first wife, Percy and Mary were
married in 1816. Among their friends were the Lord Byron and John William Polidori,
and one fateful summer when Mary and Percy were staying with their friends,
Mary came up with the idea for Frankenstein;
or the Modern Prometheus. It was published anonymously in 1818, and then
under her name in 1823. Other works by Shelley include The Last Man, Mathilda, and
Falkner. She died on February 1st,
1851 as the result of a brain tumor (Mellor, 1988, p.3).
Plot
“After days and nights of
incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of
generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation
upon lifeless matter” (p.39).
Frankenstein follows
the story of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant yet fragile young man who becomes
obsessed with the creation of life through science. He labors away, devouring
all that science has to offer and performing one experiment after another.
Finally, the day at last comes when he is able to restore animation to the
inanimate but, horrified by his hideous creation, Victor abandons the work that
took him years to complete. However, no matter how hard he tries Victor cannot
leave his creation behind and when the Creature at last comes for him a chain
of events is set in motion that leads to ruin and catastrophe.
Characters
Robert Walton: a
seaman, Walton’s letters to his sister open and close the story.
Victor Frankenstein: often
deemed the protagonist of the story, Victor Frankenstein is a brilliant man who
discovers how to reanimate dead tissue.
The Creature: a
hideous being made and the product of Victor’s experimentations, the Creature’s
intelligence and eloquent speak contrast with his terrifying appearance.
Caroline Frankenstein:
The mother of Victor Frankenstein and the subject of everyone’s admiration
Alphonse
Frankenstein: the gentle natured father of Victor Frankenstein
Ernest Frankenstein: The
middle Frankenstein child
William Frankenstein:
The youngest Frankenstein child
Elizabeth Lavenza: The
beautiful ward of the Frankenstein family and Victor’s romantic interest
Justine Mortiz: a
ward of the Frankensteins
Henry Clerval: Victor’s
childhood friend and erstwhile companion
The De Laceys: a
family of peasents in the woods made up of old man De Lacey, his children
Agatha and Felix, and Safie the foreigner.
Vocabulary
Romanticism: a literary movement that stood in stark
contrast to Rationalism, Romanticism is typified by extensive descriptions of
emotions and environment. Characteristics are often exaggerated for dramatic
emphasis.
Gothic: Gothic literature is often associated with
Romanticism, as both explore emotional turmoil and both are highly descriptive
in nature. Common themes found in Gothic novels are castles, supernatural
beings, damsels, heroes, illness, mystery, and madness.
Utopia: coined by Thomas Moore in his book Utopia, a utopia describes an ideal
place or paradise.
Dystopia: coined by philosopher John Stuart Mill, dystopia
is meant to be the opposite of a utopia. The genre often includes disasters,
social and moral declines, and dehumanization.
Dichotomy: an exclusive or contradictory set of groups
Concentric narrative: a concentric narrative refers to a
story with different levels of narration working within each other. For
example, if one character begins to tell a story but another character finishes
it.
Epistolary: epistolary novels are novels told in the form of
letters.
Galvanism: the study of electricity on the contraction of
muscles, named after scientist Luigi Galvani.
The Age of Enlightenment: also referred to as the Age of
Reason, the Enlightenment period is difficult to pin down in terms for
dates—with some placing it as early as the 16th century and others
in the 18th. The movement saw an increase in rationalism and the use
of the scientific method.
In medias res: when a story starts during a climax or in the
middle of the action.
Deus ex machina: a plot device in which a problem is solved
by a sudden and random event or character.
Predeterminism: the idea that all events are already fated
to happen.
Fatalism: similar to the predeterminism, Fatalism takes it a
step further by questioning the point of choices in a word where choices are
already made.
Deification: the making of something or someone into a god,
or raising them to the level of a god.
Faustian bargain: a deal in which one member benefits
enormously for a short amount of time only to have to undergo a huge sacrifice.
Sometimes referred to as making a “deal with the devil”.
Metaphor: a figure of speech that relates two different
objects and highlights their similarities in order to make a statement (i.e.
there’s plenty of fish in the sea)
Motif: a dominant and recurring idea or theme
Symbol: when one thing is used to represent another
Simile: the direct comparison of one thing to another (i.e.
A is like B)
Unreliable narrator: when the narrator of the story has
questionable credibility either due to events that do not add up, the perceived
mental state of the narrator, the reputation of the narrator, or another
in-story reason.
Major themes
Man vs. Nature
Man vs. God
Industrialism vs. Conservatism
Gender Spheres
Dangerous/Forbidden Knowledge
Light and Darkness
Fire
Existence/Consciousness/Life
Revenge
Appearance
Reading Schedule
Three meetings will be held at the Library during the month of October. The first meeting will be to hand out materials and to go over the instructions on how to join the online forum, the rules of the forum, and the reading schedule. The mid-month meeting is not mandatory, but it is a good time to meet in person during the halfway mark of the book and discuss the important events and predictions for the book's ending. The final meeting is also not mandatory, but highly encouraged (there will be a party! A sign-up sheet will be distributed online and during the mid-month meeting).
Discussion Questions
The following is a list of
questions to prompt discussions. Several questions overlap, and may be used to
examine different elements of the same key issues. Readers are more than
welcome to add their own questions to this list and submit them for discussion
at the beginning of each session.
1. Ultimately, the story of Frankenstein is told by Captain Walton through
letters to his sister. Do you think that it is possible that Walton, who had
been craving companionship and a grand adventure, fabricated the appearance of
Victor Frankenstein and his horrific tale to keep himself from going mad with
cabin fever?
2. If
Walton did not fabricate his tale, how reliable is he as a narrator?
3. The book cycles through three narrator:
Walton, Victor, and the Creature. What is the effect caused by the change in
narration? Is it a successful technique? Why or why not?
4. How are women presented in the novel?
Does passivity necessarily equal weak characterization, or is there more to
characters like Elizabeth than meets the eye?
5. How much responsibility does Victor bear
for the outcome of the story? Who is the monster—Victor, the Creature, or both?
If Victor is to blame, can the Creature be held fully accountable for his
actions? However, if the Creature is sentient and capable of moral reasoning,
at what point must he be held accountable for his own follies?
6. How did the educations of Victor and the
Creature differ and how did the focus of their studies affect their
characterization?
7. Victor is often ill in the novel, and
his mother dies from an illness. Does Shelley use disease to foreshadow the
ending of the novel?
8.
The Boris Karloff films and most that have followed portray the Creature as
inarticulate. How does having an articulate Creature change the sentiment of
the book? Does he become more or less sympathetic?
9. How does Frankenstein fit into the
following genres: Romantic, Gothic, Horror, Science-fiction, and Dystopia?
10. How does Shelley use nature and
descriptions of scenery to reflect the tonal shifts of the novel? What type of
landscape does Victor’s story begin and where does it end?
11. Were Victor’s intentions to create a
perfect being noble or ignoble?
12. What is the importance of travel in the
novel?
13. Were the events of the novel inevitable,
or could they have been prevented?
14. How does the story of Prometheus relate
to Frankenstein? Who is
more likely to be cast as Prometheus—Victor, or the Creature?
15. Was the Creature right to be angered by
Victor’s refusal to make him a female companion? What would have been the
potential complications if Victor had not refused? How would making the female
companion have altered the course of the story?
16. When the Creature is born he knows
nothing and learns by observing others. Does the being he become serve as argument
for or against predeterminsim?
17. Frankenstein presents a lot of questions regarding science and morality.
Are these questions still relevant today?
18.
Appearance is often emphasized in the book, with noble characters being
described with admirable physical features and the Creature with deformities.
This seems to imply that wickedness can be observed through both appearance and
action. Do you think this rings true in light of the actions of fair featured
Victor, or is Shelley criticizing the trope? Do we still encounter this
ideology today?
19.
Victor symbolically takes on the role of both a man and a woman through his
creation of the Creature. Is the novel a criticism of strict gender roles, or
is it a warning of what happens when people the gender spheres collide?
20.
Both Victor and the Creature pursue revenge to their detriments. Who was
responsible for starting the cycle of revenge? Does it matter?
21.
Family is a recurring theme in the novel; Walton writes letters to his sister,
Victor begins his narrative at home, and the Creature longs for a family of his
own and learns by observing the family in the woods. Given the outcome of each
prominent family, what statement do you think Shelley is making regarding the
traditional family model of her time?
22.
When the Frankensteins adopt Elizabeth, they single her out as the most
beautiful child and take her in with the intention of providing their son with
a companion and potential wife. Does this underscore the professed
philanthropic nature of their deed? Was Elizabeth’s fair looks and rumored
nobility an important factor in the Frankensteins decision to make her their
ward?
23.
Does Victor’s abandonment of and lack of compassion towards the Creature stem
solely from its appearance? Would he have run away if the Creature had been
beautiful?
24.
The Creature performs a noble deed by saving a drowning girl, but is in turn
shot out of fear. What does this say about the nature of the world? Were there
other instances in the story where goodness was met with ill will?
25.
Victor keeps his dark deed secret for most of the novel to the detriment of
others, but when he does at last decided to come clean the magistrate does not
believe him? How responsible was Frankenstein for the deaths of those around
him through his secrecy? Does the event with the magistrate imply that no one
would have believed him anyway, or is this a metaphor for being unable to flee
from a web of one’s lies?
26.
The Creature is the result of different parts of corpses being sewn together.
Does the multiplicity of his physical nature reflect the ever evolving nature
of his mind?
27.
How does Paradise Lost influence the Creature’s
understanding of the world? When does he relate to Lucifer, and when does he
relate to Adam?
28.
What is the Creature’s fate at the end of the story?
29.
How is Frankenstein similar to the story of Faust?
Forum
The discussion forum for this club can be found at http://readingclub.freeforums.net/. In order to participate, you need to sign up for a free Proboards account.
The discussion forum for this club can be found at http://readingclub.freeforums.net/. In order to participate, you need to sign up for a free Proboards account.
Works Cited
Colavito, J. (2008). A
Hideous Bit of Morbidity: An Anthology of Horror. Jefferson, NC: McFarland,
Miller, A.K.
(1998). Mary shelley: Her life, her
fiction, her monsters. Great Britain: Methuen Inc.
Nichols, J. (1996) Mary
Shelly: Frankenstein''s Creator. Newburyport: Red Wheel Weiser.
