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For Monday: Shelley, Frankenstein, Book 1 (see below)



NOTE: Read pp.5-68 in the Oxford World’s Classics version: for other versions, read until the chapter that begins, “Nothing is more painful to the human mind...”
 
Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Most first-time readers of Frankenstein are surprised to find that the novel begins with a frame narrative: that of Walton, the arctic explorer, who is writing home to his sister, Mrs. Saville. What purpose does this frame serve, especially since it could have all been narrated from Victor’s point of view? Also, why might Walton be a very ‘Gothic’ character in his own right?

Q2: According to the story of his early education that Victor gives to Walton, what set him on the path of creating new life? How did he go from an earnest, naive young man to a “modern Prometheus” who would “pour a torrent of light into our dark world” (36)?

Q3: Immediately after he creates his “monster,” Victor ends up falling asleep and has a nightmare of Elizabeth, where as soon as he kisses her, “her lips...became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms” (39). How does the dream relate to his creation, and why does he create a man but dream of (dead) women?

Q4: Where does Victor first encounter his Creature again after its dreadful birth? Why might this location be significant considering Shelley’s love of the Romantics and the sublime? Consider, too, Victor describes the Creature and why these words might hold Gothic significance.

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