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For Monday: Shelley, Frankenstein, Vol. III



NOTE: The reading starts with the chapter, “Day after day, week after week” if you have a different edition.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: When Victor bids farewell to Elizabeth (after planning to marry her), the 1831 text says that she “acquiesced; but she was filled with disquiet at the idea of my suffering, away from her, the inroads of misery and grief...she bade me a tearful, silent farewell.” However, the original 1818 version of the novel reads: “Elizabeth approved of the reasons of my departure, and only regretted that she had not the same opportunities of enlarging her experience, and cultivating her understanding...We all, said she, depend upon you; and if you are miserable, what must be our feelings?” What does the original text seem to communicate about Elizabeth’s experience that the 1831 version wipes away?

Q2: When Victor finds Elizabeth slain by the Creature, he “rushed toward her, and embraced her with ardour” (166). Her also spends quite some time in describing her body as left flung lifelessly across the bed. Does this scene mirror another scene with a ‘beautiful corpse’ in The Victim? How is Victor’s reaction to Elizabeth similar to the doctor’s? Is he more aroused by Elizabeth in death than in life?

Q3: After the death of Clerval, when Victor is languishing in an Irish prison, he reflects, “The whole series of my life appeared to be as a dream; I sometimes doubted if indeed it were all true, for it never presented itself to my mind with the force of reality” (149-150). How does Shelley complicate the matter of Victor’s innocence or guilt in the final chapters? Is their more evidence for his crimes—or the Creature’s existence?

Q4: Victor claims that his narrative is a warning for Walton, so that “the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been” (17). However, the end of the novel seems to contradict his aim in telling his story—and Victor’s actions seem less than repentant than would first appear. What is his hope in telling Walton his story, and what advice does he leave the young Romantic with?

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