For Tuesday: Frankenstein, Chapters VII to Book 3, Chapter IV (118-178)

Goya, A Way of Flying (etching, 1819)

Since we have the weekend, I encourage you to read a little more of the book, and to help you do that, I won't give you any questions to answer. When you come to class next week, we'll have an in-class response based on some big idea that occurs in these chapters. Below are some ideas you might want to consider as you read, since we'll probably write about one of them (and that will count for your Tuesday Reading Response). 

IDEAS TO CONSIDER (don't answer--we'll write about some of this on Tuesday): 

* How is the Creature's education shaped by his reading in the cottager's hut? What other works might shape his future character? You might also consider why Shelley chose these specific works for the Creature to read (it's more than a coincidence)...and maybe Victor/Walton chose them, too?

* How does Shelley make us empathize with the Creature, even as he commits murder and mayhem? Why might she try to make a murderer full of sensibility (think of the Goya portrait of the young woman)?

* Consider Victor's arguments against creating a mate for the Creature: are they sound and moral? Or simply selfish and vain? What makes him finally acquiesce? 

* Similarly, what makes him destroy it at the last minute? By destroying the mate is he potentially saving the world?

* Victor continues to quote Romantic poems in his story, though one of them, "Mutability" is a poem published by Percy Shelley in 1816(!). Why do you think Shelley continues to include out-of-place poems in this narrative? Is it a meta moment for the reader, almost like a movie soundtrack, which often uses 21st century means to evoke ancient times? Or is it meant to hopelessly confuse the narrative integrity? 

* If the Creature starts out more like Elizabeth, how does he become more like Victor by the end? What makes it harder to distinguish between the two, especially when they're speaking? 

* Why does Victor appear guilty before the Irish villagers? How might he inadvertently admit his own guilt in these pages (Chapter IV especially)?