Read through the comprehension questions after each excerpt. Pick a few of the points below and choose a focus for your reading.
1. Characterize Victor Frankenstein
2. What views are represented in the excerpt regarding life, death, religion, science?
3. Read lines 29-40 again. How does Victor describe his scientific breakthrough?
4. Focus on the use of language and imagery when Victor discovers the secret of life - what do you think?
5. Characterize the changes in Victor's mood as his creation progresses.
6. Consider question 6 on p. 93 - what causes Victor's anxiety?
When I read the text I had my focus of Victor Frankenstein. Below I have tried to characterize Victor
ReplyDeleteVictor Frankenstein grew up in Geneva. He was a great scientist and had a passion for understanding the mystery of life. That is why he dedicated all his efforts to Science and the human body. He was drawn to find the secret of life. At first he tells us that he is not afraid of anything, not supernatural horrors, apparitions, darkness or churchyards. He finds it interesting to observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body. But after having brought Frankenstein to life he hides in the courtyard. That shows us, that he is not as brave as he wants us to believe and it makes him a bit unreliable.
Victor Frankenstein has this great passion for anatomy and spends days and nights in vaults and charnel houses examining dead bodies and the decays of these. When he tells us how he carried out the research into the structure of the human body he seems very anxious and uses a morbid anxiety considered that it is dead people he is working with.
After giving the monster life he realizes that he has deprived himself of rest and health for nearly two years and after finishing his dream he just fells horror and disgust. He is no longer exited and his mood changes to being depressed. Maybe finding the secret of life is not how he expected it to be?
He dreams about his wife Elisabeth, the corpse of his dead mother and all the worms from the graveyard. He is haunted and all the things he has supplanted are now coming back. Could that be a symbol?
Victor has been brought up fearing nothing, and having an extremely desire for scientific enlightenment. He is very ambitious, but in a way also very fanatical in his quest for giving life to dead body parts. He is all the time suggesting that he is driven by a higher force to do these experiments on life and death. One gets the feeling that Victor in his mind (but unconsciously) feels that God is supporting his work. However when he sees his work coming to life, he realizes that he has not been working with the support of God, but rather with the support of Satan! All of a sudden he realizes that what he had regarded as beautiful in reality is a grotesque and ugly being, and then he is overwhelmed with fear, and a lot of second thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThis is a huge turning point in the novel because Victor becomes aware of the fact that there is more to life than science and logic. He understands that he has been walking down a very dangerous path, thinking that he was doing wonders, but now realizing that he has been walking hand in hand with the Devil.
Martin
Focus on Victor Frankenstein
ReplyDeleteVictor Frankenstein is born and grows up in Geneva before going to university in Ingolstadt. He is a brilliant student who dedicates all of his efforts to find the secret of life. After working nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body, he creates Frankenstein. He has deprived himself rest and health, but when he finished, the beauty of his dream vanished, and horror filled his heart. He is afraid of his own creation and have dreams about how it will take his loves ones. No longer had he anxiety to see his work, but instead he had horrifying emotions in all of his body.
6. Consider question 6 on p. 93 - what causes Victor's anxiety?
The horror of the reality that he has created. The reality of life.
Does Frankenstein's monster in any way represent Victor Frankenstein?
ReplyDeleteIf we take God out of the equation, what does the monster then represent?
Do you know the myth of Babel? - Any thoughts on that one?
1) Victor Frankenstein is born in Geneva and goes to school in Ingolstadt. He is an exellent pupil at the university. He spends all his time searching for the secret of life. He do not fear the cemetery which to him is only a place for dead bodies finding their last rest. He is also not disgusted by the dead bodies but he finds it interesting to watch how life dies and decays and how death comes back to life. He is amazed and proud over his own discovery and do not find himself insane. He works very hard and he will not rest until he accomplishes his goal. He is disgusted and afraid of his own creature and suffers from nightmares.
ReplyDelete3) When he gets his breakthrough and his new discovery makes him very light headed and he can not believe of all geniuses in the world, he is the one to discover this amazing secret.
4) He uses very fancy words as if he is god himself and above all other humans
5) At first he finds the creature beautiful but as time passes , he becomes more and more disgusted. In the end he is horrified and becomes anxious.
6) He wakes up because the creature confronts him in his own bedroom.
okay, I'm gonna try to answer the last three questions.
ReplyDeleteI do think that the monster in a way represents Victor Franktenstein.Frankenstein challenges nature by making an unnatural man. He wants to create something beautiful but instead it becomes a hideous monster. The monster could represent Victor's own inner fear and ugliness as he realizes that he should not have tampered with nature.
Not sure if this is what you mean, but...
The monster is an ugly but sensitive creature,
that tries to adapt to society but is constantly feared and rejected because of its monsterous appearance. So the monster could represent foreigners or criminals seeking a (second) chance in society, but who are rejected because of their background. (Too far off??)
Frankenstein assumes that he can act as God. He disrupts the natural order and chaos errupts.
Nimrod does not trust in God anymore and sets himself up as a God. He and his men built a tower(of Babel) that reaches unto heaven (they shoot arrows towards heaven which return covered in blood). As a punishment God then confounds their language and now they cannot understand each other anymore.This leads to a lot of confusion, aggression and killing.
So again, someone who wants to play God, causes chaos.
PS: if you're ever in Edinburgh, the Frankenstein Pub is highly recommended :-)
Victor Frankenstein played God when he created "The monster", and didn't think about all the consequences that it would give.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Frankenstein "The monster" is how Victor really is? Scared and isolated and not a part of the society?
I agree with a lot of points(maybe I can't be bothered to repeat what everyone has said in my own words!) He is trying to play God by making a creature from dead body parts.(Ressurection of Jesus?). He wants to make a scientific breakthrough, whereby he would be admired by his peers. In reality Frankenstein mirrors his own disgusting obscenity, his warped & twisted mind.
ReplyDeleteYou could compare Frankenstein to the Atom bomb. An amazing scientific breakthrough but brutally horrible in reality. Feelings of guilt after making it, realizing the monstrous horror they had created.
I agree with what people's said too. It actually reminds me a lot of a short story written by the Danish writer Svend Åge Madsen. It's called Skaberen, I think and is about a guy who wants to create this ... creature in his own image, and he does it by donating, ever so generously, one of everything to the creature. He's got two eyes, two hands, two legs etc, so he cuts them out of his own flesh, so the "double" can have everything it needs, and the story portrays his thoughts throughout the creation, like a diary, along with his own realization that this project will eventually claim his life. It has a lot of the same perspectives as this one, with creating something to stand out, play God, make people acknowledge you, as well as the price this comes with. It's intriguing, but also scary, really, mostly because it's not all that uncommon.
ReplyDeleteIs it significant that this story was written by a woman? Why/why not?
ReplyDeleteWhat are the central themes and why are they raised in this way? - Consider the period in which it was written.