Frankenstein Study Guide
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Mrs. PFrankenstein Study Guide
Uploaded by
Mrs. PFrankenstein Study
Guide
This study guide IS NOT comprehensive; there will be some material on the test
that IS NOT on this study guide. Make sure to study your quizzes and past
worksheets. This study guide is worth 20 points!
Fill in the character that fits with each description. Also write whether
the character is alive or dead by the end of the novel:
A. The hideous creation of our protagonist. He is intelligent and sensitive, but his
feelings of abandonment compel him to seek revenge against his creator.
B. The Artic seafarer to whom Victor is relating his story. He relates Victor’s tale to
his sister, Margaret Saville, in England.
C. Victor’s childhood friend. His cheerfulness counters Victor’s moroseness.
D. She is raised as Victor’s cousin, they later marry. She embodies the novel’s motif
of passive women, as she waits patiently for Victor’s attention.
E. Her death is the original reason Victor decides to study how to reanimate matter
and eventually to stop death altogether.
F. The Monster learns to speak and read partly because of this woman’s education
in the same subjects.
G. His death is the first of many in the novel; he is the adorable and much beloved
youngest son of the Frankenstein family.
H. A young girl adopted into the Frankenstein household. She is executed for a
crime that she did not commit.
I. The protagonist of the novel, he changes from a naïve young man fascinated by
science into a revenge-driven man who is determined to destroy his creation.
Short answer questions:
1. Who is writing Victor Frankenstein’s story and why?
2. Victor states, “If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we
might be nearly free” (pg. 111). What point is Victor trying to make?
3. The symbol of FIRE is introduced in ch. III (pg 119)—what are the two opposite
effects that fire can produce and what might fire symbolize?
4. The monster learns an important lesson in Chapter V about human nature as he
learns about history. What is this lesson (pg. 139)?
5. As the monster becomes self-aware, his sorrow increases with knowledge (pg.
140). How does this compare/contrast to Victor’s desire from question #2?
6. What two characters from Paradise Lost does the monster compare himself to in
Chapter VII? Why might he compare himself to these two?
7. Volume III has plenty of examples of foreshadowing—list one example from the
text below and include a quote:
8. When Victor believes that he is about to die while floating aimlessly in the ocean,
he states: “How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we
have of life even in the excess of misery!” (pg. 212) What deeper meaning might
this quote hold, for both Victor and the monster?
1
9. Shelley writes of the peaceful and calm landscape at the end of ch. III—why does
she write about the landscape and the feelings that it evokes in such detail? What
might she be attempting to do to the reader?
Write 2-3 sentences explaining how these themes are present in the novel:
1. Dangerous Knowledge:
2. Sublime Nature:
3. Life/Death:
Write 2-3 sentences explaining how these motifs are present in the novel:
4. Passive Women:
5. Abortion:
Write 2-3 sentences explaining how this symbol is present in the novel:
6. Light/Fire:
Your test will feature exposition questions; you will have to choose at least TWO
of the following questions to answer in a grammatically correct paragraph. Your
answer should include examples from the text. YOU DO NOT NEED TO ANSWER
THESE FOR THE STUDY GUIDE. THESE ARE SHOWN JUST SO YOU KNOW WHAT TO
EXPECT. YOU CAN ANSWER THEM TO HELP YOU PRACTICE FOR THE TEST.
1. What powers does the text attribute to nature with regard to human
happiness? Follow the fluctuations in Victor's relationship to and
interpretations of his natural environment:
2. Trace the "light" imagery—what are the connotations of "light" at various
points in the book?
3. Why can't ordinary humans accept the Monster’s appearance? What does
this inability imply about the basis of human community? In other words,
why so much emphasis on physical similarity or dissimilarity?
4. Why might it be construed as "poetic justice" (of an infernal sort) that
Victor Frankenstein's worst catastrophe comes just after he is married?
5. Discuss the final usage made of fire and the natural setting. Why is it
significant that the Monster decides to destroy himself? Why is it
appropriate that he will do this when he reaches the North Pole?
