Student+-+Stevens,+H

= =  // Frankenstein // Reading Log    // Respond to at least 20 of the following questions. //   __Letters:__ 1. The novel begins with a series of letters in which the narrator of the novel is writing his thoughts and plans to his sister. Where is the narrator going? Why has he chosen to make this voyage? Of what does the narrator dream? What is his goal?  2. What sort of man is Walton? Does he serve any //thematic// function in the novel, or is he included largely as a "storyteller"--that is, is he included simply as a mechanical narrative device? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">3. Is Robert Walton's ambition similar to Frankenstein's, as Frankenstein believes? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">__Ch. 1-5:__ <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">4. Work out a character sketch of Victor Frankenstein, concentrating on his values and psychological makeup. What does he value? What motivates him? What appear to be his "moral standards"? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">5. Compare Victor and Elizabeth. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">6. Compare Henry to Victor and to Elizabeth. How does Elizabeth affect Victor and Henry? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">7. The first three chapters tell us about Victor Frankenstein's childhood and youth; the fourth, about his "discovery" of the principle of life. For movie fans these chapters may seem irrelevant: after all, we want to see the Creature being created and--amid bursts of smoke and flashes of lightning--"born." Why, then, does Mary Shelley devote so much space to Victor's childhood environment and his education? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">8. How does Victor describe his discovery of the life principle? Does the discovery itself bring about a further change in his attitude towards scientific endeavor? If so, describe the change. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">9. Describe the appearance of the creature that Frankenstein creates. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">10. When the Creature is created, where is the __focus__ in this section? On the process of creation? On the Creature? Somewhere else? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">__Ch. 6-17:__ <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">11. When the Creature tells his story, notice the place Victor Frankenstein meets his Creature. Why is this setting particularly appropriate? The novel now begins to zero in on its major themes. Of what does the Creature accuse Victor? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">12. What does the Creature’s story reveal about the Creature's "natural instincts"? What gives him pleasure? What dos he value? (Consider, for instance, how he describes the DeLaceys and their cottage.) Of what does the Creature's education consist? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">13. Why can't ordinary humans accept the Being'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? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">14. What argument does the Creature offer in support of his demand? Why? Is it a reasonable argument? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">__Ch. 18-23:__ <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">15. Why can't Frankenstein tell anyone—even his father or Elizabeth—why he blames himself for the deaths of William, Justine, and Henry Clerval? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">16. Why doesn't Frankenstein realize that the monster's pledge "I shall be with you on your wedding-night" threatens Elizabeth as well as himself? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Ch. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> 24: __ <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">17. As Victor becomes more isolated, we begin to see most clearly in Frankenstein's //isolation// from his fellow creatures a parallel to the Creature's own situation. In what other ways are Victor and the Creature beginning to be strikingly similar? Have you encountered this sort of "parallel-making" anywhere else in literature or the arts? If so, where? Does the device have a formal name? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">18. Note the surrealistic environment of the "chase" scenes. Are we getting into a different sort of novel than we were originally led to expect? If so, what is the nature of the difference? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">19. Why are Frankenstein and his monster both ultimately miserable, bereft of human companionship, and obsessed with revenge? Are they in the same situation at the end of the novel? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">20. Why doesn't Walton kill the monster when he has the chance? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">21. Has Walton the scientist learned anything from Victor? If so, what has he learned? If not, why not? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">22. In an influential essay, the Romantic scholar and critic Harold Bloom wrote that the reader's sympathy lies with the Creature, but in his book __The Romantic Conflict__ (1963) Allan Rodway says the reader's sympathy lies with Victor Frankenstein. Who is right? <span style="line-height: 20pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">23. Was it wrong for Frankenstein to inquire into the origins of life? <span style="line-height: 20pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">24. What makes the creature a monster rather than a human being? <span style="line-height: 20pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">25. Is the monster, who can be persuasive, always telling the truth?