Resources for IO

Overview/Questions to consider

Nature controls the narrative. Discuss a powerful statement that captures the technique of pathetic fallacy

Nature vs. Nurture is an important theme throughout Frankenstein and is representative/ transformation With the case of Victor’s creature, he does not teach it or raise it but abandons it to figure out life on its own. If Victor had raised the creature, how do you think it would have turned out? Would it have still become a vindictive creature because it is its nature to be so? Or would it have maybe followed in Victor’s footsteps to seek learning opportunities (since it is in fact quite intelligent) because Victor nurtured it that way?

Overview/Questions to consider

The monster is described as scary and ugly because he does not fit into the norm of the European’s ideals of what they think is beautiful. This is why he is considered “other”.

• From the beginning of the story, the monster’s creator, Victor, labels his as “other” due to him not liking what he created. Through the description of the narrator, the monster is known to possess human qualities, yet he is still something other than human

• How does this novel send a powerful message about what it is like to be an outcast? What meaning might this have for you in terms of our own feelings about others and how you might treat people? Can the creature’s feelings help you to empathize with the feelings of people who are often rejected or hurt by others?

• What does it mean to be a monster? Who is the real monster in Frankenstein? Is Victor, the well-intentioned yet troubled scientist, a monster? Or is his creation the monster? Are they both monsters in their own ways?

Overview/Questions to consider

This is a cautionary tale warning about the threat to a diminished humanity posed by Science. Both Walton, the narrator and Frankenstein are challenging the frontiers of human knowledge and will suffer for it. Shelley parallels Walton's spatial explorations and Frankenstein's forays into unknown knowledge, as both men seek to “pioneer a new way,” to make progress beyond established limits.

Science was rapidly changing in the 1800s, and it continues to further advance today. For many readers, Shelley’s novel serves as a warning of science gone awry and the irreversible outcomes of well-intentioned experiments. What are some scientific inventions/experiments that are happening right now that could lead to monstrous results?

• Rapid development of technology disrupts our ecosystem and humanity.

• Transhumanism: the systematic attempts to transcend human embodiment technologically.

• Human cloning/Artificial Intelligence and engineering threatens individuality and freedom

• Natural disasters are eminent and pose a direct threat to humanity

• Through their bio-technological industries such companies still act firmly in accordance with the ‘Promethean’ ethos of modern science, intent on using scientific knowledge to ‘command’ the earth

• The Romantics argued against the dehumanizing effects of the industrial revolution and Shelley wondered what unintended disasters could develop from scientific experiments. You can discuss topics like climate change, internet addiction, designer genetics, and the like. The debate over the consequences of technological development surrounds us.

Write your thoughts and responses regarding the relationship of Frankenstein to current scientific issues such as recombinant DNA and biogenetic engineering. Do you agree that Frankenstein is a stern warning about scientific progress and that the “the secrets of nature” should remain untouched? Or do you feel this is a misunderstanding and exaggeration of the theme of Frankenstein? Give reasons for your beliefs.

Overview/Questions to consider

Shelley's novel conveys different points of views through different texts incorporated in the novel such as letters, notes, and journals. Walton's letters encompass the entire tale while Victor's story envelops the monster's story, and lastly the monster's story encircles the love story of Felix and Safie and also alludes to Paradise Lost. Language serves an enormous role in the monster’s maturation. Through observing the peasants' interaction, the monster learns to speak and read, allowing him to understand the daily mannerisms and norms of the human species. In a form of communication, the monster later turns nature into a surface to write on by leaving notes for Victor by inscribing words on trees and rocks as Victor chases him into the northern region.

Mary Shelley also emphasizes on the lack of communication that concludes into secrecy and isolation. During the time of the monster's creation, Victor willingly detaches himself from all human contact. Until he is found by Walton, he does not tell anyone of his obsession in creating life and in destroying the monster. In contrast, the monster is forced to hide from the humans due to his monstrous appearance. The monster’s involuntary seclusion from society leads to his hatred toward his creator, and in turn, the monster kills everyone who Victor cares for. As a result, both Victor and Frankenstein live in hatred and solely for the reason to revenge upon each other. In confessing to Walton just before he dies, Victor escapes the suffocating secrecy that has ruined his life; similarly, the monster uses Walton’s presence as a human connection, hoping that someone will finally understand, and empathize with, his miserable reality.

Throughout the novel, Frankenstein refers to his creation as a dæmon. According to the ancient Greeks, a dæmon is a mystical being that is neither human nor god but somewhere in between. In popular fiction, the term describes an animal that is the manifestation of a person’s soul, often showcasing the person’s dark side. Using these definitions, how has Victor’s language influenced your perception of his creature? Has his negative language regarding his creation influenced your perception of Victor?

Overview/Questions to consider

Frankenstein is full of ambitious, adventurous men: Robert Walton is on a quest to the North Pole, Victor Frankenstein searches for the secret of life, and Henry Clerval aspires to be a “gallant and adventurous benefactor of our species.” Even the creature explores the world and educates himself. In contrast, every female character remains exclusively in the domestic sphere and primarily functions as a channel of action for men. They are passive, submissive, and dependent. Events and actions happen to them, usually to teach men some sort of lesson.

Because of Frankenstein’s structure, there is no objective narrative voice; Shelley’s women are described and narrated by male characters. How might this affect their portrayal, both in their social roles and as individuals? Why might Shelley have chosen to filter the narratives of female characters through the perspective of male characters? Had Shelley’s women been given direct access to the narrative, what might have changed?

Overall, Mary Shelley depicts the roles of women as highly restricted. Why do you think she, as a woman herself, intentionally represents women as the submissive gender in Frankenstein? Do you think Shelley believed women were inferior or, to the contrary, might her novel subtly argue in favor of feminism? Explain your reasoning.

The role of the violence and suffering in the novel “Frankenstein” is just an external manifestation of how a man will be driven towards violence when he feels desolate. More than the aesthetics of physical distortion of Victor Frankenstein’s monster, what the novel really conveys is the idea of how “ugly and violent” we can get when we feel bad about ourselves and our surroundings. In Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster had no other positive experience than that of alienation and misery that led it to be vindictive and commit murder.

The tendency of how can man becomes violent initially manifested when the first monster confessed to Victor that he was the one who murdered his younger brother William. In the monster’s confession, he told how desolate he felt by being alienated from society; that he killed the boy out of revenge. The monster further confessed how miserable it feels to be alone and miserable because of his monster physique that even the family of cottagers who sheltered him that gave him hopes for compassion even drove him away. To regain his sense humanity, the monster would like Victor to create him a female partner in order to regain his chance to reconnect with his humanity as a partner will no longer make him feel desolate and miserable. Victor agreed to create the monster a partner and this is where the tragedy begun.

Overview/Questions to consider

Prejudice = intolerance, isolation, hatred and revenge

• Prejudice, or judging people with little or no evidence, is a recurring theme throughout Frankenstein. The first major incidence of it comes when Victor abandons his creature.

Shelley makes us question how we treat those who appear monstrous when we may be monsters ourselves. Victor also suffers prejudice, in parallel with the Monster, when he is washed up in Scotland and treated with immediate suspicion and anger, called a ‘villain’, and accused of a murder he did not commit.

People who come across the Monster are all deceived by its appearance into thinking it will do them harm, when in reality it has been born with completely pure and good intentions. It is attacked by townspeople, beaten by Felix (who it thought could be a friend) and shot at by a peasant. It is no wonder it turns evil in the face of such prejudice. Shelley makes us question how we treat those who appear monstrous when we may be monsters ourselves. Victor also suffers prejudice, in parallel with the Monster, when he is washed up in Scotland and treated with immediate suspicion and anger, called a ‘villain’, and accused of a murder he did not commit. Justine suffers prejudice, and pays with her life, when she is accused of murdering a child. That child, William, is himself prejudiced. He insults the Monster with the same words Victor uses against it, when all it wanted was to to make friends. Shelley is constantly showing her readers the destructive and isolating nature of prejudice