Vol. 3 Chapters 7: The Last Letters

At this point the frame story comes back full-circle and Victor has one last request of Captain Robert Walton - kill the creature so that it couldn't hurt anyone else.

Walton isn't sure what to do and eventually makes a decision when he come face-to-face with the creature after Victor's death.


For this post, assume the role of Captain Robert Walton and share in detail why you have reservations in fulfilling Victor's last request, your reaction to the creatures response at Victor's death, and what you think happened to the creature after he was "lost in the darkness and distance"?

Vol. 3 Chapters 5-6: Wedding Jitters

As the wedding day nears, the creature continues to torment Victor by killing people close to him including Clerval.  The members of Victors family are understandably saddened by the recent deaths, but look forward to the long awaited wedding as a moment of happiness. 

In a private moment, Victor tells his father that he felt responsible for the deaths of William, Justine, and Henry - but not why.  Elizabeth begins to worry as well.  In a letter, she asks if he had fallen in love with someone else.  He resolves to marry Elizabeth soon, assuming that the monster would kill him on his wedding night and cease his horrible vengeance. 

For this post, take on the role of Victor and provide some answers with reasoning to back up your thought process in the following instances:  Discuss the reasons for telling your father that you felt responsible and why you made the decision not to explain.  Share why you believe Elizabeth is questioning your faithfulness and how you plan to reassure her.  Describe your plan to stop the creature from continuing his vengeful ways.

Vol. 3 Chapters 1-4: "I will be with you on your wedding-night."

Victor Frankenstein returned from Chamounix to Geneva and procrastinated for several months.  Finally, after reassuring his father that he planned to marry Elizabeth, Frankenstein headed back to England to confront the dreaded task of making a female creature.  Elizabeth and Frankenstein's father had arranged some company for Victor; Clerval joined him in Strasbourg.

For several months the friends traveled together and Victor worried that the creature might harm his relatives in Switzerland or follow him and wreak vengeance on his friend, Clerval.  Victor eventually convinced Clerval to leave him alone for a month or two, with the intention of creating the female monster.

In this post, write as Victor and put yourself in his mind as you begin to create the creature's companion.  What begins to worry you about the project?  What questions begin to enter your mind about the pairing?  What could be unintended consequences of created a mate?  What did you decide to do with the work-in-progress?  Be sure to include explanation with in your answers.

Your answer should help the reader understand what enrages the creature and causes him to warn Victor that, "I will be with you on your wedding-night."

Vol. 2 Chapters 8-9: Negotiating with the Creature

The monster that Victor Frankenstein creates strikes a close parallel to the character of Adam in Milton's Paradise Lost. Like Adam, the monster really never really had a chance to meet his father. He was immediately cast aside and his creator wanted nothing to do with him. He too never really had a chance to know God, his creator, since he was rejected from Eden. Frankenstein's monster did not choose to be rejected by his father, but he did not have any control over his appearance.  Another connection between Adam and the monster is the fact that they are both very lonely and wish for companionship. The monster, while reading Paradise Lost says, "Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence" (Shelley 124). Adam simply asks God for a mate and he is given one. However, when the monster asks Victor to create a mate for him, he is strung along until Victor decides that he is not willing to help the monster. The monster sees that Adam was allowed to converse with other beings and animals, but he "was wretched, helpless, and alone" (Shelley 124). He is unable to get anyone to talk to him, as people are always offended by his outward appearance, despite the fact that he is simply a lonely man looking for acceptance. Finally, there is a distinct connection between Adam and the monster in the way that they both become self aware of themselves. Adam discovers the tree of knowledge, and even though he knows it is forbidden to eat from the tree, he does so anyways and becomes aware of himself. The monster discovers the bag full of books and upon reading them, begins to ask questions much like the way Adam did when he stumbled upon his knowledge.

During these chapters, Victor continues to listen to the creature and a negotiation begins to take place.  This post asks you to assume the role of Victor again and consider things from his perspective.


Begin this post by first reacting to the incredible story that your creation has told you and then discuss how you feel about the specific instances and what they really mean to you.  Be sure to include in your post the following instances: what the creature learned by watching the family, the ability of the creature to survive, what the creature learned from reading Paradise Lost and you laboratory journal, the creatures potential to be helpful and harmful to the world, and your initial reaction about it's insistence for you to create a mate.

Vol. 2 Chapters 1-7: It's Alive!

After the creation of the creature, Victor felt only horror and disgust about what he had done. His horror was relieved when it seemed that the creature had left the apartment.  Months later, his horror was renewed when he heard that William had been murdered and blame was placed on Justine - but Victor knew the truth.  Victor refers to himself as the "true murderer" and considers himself to be "thrice accused."

In this post, write a diary entry recounting the day you created the creature, your reasoning for calling yourself the "true murderer", what you mean by being "thrice accused", and your plan for stopping future murders.

 
**The clip show above is pure Hollywood magic.  None of it occurred this way in Shelley's book, but it's still fun to look at.**

Chapters 1-4: In My Own Words

"Remember, I am not recording the vision of a madman.  The sun does not more certainly shine in the heavens, than that which I now affirm is true.  Some miracle might have produced it, yet the stages of the discovery were distinct and probable.  After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter."

"I was like the Arabian who had been buried with the dead and found a passage to life, aided only by one glimmering and seemingly ineffectual light."

In the above quote, Victor alludes to a story from The Arabian Nights, specifically to "The Fourth Voyage of Sinbad" in which Sinbad is given a beautiful wife as a present by a friendly king. He later discovers that in that particular country it is custom to be buried along with your dead spouse.   Soon after Sinbad discovers this, his wife dies. So Sinbad is "buried" with his wife in a cave.  However, he is able to see a small spot of light by which he eventually is able to escape from the cave.

For this post, recount the lifestyle that Victor is familiar with, his relationship with his parents and Elizabeth - his "more than sister," his educational interest in alchemy, and explain why his discovery allowed him to find a "passage to life."

Letters I-IV: Running Down the Devil

"About two o'clock the mist cleared away, and we beheld, stretched out in every direction, vast and irregular plains of ice, which seemed to have no end.  Some of my comrades groaned, and my own mind began to grow watchful with anxious thoughts, when a strange sight suddenly attracted our attention, and diverted our solicitude from our own situations.  We perceived a low carriage, fixed on a sledge and drawn by dogs, pass on towards the north, at the distance of half a mile; a being which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature, sat in the sledge, and guided the dogs.  We watched the rapid progress of the traveller with our telescopes until he was lost among the distant inequalities of the ice." 

This strange scene witnessed and told by Captain Robert Walton was followed the next day by the emergence of another weary visitor who boarded the ship from the vast loneliness of the arctic.  Although we don't discover it until later - the second man is Victor Frankenstein. 

For your first post, you're asked to take on the role of Victor Frankenstein and do the following: share who you are chasing, how you came to the arctic, explain your decision to board the ship, and your purpose for telling your horrific tale to Captain Robert Walton.  

I understand that you may have to fabricate some of these ideas in the beginning, but please make an attempt to enter into the mind of Victor Frankenstein.  As with all posts, you are to write as Victor in the genre of a diary complete with detailed explanations that allow the reader to have a deeper understanding of the character.