Frankenstein Response Paper
shawn23
frankenstein_-_day_two_powerpoint.pptxFrankenstein – Day Two
CSCL 3461 – 25 January 2017
1
Creation and Creator
the act of creation and the obligations of the creator are central to this section
first in Victor’s regret for bringing his creature into the world, where he “wished to extinguish that life which I had so thoughtlessly bestowed” (87)
then in the creature’s words, where he asks “[h]ow dare you sport thus with life?” (92)
finally in Victor’s contemplation of “what the duties of a creator towards his creature were” (94)
Creation and Creator - Questions
Why is Victor almost immediately stricken with regret for creating the creature?
Why does the creature consider Victor to be sporting with life, and is he so cavalier?
What are Victor’s obligations towards the creature?
Nature
nature, a constant presence throughout the novel, receives direct attention in this section
specifically in relation to its salutary effects on Victor: “These sublime and magnificent scenes afforded me the greatest consolation that I was capable of receiving. They elevated me from all littleness of feeling; and although they did not remove my grief, they subdued and tranquilised it” (90)
Nature - Questions
Why do these scenes have such a soothing effect on Victor?
How might his relative insignificance in the face of grand nature allow him some perspective on his situation?
How might nature function only as a distraction from William’s murder?
Crime and Criminals
crime, and those who commit it, appear frequently in these chapters
first in the suggestion that “[n]othing in human shape could have destroyed that fair child. He was the murderer!” (75)
then in Victor’s suspicions that “the daemon, who had (I did not for a minute doubt) murdered my brother, also in this hellish sport have betrayed the innocent to death and ignominy?” (81)
finally in his fears that “the monster whom I had created should perpetrate some new wickedness” (86)
Crime and Criminals - Questions
Why is Victor so sure that the creature killed William, in the absence of any real evidence?
What might the creature’s potential framing of Justine suggest about his potential for higher-level thinking?
Why is Victor so sure that further crimes are to follow?
Barbarity
the notion of barbarity appears frequently as well, first in Victor’s lamentations about man’s supposed superiority: “why does man boast of sensibilities superior to those apparent in the brute; it only renders them more necessary beings” (91)
later in the creature’s reflections on his treatment by those he encounters, which he calls “the barbarity of man” (98)
Barbarity - Questions
Why does humanity consider itself superior to simpler beings?
How are humans considered to be “necessary beings”?
How does the treatment that the creature receives point out the barbarity of man?
East versus West
Clerval pursues “the design of making himself complete master of the oriental languages” (69)
Victor leisure reads many of the associated works, and concludes that “[t]heir melancholy is soothing, and their joy elevating, to a degree I never experienced in studying the authors of any other country. When you read their writings, life appears to consist in a warm sun and a garden of roses… [h]ow different from the manly and heroical poetry of Greece and Rome!” (69)
East versus West - Questions
What impression of Eastern thought and literature is given by these statements?
How might Victor’s conclusions be essentializing a broad and diverse selection of national and ethnic literatures?
How might he also be participating in a stereotypical feminization of Asian peoples?
