FRANKENSTEIN

10

BY MARY SHELLEY

Maria Capdevila Bajona

4tC

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

1. Who were Mary’s parents?

Mary’s parents were famous philosophical authors, they were: Mary Wollstonecraft (her
mother) and William Godwin (her father). Her mother was a feminist with “radical ideas”,
she wrote a vindication of the rights of women. Her father was also a person with “radical”
thoughts, he was a political philosopher who talked about all kind of corruption

2. When was Mary Shelley born?

She was born on the 30th of August of 1797, in Somers Town, London, UK.

3. Who did she marry?

Mary met the young poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1812 and ran off with him to France
in July 1814. The couple got married in 1816 after his first wife committed suicide.

4. When did Mary’s mother pass away?

Mary’s mother passed away 10 days after she gave birth.

5. How many children did Mary have?

She could give birth to 4 children.

She became pregnant at only 17 years old but unfortunately, the baby died some days after
she was born. After a hard time and lots of sadness, they had 4 children, but only one
survived. , his name was Percy (like his father’s name), he was born in 1819.

6. When was her first child born? What happened to her (the daughter)?

Mary gave birth to a daughter named Clara in 1815. But Carla was two months premature
and died only a few weeks after her birth.

7. Where did she come up with the idea of Frankenstein?

Frankenstein was “born” in the summer of the year 1816, Mary spent the summer at the
house near Lake Geneva of a friend of hers and her husband (Lord Byron), but because of the
weather they were forced to stay indoors for a long time, so they were fond of spending the
afternoons reading horror stories.

One of those nights, Byron asked each one of the people in the room to write a horror story.
This was done, and the results were two masterpieces of fantastic literature: The Vampire, by
John Polidori (who was also present) and Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.

Everyone liked science experiments involving electricity, such as Luigi Galvani's

Later, the publishers who worked with Mary liked the idea, and Frankenstein was published
anonymously (like all her works) on January 1st, 1818. One anecdote is that it was the first
major science fiction novel.

9. What happened after the publication of Frankenstein?

After the publication of “Frankenstein” Mary’s son, William, died.

10. Search for some of her other works.

She has lots of other stories but I’ll only put some of them:
The Last Man: This is a book set in the year 2090 and recounts the social and political
outbreak in Great Britain and Greece before being invaded by a plague, the narrator sees, as
all his loved ones die, until he is the last man alone.
Mathilda: Tells the story from her deathbed, Matilda tells the story of her father's confession
of his love for her, followed by his suicide by drowning.
The immortal mortal: It tells the story of a man who works with an alchemist, who leaves
him in charge of a potion to be immortal, the protagonist drinks it, but as time passes, he sees
how his wife and his friends die. He reaches 300 years or more and the novel does not tell us
his end.

ABOUT THE BOOK

1. Complete the sentence: → 10 points

b) Victor’s mother wanted her son to get married to Elisabeth.

c) The first person killed by the monster was William, Victor's brother.

d) An old and blind man was kind to the monster.

e) Victor died in Captain Walton’s ship.

2. Who says this in the story? → 10 points

a) ‘I am very happy because you love each other.’ -- Victor Frankenstein’s mother.

b) ‘You made me, and you should love me and be kind to me, like a father.’ -- The creature

c) ‘You are an evil creature. I shall kill you if I can.’ -- Victor Frankenstein to the monster

d) ‘My father has agreed to let me study at the university, so we shall be able to spend a lot of
time together.’ -- Victor’s friend: Henry Clerval.

e) ‘Some of you will become the great scientists of tomorrow.’ -- Victor’s teacher: Professor
Waldman

3. Answer the questions: → 32 points

a) When the monster finds himself in the world, he can hear and see. What can he not do?

He can’t talk to anyone because he doesn't know the language.

b) What does he find in the woods to help him eat and keep warm?

In the woods, he finds a small hut with an old man inside, who ran after he saw the monster.

c) When he arrives at a village, what do the villagers do?

Some villagers were afraid of him and ran away, but others shouted and threw stones at him.

d) He finds an empty building beside a lonely cottage. How does he watch the family who live
there?

He watches the family who lives there through a small hole in the wall.

e) How does the monster help the family who lives there?
During the night, he cut wood for them.

f) What does the monster learn together with Sophie?

He learns the language.

g) Why does he decide to introduce himself to the old man first?

Because he is blind.

h) What does he do when he is rejected by the family (Agatha, Felix, and the father)?

After he got rejected he ran away into the woods and then returned to speak to the old blind
man again but they had already left.

i) In the story, Frankenstein’s monster kills some people by strangling them. Who is the last
person killed by the monster in this way?

The last person killed by strangling was Elisabeth.

j) What does the monster do with the gold chain?

He puts the chain in the pocket of one woman he found inside a hut (Justine).

k) Why doesn’t Victor create the woman monster?

Victor finally decides to not create the woman monster because she could be even eviler than
the first monster, moreover, only the first creature promised to stay away, maybe unlike the
first one, she wouldn't be ok with the deal.

l) Why does the monster kill Elizabeth?

The monster kills Elisabeth as revenge. Because Victor didn’t make another monster for him

m) Why does Victor leave the hotel and hurry back to Geneva on his honeymoon?

Because the monster just killed his wife and he was really worried because he could have
gone for his father and brother next.

n) Why does Victor want to stay alive after Elisabeth’s death?

Because he wanted to revenge all his family deaths.

o) What does Victor ask Captain Walton to do after his death?

Victor asks Captain Walton to find and kill the monster.

p) How does the monster plan to die?

4. Did you know the story before reading this book? What do you think after reading it?
Do you think Frankenstein’s monster is as bad as everyone thinks? → 14 points

Yes, I knew the story because it's really famous, but I had never read it until now.

After reading it I can say that it is really well done, but also a sad and shocking story, it's
really hard to read because the feelings seem so real that sometimes you forgot you're just
reading, you understand by all the perspectives the same story and you see how much it
changes and the emotions of each person.

I kind of think so, it was really irresponsible from Victor to leave the monster on its own, and
it's true he had have taken responsibility of him, as a father would do, but I can't blame him
for getting scared about a 2 and a half meters long creature, with a sewn and deformed face
and a body in the same state that's just standing in front of him at 2 am.

The monster only saw his creator 2 seconds and just after that decided to kill everyone that he
loved, that's not what a good creature would do, I think. I guess he let go all the anger and
frustration about everyone hating him in murdering Victor's loved ones. But I can't blame him
either because he was just like a child, he didn't receive anything apart from hate, so he only
knew 2 things: people wanted him dead and that he wanted to be alive, which means he
would defend himself and react as everyone else did with him: wanting to kill.

5. Write a description of a monster you create. At least 150-200 words. Add a picture of
your monster and you explain how it is: personality and body. → 14 points
She's basically an imaginary friend of a little kid, this little kid once found an old woman who
asked him to make a wish, he said that he wanted his imaginary friend to become real, and so
it happened.

Physically she's colorful because that's how I imagine a kid's mind: full of different and light
colors.
She has big blue eyes with yellow tabs, a yellow nose, green long hair, and pink skin. She has
little colorful spots all over her body that are covered by a short and blue dress.

She has a quiet personality and doesn't talk at all, however she can see and hear. She's
observant and analyses everything because she doesn't know about the real world, all she has
ever known about is the little kid, for this reason, she enjoys being with him and is really
protective of him. She's like a robot sometimes, it seems like she
isn't even there, that she's just out, but she is, she thinks, feels, and the most important of all:
she learns.