English Lit 2

At the conclusion of this assignment, participants should be able to discuss the historical view of England in the Romantic Period as described in our text. Secondly, they should be able to associate this historical view with the writers of the time, drawing conclusions about how writers were affected by the world around them. Lastly, students should be able to describe major themes and events in our novel, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and correlate those themes and events with the mood of the Romantic Period.

Required Reading

The Romantic Period 1785-1830, pp. 1-22;
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Part I

Who are the six poets recognized as the principal canonical figures of the British Romantic Period? (p.1)
We are told that some of the best regarded poets of the time were women. Who were they? (p.1)
What is the reason for dating the Romantic period of English Literature from 1785 to 1830? (p.2)
Why does the French Revolution have such a remarkable effect on the writers of the Romantic period? (p.2)
What made writers of this period think that there was something distinctive about their time? (p.6)
Why does Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads deserve its reputation according to the editors as “a turning point in literary history” (p.8) with respect to:
The concept of poetry and the poet:
Spontaneity and the impulses of feeling:
“nature poetry”:
Glorification of the ordinary:
The supernatural, romance, and psychological extremes:
Why did the lyric poem become a major Romantic form? (p.9)
In what sense was the lyric reinvented during the Romantic period? (p.9)
Why are Prometheus and Satan contrasting types of Romantic heroes? (p.16)
What made the titles of periodical essays such as The Watchman and The Friend so suggestive? (p.18)
Your editors maintain that when we track the history of prose in the Romantic period, we see it occupying a different place at the end of the period than it did at the beginning. How so? (p. 19)
What was to be the “master theme” of the early 19th Century novel? (p. 22)
If the work of Jane Austen shows no visible signs of interest in politics or public affairs, then how can your editors maintain that her chief topic was revolution? (p. 22)
Briefly identify each of the following:
Mary Wallstonecraft (p.2)
Edmund Burke (p. 2)
Tom Paine (p. 2)
William Godwin (p. 2)
The Reform Bill, 1832 (p. 6)
The Gothic novel (p. 21)
After looking in your dictionary, explain each of the following underlined words within its designated context. First give the definition, and then explain how it is being used in the sentence in which it appears.
“habeas corpus… suspended” (p.3)
“the affront to proper feminine modesty” (p. 6)
“the lyric poem written in the first person” (p. 9)
“ millennial hopes” (p. 7)
“apocalyptic transformation” (p. 7)
“suspected as apocryphal” (p. 11)
Part II

Preface 1818 of Frankenstein

Why would Frankenstein be referred to as the “modern Prometheus”?
To whom is the novel dedicated in the original Preface? What do you take to be the significance of that dedication?
What works of Homer, Milton, and Shakespeare are cited as models for the coming story?
What is it about these works that seem to justify the strange story we are about to read?
Volume One
The story opens up with a letter from the first narrator, Robert Walton, who is currently staying in St. Petersburg, Russia, to his sister Margaret (Mrs. Saville) who lives in London. The date on the letter (17–) indicates that it is sometime in the 18th Century, while December 11 indicates the time of year.

What might be the symbolic significance of the wintry setting with which the story opens?
Walton is clearly an Englishman. What is he doing in Russia, and why?
Why does he want to go to Archangel in the far north of Russia?
What information does he add in his second letter some 4 months later, this one written in Archangel?
Walton tells his sister that he feels compelled to write at length because he feels so alone. But why does he feel so alone?
He writes again in the summer to report a strange event that occurs “many hundreds of miles from any land”—what happened?
How does he next happen upon another traveler on the ice, one he calls “the brother of my heart”?
What makes the stranger suddenly decide to tell Captain Walton his story?
Chapter One

Where does this stranger, who we later learn is Victor Frankenstein, come from?
Who are his parents?
How does he become betrothed at an early age?
Who was Harry Clerval, and how does he become part of the threesome?
What happened when Victor, at the age of 13, began to read the work of Cornelius Agrippa? How does this lead him to reading Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus?
When Victor tells us that he was taken up by the pursuit of “the philosopher’s stone” and “the elixir of life,” what is he telling us?
What happened when he was at the age of 15 that lead him to study electricity?
Chapter Two

Why was Victor told, when he arrived at the University of Ingolstadt, that he must “begin [his] studies anew?
When told by his instructor that “the elixir of life is chimera,” what does his instructor mean? (Be sure to look up “chimera” in your dictionary before answering the question.)
Chapter Three

Just as Victor is about to complete his studies at the university, an incident happens that he says “protracted me to stay.” What incident?
We now know that Victor has in mind to create a human being. Why must the being Victor wants to create be of gigantic stature?
What made him think this was such a worthwhile project?
Chapter Four

Why after so many years of hard labor did Victor find himself unable to look at the creature he had created?
What is the dream he has when he falls asleep shortly after bringing the creature to life?
What horrifying experience awakens him from that dream?
Chapter Five

When he restores himself, with the help of Clerval, from a “nervous fever,” what does Frankenstein learn via letter from his cousin Elizabeth about the state of his family?
What enables him to fully return to health?
Chapter Six

What event prompts Victor to return to Geneva?
How does Victor briefly see his creation once again on that trip?
Of what crime is Justine Moritz accused, and why is Victor so sure that she is innocent?
Chapter Seven

What is the circumstantial evidence that leads to Justine’s conviction?
Why does she confess?
Why is Victor himself consumed with gut-wrenching guilt?
This Romantic novel is about striving against the boundaries or limitations placed on our existence. Shelley, particularly in this chapter, seems also to be drawing attention to the weaknesses of social and political institutions that are meant to give us justice. Can you find a link between the two concepts? Why or why not?
Volume Two
Chapter One

What has happened that leads Victor Frankenstein to say: “solitude was my only consolation, deep, dark, death-like solitude”?
Why does the family then make an excursion to Mount Blanc?
Chapter Two

Why does Victor decide to go alone to the summit of Montanvert?
What happens as he nears the summit?
How is he persuaded to retire to a nearby hut to hear his creature’s story?
Chapter Three

What does Frankenstein’s creature remember about the first moments of his being?
Why, shortly after, did he retire to the forest near Ingolstadt?
How did he feed himself, and keep warm?
Characterize briefly the creature’s first interactions with people.
Chapter Four

How did he become involved in the life of some poor cottagers who are not aware of his presence?
What is his first exposure to language, and then to reading?
What fantasy does he develop of how he might make contact with this family that he has been observing?
Chapter Five

How does the arrival at the cottage of someone called “sweet Safie” provide the monster with better opportunities to further his education?
What is the point of describing knowledge as something that “clings to the mind, when it has once seized on it, like a lichen on a rock”?
How does his education make things better and worse for him?
Chapter Six

The monster learns that the family name of the cottagers is De Lacey and that they came from a background of affluence; what does “affluence” mean in this context?
What do we learn about how Felix De Lacey first came to know Safie and to hope that she would become his wife?
Why did it all go wrong?
How does Safie manage to find her way to Germany and then to locate their poor, obscure cottage in the forest near Ingolstadt?
Chapter Seven

The monster tells us that one day he found a leathern portmanteau that contained some books that he then proceeded to read. What does he believe he learned from The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Goethe? What from Plutarch’s Lives? What from Paradise Lost?
What initial success does the monster enjoy when he tried to establish contact with the family of cottagers?
How and why does it turn into a disaster?
Chapter Eight

How and why is the cottage burned down?
Why did the monster then make his way to Geneva?
What reward does he receive for saving a young woman in danger of drowning?
How and why does the creature murder young William?
How did he succeed in framing Justine Moritz for the murder he committed?
What proposal does the monster make to his creator, now?
Chapter Nine

What is Victor’s initial response?
What arguments does the monster use to get Victor to change his mind, and which proves most persuasive?
We are told that Victor fears that what the monster promises is but a feint. What does a “feint” mean, here? Check your dictionary.
Victor finally agrees to the monster’s proposal, but on what condition?
Volume Three
Chapter One

Why does Victor demur at his father’s proposal that he solemnize his promised marriage to his cousin Elizabeth?
Why does he ask instead for “two years” so that he can travel to England?
Chapter Two

While traveling through England, Victor tells that he felt as though he was “under a curse.” What is his curse that causes so much gloom and worry?
Victor and Henry Clerval travel north in England toward Scotland. Why does Victor then part company with Clerval once they arrive at Perth in Scotland?
Victor then travels alone to the distant Orkney Islands off the northern coast of Scotland. Why is he going to such a remote place?
Describe the differences between the landscape of the Orkneys and the landscape in Switzerland; then comment on why that difference is a symbolic rendering of the action in the story. (Answer in a paragraph)
Chapter Three

Victor tells us that he looks up one night while he is at work and sees “the daemon” at “the casement.” What does he do immediately after seeing him?
Frankenstein informs his creature that he has made a decision and that it is inexorable. What is his decision, and why does he describe it as inexorable?
What does the monster threaten to do in return?
Why does Frankenstein row four miles out to sea from the island afterwards?
He next finds that he has landed in north Ireland and is under suspicion of murder; what has happened?
Chapter Four

Why does the finger of suspicion point at Victor?
If the circumstantial evidence is so damning, how then is he eventually set free?
Chapter Five

Why does Victor have such a hard time explaining his suffering to his father?
What is the main point of the letter from his cousin Elizabeth?
When and where does he finally get married?
Victor tells us that “those were the last moments of my life which I enjoyed the feeling of happiness.” How did he spend his honeymoon?
Chapter Six

What revenge does the monster then take on Frankenstein?
What makes Frankenstein decide to turn to the legal system for justice?
What happens when he does ask for this justice before a Genevan magistrate?
Chapter Seven

Frankenstein now leaves Geneva forever; for what purpose?
We soon learn that he has been chasing this creature all over the world. How does this take us back to where we began our story?
Walton, now, tells his sister that he had often pressed Frankenstein for the details about how his creature was created and so forth, but that he was “impenetrable” on that point. Why would that be so?
The men on Captain Walton’s ship now present him with an ultimatum. What is it, and why does he yield?
As Frankenstein is dying, he asks Walton to undertake his unfinished work. What is that work?
It has become clear that there is an unusual bond that has developed between Walton and Frankenstein. Explain what you believe that bond to be. (In a paragraph.)
Thoroughly answer each question using the text to support your answer when necessary.
*Prepare your response in a document using Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1″ margins, and double-spaced.*