FRANKENSTEIN CHAPTER 5 Monica Lauren Caitlin Summary Victor
- Slides: 9
FRANKENSTEIN: CHAPTER 5 Monica, Lauren, Caitlin
Summary ◦ Victor finishes his creation and realises the horror and runs away ◦ He has a nightmare and wakes up with his creation standing there ◦ Victor bumps into Henry Clerval and forgets about his problems ◦ Victor takes Henry back his apartment and is relieved creation isn’t there ◦ Victor falls ill and Henry looks after him for several months ◦ When Victor has recovered Henry gives him letter from Elizabeth
Novel/Chapter Analysis ◦ This novel utilises gothic elements ◦ Mary Shelley wrote this chapter while in Geneva during the age of enlightenment ◦ Grotesque description of the monster contrasts with description of God’s creation ◦ “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; … his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes” ◦ The monster is described as beautiful until alive ◦ “I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!”
Character Analysis ◦ Victor Frankenstein ◦ Ambitious; blinded by dreams of glory, ignores consequences ◦ Acts as a ’god’ or ‘creator’, yet fails to uphold the duties of one ◦ “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. ” ◦ Anxious, fearful, dismissive ◦ Prejudice towards his creation ◦ “a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me” ◦ The monster ◦ The victim; innocent, discriminated against ◦ “I beheld the wretch, the miserable monster whom I had created” ◦ Starts kind, falls to revenge ◦ Henry Clerval ◦ Loyal, kind, generous ◦ Acts as ‘the nurse’ when Victor falls ill ◦ “I could not have a more kind attentive nurse than himself”
Themes - Prejudice ◦ Victor judges the monster based on appearance (ugly = evil) ◦ “his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips” ◦ "breathless horror and disgust filled my heart" ◦ Victor neglects the monster immediately ◦ “I escaped, and rushed down stairs”
Themes - Isolation ◦ Victor isolates himself ◦ “a little uneasy that they hear from you so seldom” ◦ Isolation leads the monster to feel anger/aggression ◦ Victor isolates the monster, the monster isolates Victor as revenge
Themes - Ambition ◦ Taken over by ambition ◦ “I beheld the accomplishment of my toils” Themes - Obsession ◦ Victor in his childhood ◦ Creation of the monster ◦ “with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form”
“his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set” “his hair was of a lustrous black” “his teeth of a pearly whiteness” “the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath”
FRANKENSTEIN: CHAPTER 5 Monica, Lauren, Caitlin