"Frankenstein": Chapters 4-6

Open Ended

Have you ever felt driven to succeed at something, even at the cost of your health?

Chapters 4-6

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"Frankenstein"

• Isolating himself from his family for the first time, he chooses ambition over his relationships

• Victor studies natural philosophy obsessively and realizes that his interest lies in the "principle of life"

• He studied dead and decaying matter

• "Unless I had been animated by an almost supernatural enthusiasm, my application to this study would have been irksome, and almost intolerable

• ^Why does he have such powerful enthusiasm for this discovery?

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Chapter 4

​Victor studies the dead

Open Ended

"Unless I had been animated by an almost supernatural enthusiasm, my application to this study would have been irksome, and almost intolerable."

Why does he have such powerful enthusiasm, for this discovery? What drives Victor?

• Victor feels like it isn't enough to know, and he feels driven to put the knowledge into practice. He begins to create the creature.

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Victor discovers the secret to life

​"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."

​"After so much time spent in painful labour, to arrive at once at the summit of my desires..."

• "...listen patiently until the end of my story, and you will easily perceive why I am reserved upon that subject, I will not lead you on, unguarded and ardent as I then was, to your destruction and infallible misery. Learn from me...at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow".

• Victor tells Walton he won't reveal the secret to life

• Why does Victor say he won't reveal his secret? What does he warn Walton about?

• This is a major theme!

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Meanwhile...

• "...I possessed the capacity of bestowing animation, yet to prepare a frame for the reception of it, with all its intricacies of fibres, muscles, and veins, still remained a work of inconceivable difficulty and labour."

• "As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved...to make the being of a gigantic stature; that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionably large."

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Victor makes his plan

• ​Victor digs through graves and tortures animals in the pursuit of science

• "I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit"

• He retreats further from the natural world (which always made him feel happy) and those that love him

• He warns Walton about his experiences in retrospect

• "If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind."

Open Ended

What is a monster? Why would you call someone a monster?

• Victor is horrified at his creation as soon as it comes to life, and abandons it

• Victor becomes paranoid and eager to ignore what he has done

• He lacks responsibility for his creation and is attacked by fear / guilt

• Henry shows up and attempts to help Victor, as he can tell Victor has been through severe trauma

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​Chapter 5

​IT'S ALIVE!

"Like one who, on a lonely road. Doth walk in fear and dread, And, having once turned round, walks on,

And turns no more his head;

Because he knows a frightful fiend

Doth close behind him tread."

-Coleridge, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

"I continued walking in this manner for some time, endeavoring by bodily exercise to ease the load that weighed upon my mind. I traversed the streets without ant clear conception of where I was or what I was doing. My heart palpitaed in the sickness of fear, and I hurried on with irregular steps, not daring to look about me." (41)

-Shelley, "Frankenstein"

Chapter 5

​Paranoia

• Letter from Elizabeth: everything is well, we miss you, and remember Justine.

• Stark contrast to the letter in the next chapter, from Victor's father

• Foreshadowing / Suspense

• Shelley is trying to get you to feel connected to the family

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Chapter 6

• Servant held in high esteem by the Frankensteins. In Chapter 7, she will be falsely accused of the murder of William

• (Justine / justice)

• Shelley is building an attachment to Justine so we will care about her later

• She will be a symbol of injustice in the novel

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Chapter 6

​Letter from Elizabeth: Remember Justine!

• Henry is a good friend and tries to avoid the subject, never asking Victor what happened

• Victor suppresses his guilt and trauma

• Victor takes Henry on a tour of campus, and is attacked with anxiety every time someone mentions science and reminds him of his experience

• "renew the agony of my nervous system"

• "inflicted torture..."

• *trauma

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Chapter 6

​Victor's denial

• Romanticism

• Arrogance

• Denial

• The natural world helps to heal Victor's spirit, and he becomes carefree, almost forgetting completely about the Creature, and glad to be well again

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Chapter 6

​Victor's denial

Open Ended

Now that you know more about Victor's character, think about his name. What do you think Shelley might be trying to say about "victory" and "victors" in general?

• Use classroom website and lesson introduction pages for all English 12 materials

• Temporary and permanent 0%'s for the first second half of Unit 1 and the first half of Unit 2 will be effective on Monday, March 27th

• Complete Window 3 benchmark by March 30th

• Attend English 12 open office hours on Mondays and Thursdays

• English 12 course ends on May 23rd

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Wrap Up