Frankenstein by
Mary Shelley (Volume III)
Freedom of Movement
Consider how Victor spends his time after acquiescing
to the creature's request?
Is this freedom of movement important?
What kind of places do they visit?
Why does Victor compare himself to a tree?
What kind of location does Victor chose for the
resumption of his scientific pursuits?
Horrific Females
Why does Victor seem to think that a female creature
would be more horrible than a male one?
Why does he decide to destroy the female creation?
What does the creature promise him in retaliation?
Bodies
What was Victor doing in the little boat before
being swept away to Ireland?
What kind of welcome does he find there?
How might the two things be connected?
Little Deaths and Big Ones
Does Victor seem to be excited about his marriage
to Elizabeth?
How does he describe this possibility?
How is the creature's hopes for a mate tied up with
Victor's?
What does the monster mean when he tells Victor
"I'll be with you on his wedding night?"
Why is Victor incapable of understanding what this
might mean?
How is the bridal bed scene described? Why?
What role does the sexual play in this scene?
How could the monster be read as Victor's id?
Traveling Vengeance
How does the creature react to Victor's oath of
vengeance?
Why the chase?
Who is the "good spirit" that leaves food
out for Victor during his pursuit?
Do you hear echoes of the time with the De Lacey's?
On the Ice
What is going on when we return to the arctic?
Why does Victor extort the sailors to continue in
their quest?
How does the monster respond to Victor's death and
why?
Consider that we hear Victor only through Walton
and (until the very end) the monster only through Victor. Are these
narrators reliable?
"Mary Shelley's Monstrous Eve"
by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar
How do Gilbert and Gubar read female subjectivity
in Frankenstein?
What does it mean to be female?
What does it mean to be fallen?
How is the creature like Eve? How is Victor?
Terms: feminist criticism, point of view
What are some of the approaches to literature used
by feminist criticism?
How do Gilbert and Gubar use feminist criticism
in the piece?
What other feminist approaches might have been taken
to this novel? To the other works we have read?
What point of view is this novel written in?
How does this mode of address impact the reading
of the novel itself?
Are our narrators trustworthy?
How do their personalities, obsessions, and failures
effect the telling of the tale itself?
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