Chapter 1 · Frankenstein

Copywork

There was a show of gratitude and worship in his attachment to my mother, differing wholly from the doting fondness of age, for it was inspired by reverence for her virtues and a desire to be the means of, in some degree, recompensing her for the sorrows she had endured, but which gave inexpressible grace to his behaviour to her. Everything was made to yield to her wishes and her convenience. He strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by the gardener, from every rougher wind and to surround her with all that could tend to excite pleasurable emotion in her soft and benevolent mind. Her health, and even the tranquillity of her hitherto constant spirit, had been shaken by what she had gone through.

Read your copy aloud, slowly. Which single phrase tells you the most about how Victor’s father loves?

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in a few sentences, from Victor’s father in public life to the day Elizabeth is given to Victor. Then choose the one sentence you think matters most, and say what it shows about the family Victor is describing.

Beaufort paid his debts “in the most honourable manner”, then hid in Lucerne while his daughter plaited straw to keep them alive. Victor’s father calls it “false pride”. Where does honour end and false pride begin? Moral reasoning
In Lucerne, Caroline showed “a mind of an uncommon mould” and worked to support her dying father. Now her husband shelters her as a gardener shelters “a fair exotic”, “from every rougher wind”. How well does that picture fit her? Author's choice
Looking back, Victor first calls himself “their plaything and their idol”. Only then does he reach the better name, “the innocent and helpless creature” given them by Heaven. Why might he keep the first two names at all? Inference
For Victor’s mother, visiting the poor was “more than a duty; it was a necessity”, because she remembered her own suffering and rescue. What changes when a duty becomes a need? Theme
Victor’s mother takes one girl from a cottage of “five hungry babes”. How does the way Victor tells it ask us to see the four she leaves behind? Tone
Elizabeth’s father fought “to obtain the liberty of his country”, and his daughter was left an orphan. Victor’s father gave up “all his public functions” to care for his wife. Which of the two men does Victor seem to admire more? Moral reasoning

Make a Connection Think of another story in which an orphan is taken into a richer home. What does that home seem to think it owes the one it takes in?

Vocabulary

indefatigable: He was respected by all who knew him for his integrity and indefatigable attention to public business. Tireless; able to keep at a task without wearing out (in-, meaning not, joined to a Latin root meaning to tire out). It shows how fully Victor’s father once gave himself to public business.
wholly: There was a show of gratitude and worship in his attachment to my mother, differing wholly from the doting fondness of age, for it was inspired by reverence for her virtues and a desire to be the means of, in some degree, recompensing her for the sorrows she had endured, but which gave inexpressible grace to his behaviour to her. Entirely; in every way. The son makes his claim absolute: his father’s love had nothing of an old man’s doting in it.
hitherto: Her health, and even the tranquillity of her hitherto constant spirit, had been shaken by what she had gone through. Until then; up to that time. Her spirit had held steady through everything until her sorrows shook it.
reverential: The passionate and almost reverential attachment with which all regarded her became, while I shared it, my pride and my delight. Full of deep respect, close to worship (from reverence). With “almost”, the household’s love for Elizabeth stops just short of worship.

Critical thinking

Victor tells the story of his father’s marriage before he tells of his own birth at Naples. What would the chapter lose if it began there?
At five, Victor heard his mother’s playful promise of a present, and he “interpreted her words literally”. The grown man telling the story ends the chapter on “till death she was to be mine only”. How much of the boy’s claim does the man still hold?
Victor’s mother and father raised him knowing what they owed to the life they had given him. So why does he treat Elizabeth, the girl handed to him, as “a possession of my own”?