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Frankenstein
Mountaineers · 10th–12th
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?
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.
1. 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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?
He was respected by all who knew him for his integrity and indefatigable attention to public business.
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.
Her health, and even the tranquillity of her hitherto constant spirit, had been shaken by what she had gone through.
The passionate and almost reverential attachment with which all regarded her became, while I shared it, my pride and my delight.
1. 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?
2. 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?
3. 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”?