Frankenstein

Chapter 19

Mary Shelley · Mountaineers 10th–12th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

I tried to conceal this as much as possible, that I might not debar him from the pleasures natural to one who was entering on a new scene of life, undisturbed by any care or bitter recollection. I often refused to accompany him, alleging another engagement, that I might remain alone. I now also began to collect the materials necessary for my new creation, and this was to me like the torture of single drops of water continually falling on the head. Every thought that was devoted to it was an extreme anguish, and every word that I spoke in allusion to it caused my lips to quiver, and my heart to palpitate.

During my first experiment, a kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the horror of my employment; my mind was intently fixed on the consummation of my labour, and my eyes were shut to the horror of my proceedings. But now I went to it in cold blood, and my heart often sickened at the work of my hands.

Read both passages aloud. In the first, two sentences end on a reason in the same words, “that I might”. One reason is for Henry’s sake and one is for Victor’s own. What does the matching shape do to them?

For the educator Two passages, six sentences: Victor’s first months of gathering in London, and the island paragraph where he sets his two makings side by side. In the first passage, “this” is his “sorrowful and dejected mind”, named in the sentence before. The passage gives two reasons in the same shape. He hides his gloom “that I might not debar him” from his pleasures, and he refuses Henry’s company “that I might remain alone.” The words match, and the reasons pull opposite ways, one for Henry and one for himself. Then comes the simile of “single drops of water continually falling on the head”, and a sentence in two matched halves, “Every thought … and every word”, that ends in the body: lips that quiver and a heart that palpitates. The second passage opens with a long sentence in balanced halves: “my mind was intently fixed on the consummation of my labour, and my eyes were shut to the horror of my proceedings.” The word “horror” comes twice in it, each time as the thing he could not see. The last sentence turns on “But now” and answers the mind and the eyes with two other parts of the body, a heart that sickens and the hands that do the work. The words debar and palpitate are in the vocabulary. For the talk prompt, listen for a student who hears what the matching shape does to the two reasons. Some will say it lets the second hide behind the first: “that I might remain alone” comes dressed like the kindness of “that I might not debar him”, and so the excuse sounds as generous as the care. Others will say the shape shows him honestly torn, his friend’s pleasure and his own need weighed in the same words. The best answers notice what comes in the very next sentence: “I now also began to collect the materials”, so the time alone has a use.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in your own words, from the first months in London to the hut on the island where Victor works alone.

Victor calls Henry “the image of my former self”. Yet in London he often makes excuses to be away from him. What is hard about being near that image? Character
In London, Victor begins to gather the materials for the new being. He says it was “like the torture of single drops of water continually falling on the head.” Why a drip, and not one great blow? Author's choice
At Hampden’s tomb, Victor thinks of “liberty and self-sacrifice”, and for an instant he feels free. How much of either is there in the task he has taken on? Moral reasoning
Twice, Victor calls feeling better a cheat. In London, Henry’s voice lets him “cheat” himself into a short peace. Among the lakes, new friends almost “cheat” him into happiness. If the cheat had worked, what would he have lost? Inference
Victor chooses an island where no one takes notice of him. He explains that “suffering” has dulled the senses of the people there. What has suffering done to his own? Theme

Make a Connection Think of a story, a piece of history or a time in your own life when someone went far away to do something alone. What did being alone make easier, and what did it make harder?

Vocabulary

debar: I tried to conceal this as much as possible, that I might not debar him from the pleasures natural to one who was entering on a new scene of life, undisturbed by any care or bitter recollection. To shut someone out from something; to keep them from having it (as a bar keeps people out). Victor hides his gloom “that I might not debar him from the pleasures” of a young man on his first great journey. His sorrow, shown openly, would shut Henry out of his own joy.
palpitate: Every thought that was devoted to it was an extreme anguish, and every word that I spoke in allusion to it caused my lips to quiver, and my heart to palpitate. To beat fast and hard, as a heart does in fear (from Latin, to throb). Every word Victor speaks about the work makes “my heart to palpitate”. His body gives him away even when he says little.
transitory: Company was irksome to me; when alone, I could fill my mind with the sights of heaven and earth; the voice of Henry soothed me, and I could thus cheat myself into a transitory peace. Passing; lasting only a short time. Henry’s voice gives Victor “a transitory peace”, and he says he has to “cheat” himself into it. The peace is real while it lasts, and he knows it will not last.
remembrancers: For a moment my soul was elevated from its debasing and miserable fears to contemplate the divine ideas of liberty and self-sacrifice of which these sights were the monuments and the remembrancers. Things or people whose work is to remind; keepers of a memory (an old word, from remember). Hampden’s tomb and the field where he fell are “the monuments and the remembrancers” of liberty and self-sacrifice. They exist to keep those ideas in mind, and for an instant they do it for Victor.
remissness: Sometimes I thought that the fiend followed me and might expedite my remissness by murdering my companion. Slackness; failing to do what you have a duty to do (from remiss, careless or slow about a duty). Victor fears the fiend might “expedite my remissness”, hurrying his slow work along by killing Henry. He names his own delay with a word for a fault.
benumbed: I ordered it to be repaired, bought some furniture, and took possession, an incident which would doubtless have occasioned some surprise had not all the senses of the cottagers been benumbed by want and squalid poverty. Made numb; dulled so that little is felt or noticed (be- added to numb). The cottagers’ senses are “benumbed by want and squalid poverty”, so a stranger can take the empty hut and no one wonders at it.
tremulous: I looked towards its completion with a tremulous and eager hope, which I dared not trust myself to question but which was intermixed with obscure forebodings of evil that made my heart sicken in my bosom. Trembling; unsteady, the way a voice shakes with fear or strong feeling. As his work nears its end, Victor’s hope is “tremulous and eager” at once: it trembles even as it reaches forward.

Critical thinking

Victor says he was guiltless, but that he had “drawn down a horrible curse” on his head, as deadly as a crime. Where does a curse end and a crime begin?
In the last sentence, Victor looks toward the end of his work with “a tremulous and eager hope”. He says he did not dare to question it. What is he afraid to ask himself?
Is it worse to make a creature in a blind frenzy, as Victor did the first time, or in cold blood, as he does now?