Frankenstein

Chapter 20

Mary Shelley · Mountaineers 10th–12th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

Even if they were to leave Europe and inhabit the deserts of the new world, yet one of the first results of those sympathies for which the dæmon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror. Had I right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations? I had before been moved by the sophisms of the being I had created; I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats; but now, for the first time, the wickedness of my promise burst upon me; I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race.

Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master; obey!

Read both passages aloud. Victor and the creature each look back with the word “before,” then turn away with “but.” What is each of them leaving behind?

For the educator Two passages, six sentences. The first is the whole paragraph that ends Victor’s reasoning in the laboratory, just before he looks up and sees the creature at the window. Its first sentence grants the best case, “Even if they were to leave Europe”, answers it with “yet”, and holds its weight for the end: “a condition precarious and full of terror.” Then comes a question he cannot answer in his own favour, and one long sentence built from clauses joined by semicolons. Two of them begin the same way, “I had before been moved” and “I had been struck senseless”, and the third turns on “but now, for the first time”. Near its end, a single word is set off by commas, “perhaps”: the whole human race is at stake, perhaps. The second passage is the creature’s reply when Victor says “I do break my promise”. Each of its three sentences turns on “but”, and the last reverses two roles in nine words, closing on a one-word command after the semicolon. The words precarious and sophisms are in the vocabulary, and condescension is worth stopping on. For the talk prompt, listen for a student who notices that both speakers look back to the same earlier talk. Victor calls it “the sophisms of the being I had created”, clever arguments he now thinks false; the creature says “I before reasoned with you”. Victor’s turn leaves behind the arguments and the threats that moved him, and takes up “the wickedness of my promise”. The creature’s turn leaves behind reasoning itself, because Victor has “proved yourself unworthy” of it, and takes up power. Each man gives up on that earlier talk, for opposite reasons.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in your own words, from the evening Victor sits idle in his laboratory to the moment he is led to Mr. Kirwin’s house.

Victor asks if he has the right, “for my own benefit,” to bring a curse on all the generations to come. Who was the promise meant to help? Moral reasoning
Before he threatens Victor, the creature tells him where he has been: the Rhine and its willow islands, the heaths of England, the deserts of Scotland. Why tell Victor all that first? Character
Victor broke his word to protect people not yet born. Then the creature he already made sails off toward the mainland. Victor does not go after him. Why not? Inference
When Victor unlocks the laboratory, the half-made body lies scattered on the floor. He says, “I almost felt as if I had mangled the living flesh of a human being.” What did he destroy? Author's choice
On the way to the magistrate, Victor is ready to drop from tiredness and hunger. A crowd is all around him, so he makes himself stand strong. He does not want his weakness taken for guilt. If he is innocent, why does he need to look it? Theme

Make a Connection Think of a story, a piece of history or a time in your own life when someone stopped work on something new because of what it might become. How did they weigh what they could not yet know?

Vocabulary

sophisms: I had before been moved by the sophisms of the being I had created; I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats; but now, for the first time, the wickedness of my promise burst upon me; I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race. Arguments that sound clever and convincing but are false underneath (from the Greek for wisdom, as in sophisticated). Victor now calls the creature’s earlier pleading “the sophisms of the being I had created”. The word is a verdict: it says he was taken in, not persuaded.
precarious: Even if they were to leave Europe and inhabit the deserts of the new world, yet one of the first results of those sympathies for which the dæmon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror. Unsafe and unsteady; likely to fall or fail at any moment. Victor fears that a new race might make the life of mankind “a condition precarious and full of terror”, so that people would live from day to day without being sure of the next.
irresolution: The hour of my irresolution is past, and the period of your power is arrived. Being unable to make up your mind; wavering (ir-, not, added to resolution). Victor tells the creature “The hour of my irresolution is past”. He names the long time of doubt he has just come out of, in the same breath as he grants the creature his power.
impotence: The monster saw my determination in my face and gnashed his teeth in the impotence of anger. Powerlessness; being unable to do anything about what you feel or want (im-, not, added to potent, powerful). The creature gnashes his teeth “in the impotence of anger”: his anger is strong, but it cannot make Victor do what he refuses.
requited: I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn. Paid back; answered with something in return. Love is usually said to be requited when it is returned. The creature says his affection was “requited by detestation and scorn”, so the word for a fair return carries the opposite of one.
presentiment: I trembled from head to foot; I felt a presentiment of who it was and wished to rouse one of the peasants who dwelt in a cottage not far from mine; but I was overcome by the sensation of helplessness, so often felt in frightful dreams, when you in vain endeavour to fly from an impending danger, and was rooted to the spot. A feeling that something is about to happen, before there is any proof (pre-, before, and sentiment, feeling). Hearing his door creak in the night, Victor feels “a presentiment of who it was”. He knows before he sees.

Critical thinking

Victor has already felt “the wickedness of my promise” before he looks up. He tears the body apart only when he sees the creature grinning at the window. If the creature had stayed away that night, what would Victor have done?
On the beach, Victor says that he “for the first time saw clearly.” In the same paragraph, he shuts out “every thought that could lead to a different conclusion.” How far should a reader trust his clear sight?
The half-made body lies at the bottom of the sea, and the creature has sworn revenge. Was Victor right to break his promise and destroy the creature’s mate?