Chapter 21

Frankenstein

Mountaineers · 10th–12th

Copywork

My father was enraptured on finding me freed from the vexations of a criminal charge, that I was again allowed to breathe the fresh atmosphere and permitted to return to my native country. I did not participate in these feelings, for to me the walls of a dungeon or a palace were alike hateful. The cup of life was poisoned for ever, and although the sun shone upon me, as upon the happy and gay of heart, I saw around me nothing but a dense and frightful darkness, penetrated by no light but the glimmer of two eyes that glared upon me.

Yet one duty remained to me, the recollection of which finally triumphed over my selfish despair. It was necessary that I should return without delay to Geneva, there to watch over the lives of those I so fondly loved and to lie in wait for the murderer, that if any chance led me to the place of his concealment, or if he dared again to blast me by his presence, I might, with unfailing aim, put an end to the existence of the monstrous image which I had endued with the mockery of a soul still more monstrous.

Read both passages aloud. Each one ends on a long sentence. What does each of those sentences make you wait for?

For the educator Two passages, five sentences, both from the last pages of the chapter. The first opens the paragraph on Victor’s release: a long sentence of his father’s joy, a short refusal, and a long sentence of darkness. The middle sentence turns on a balanced pair, “the walls of a dungeon or a palace”, and sets them equal. The last sentence grants the sunshine with “although”, then takes it away: “nothing but a dense and frightful darkness, penetrated by no light but the glimmer of two eyes”. Two uses of “but” shut out the world one exception at a time, until a single point of light is left. The second passage is a short sentence that names a duty and a long one whose last clause holds its verb back. Two “if” clauses (“if any chance led me” and “or if he dared again”) come first, then “I might, with unfailing aim, put an end”, and the sentence closes on the same word turned: “the monstrous image” given “a soul still more monstrous.” The words enraptured, vexations and endued are in the vocabulary. For the talk prompt, listen for a student who hears the first sentence close in by shutting light out, and the second by clearing every condition out of the way before the aim. One ends on what Victor cannot stop seeing, the other on what he means to do about it.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in your own words, from the fisherman’s account before the magistrate to the night at sea when Victor’s father wakes him.

1. Daniel Nugent “swore positively” that the boat he saw near the shore was the one Victor landed in, “as far as he could judge by the light of a few stars.” What is that oath worth?Inference

2. Mr. Kirwin has Victor taken to the body to see what the sight of it will do to him. What does the test find out?Moral reasoning

3. In his fever, Victor raved that he was a murderer three times over. He spoke his native language, so Mr. Kirwin alone understood him, and Victor calls that fortunate. Fortunate for whom?Tone

4. Victor wakes up sorry to be alive. The nurse tells him he would be better off dead. How is her reason different from his?Character

5. Henry was found with “the black mark of fingers on his neck.” In his fever, and again in a dream at sea, Victor feels the monster’s fingers on his own neck. Why does he keep feeling them there?Theme

Make a Connection Think of a story, a piece of history or a time in your own life when someone felt to blame for a harm their own hands did not do. What did they do with that feeling?

Vocabulary

augury The magistrate observed me with a keen eye and of course drew an unfavourable augury from my manner.

vexations My father was enraptured on finding me freed from the vexations of a criminal charge, that I was again allowed to breathe the fresh atmosphere and permitted to return to my native country.

enraptured My father was enraptured on finding me freed from the vexations of a criminal charge, that I was again allowed to breathe the fresh atmosphere and permitted to return to my native country.

endued It was necessary that I should return without delay to Geneva, there to watch over the lives of those I so fondly loved and to lie in wait for the murderer, that if any chance led me to the place of his concealment, or if he dared again to blast me by his presence, I might, with unfailing aim, put an end to the existence of the monstrous image which I had endued with the mockery of a soul still more monstrous.

torpor Sometimes, indeed, I felt a wish for happiness and thought with melancholy delight of my beloved cousin or longed, with a devouring _maladie du pays_, to see once more the blue lake and rapid Rhone, that had been so dear to me in early childhood; but my general state of feeling was a torpor in which a prison was as welcome a residence as the divinest scene in nature; and these fits were seldom interrupted but by paroxysms of anguish and despair.

paroxysms Sometimes, indeed, I felt a wish for happiness and thought with melancholy delight of my beloved cousin or longed, with a devouring _maladie du pays_, to see once more the blue lake and rapid Rhone, that had been so dear to me in early childhood; but my general state of feeling was a torpor in which a prison was as welcome a residence as the divinest scene in nature; and these fits were seldom interrupted but by paroxysms of anguish and despair.

Critical thinking

1. In prison, Victor’s father says that “a fatality seems to pursue you.” Victor agrees that a horrible destiny hangs over him, and that he “must live to fulfil it.” What does calling it destiny do to the blame?

Thesis

Objection

Revision

2. Victor calls his wish to die “selfish despair.” What makes it selfish, in his own eyes?

Thesis

Objection

Revision

3. The grand jury frees Victor, yet he calls himself Clerval’s murderer. Who is right about his guilt, the jury or Victor?

Thesis

Objection

Revision