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Frankenstein
Mountaineers · 10th–12th
Victor traces the road to his ruin back to a day of bad weather at an inn and a careless word from his father. Was it chance that set him on that road, or something that was in him all along?
The tension Victor gives two accounts of where his passion came from. In one it was always his: curiosity about “the hidden laws of nature” is among the “earliest sensations I can remember”. In the other it was set off by chance: a book picked up at an inn where bad weather kept the family indoors, and his father’s dismissal, “sad trash”, after which he read on with the greatest eagerness.
How the three companions each meet the world, and the masters young Victor picks to feed his hunger for its secrets.
Victor describes growing up beside Elizabeth, who delights in how the world looks, and his friend Henry Clerval, who loves tales of heroes, while he himself hungers for the hidden causes of things. Looking back, he pictures his passion as a mountain river that swelled into a torrent. At thirteen, kept at an inn near Thonon by bad weather, he finds a volume of Cornelius Agrippa; his father glances at it and calls it “sad trash”, and Victor reads on, then gathers the works of Agrippa, Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. He seeks the elixir of life and tries to raise ghosts or devils, blaming his own mistakes when he fails. At about fifteen he sees lightning shatter an old oak, hears a visitor’s theory of electricity and galvanism, and, his old masters overthrown, gives up natural science for mathematics. He closes by calling the change the work of a guardian angel that lost to Destiny.
Start at the inn near Thonon, where bad weather keeps the family indoors for a day. Ask what Victor finds there, what his father says about it, and what Victor does next.
Retell The student retells the chapter in order: the three companions, the day at the inn and the father’s remark, the old masters and the elixir, the failed spells, the storm and the visitor, and the turn to mathematics. Then the student names the sentence the chapter turns on and defends the choice in a sentence or two.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes two sentences in Shelley’s style about something that grew in their own life: one that sets a bright beginning against a darker end, as “bright visions of extensive usefulness” give way to “gloomy and narrow reflections upon self”, and one that pictures the growth through a single comparison, as the mountain river does.
Debate Take sides on the closing question. One side argues that chance set Victor on his road: the weather, the found book, the careless remark. The other argues that the hunger was in him all along. Each side quotes the chapter and answers the other side’s strongest line, including the man’s own talk of an angel and of Destiny.
Purpose Close on why it matters: the student practices the judgment of weighing a man’s account of his own life against the acts he reports, before deciding how far to trust it.
Easier Read the inn scene and the storm scene aloud together, and talk through discussion questions 1 and 4 only. The student then states a one-sentence thesis on the closing question and backs it with one quote.
On level Talk through all five discussion questions; the student then writes the closing critical-thinking question in full, with a thesis, an objection and a revision.
Harder The student writes all three critical-thinking pieces and, for the last, gathers every picture in which Victor shows himself as driven (the mountain river, the “fatal impulse”, the guardian angel, Destiny’s “immutable laws”) and sets each against something the boy chose to do.
1. Elizabeth takes in the world with “a serious and satisfied spirit”. Even the best science of his day left Victor “discontented and unsatisfied”. What keeps him from being satisfied, as she is?Theme
What it asks It asks why the same world satisfies Elizabeth and leaves Victor hungry, and whether the hunger lies in Victor or in what he hunts for.
The difference is in Victor: from the start he was the more intense of the two, “more deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge”, and no answer could fill him.
Elizabeth was of a calmer and more concentrated disposition; but, with all my ardour, I was capable of a more intense application and was more deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge.
The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine.
The difference is in what each one looks for: Elizabeth delights in what can be seen, while Victor wants causes that even the most learned philosopher cannot reach, so anyone with his aim would stay unsatisfied.
While my companion contemplated with a serious and satisfied spirit the magnificent appearances of things, I delighted in investigating their causes.
He might dissect, anatomise, and give names; but, not to speak of a final cause, causes in their secondary and tertiary grades were utterly unknown to him.
A strong answer A strong answer may find the difference in Victor himself: he calls himself the more intense of the two, “more deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge”, and curiosity is among his earliest memories. Another reading looks at what each one wants: Elizabeth delights in what can be seen, while Victor wants causes that were “utterly unknown” even to the most learned philosopher, so his hunger may be built into his aim. The best answers weigh both, and ask whether anything could ever have satisfied him.
2. The boy searched for the elixir of life. Wealth meant little to him; he wanted the glory of making man safe from all but “a violent death”. Was that a noble wish or a proud one?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to judge the dream the boy built on his masters’ promises, and so what the books found in him: a gift to the human race, or a hunger for his own glory.
Noble: he sets wealth aside and dreams of ending disease for everyone, a hope much like Clerval’s wish to do good.
Wealth was an inferior object, but what glory would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!
his hope and his dream was to become one among those whose names are recorded in story as the gallant and adventurous benefactors of our species.
Proud: the word he reaches for is glory, and the same boy longs most eagerly to raise ghosts or devils, a wish for wonder and power more than for healing.
The raising of ghosts or devils was a promise liberally accorded by my favourite authors, the fulfilment of which I most eagerly sought
they appeared to me treasures known to few besides myself.
A strong answer A strong answer weighs the dream’s aim against its reward. The aim is generous: to “banish disease from the human frame”, with wealth only “an inferior object”. But the sentence turns on “what glory would attend the discovery”, and the same boy “most eagerly sought” to raise ghosts or devils, a wish that serves wonder and power more than healing. Clerval also hopes for a name among the “benefactors of our species”, so the wish for fame is not Victor’s alone; the best answers say what, in this chapter, makes Victor’s version his own.
3. The boy took his masters at their word. When his spells failed, he blamed his own “inexperience and mistake”, not them. Why was he so slow to doubt them?Inference
What it asks It asks why the boy kept faith with masters whose promises never came true, and whether that faith came from his hunger or from being left alone with the books.
The hunger needed them: they were the only men who claimed to have “penetrated deeper”, and to doubt them was to give up the secret he wanted most.
But here were books, and here were men who had penetrated deeper and knew more.
I had gazed upon the fortifications and impediments that seemed to keep human beings from entering the citadel of nature, and rashly and ignorantly I had repined.
He had no one to check them: he was largely “self-taught”, his father “was not scientific”, and a boy alone with his books blames himself first.
while I followed the routine of education in the schools of Geneva, I was, to a great degree, self-taught with regard to my favourite studies.
My father was not scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child’s blindness, added to a student’s thirst for knowledge.
A strong answer A strong answer might say the faith came from the hunger. The science of his day left him “discontented and unsatisfied”, and here were men “who had penetrated deeper and knew more”; to doubt them was to lose the only road to the secret he wanted. Another reading points to his situation: he was largely “self-taught”, his father “was not scientific”, and the man later says the boy was guided by “an ardent imagination and childish reasoning”. The best answers say how much of the faith was the boy’s nature and how much his being left alone with the books.
4. The visitor’s theory was “at once new and astonishing” to Victor. Yet it left him feeling that “nothing would or could ever be known”. How can a new discovery leave him sure that nothing can be known?Character
What it asks It asks how a theory the boy found new and astonishing could leave him sure that nothing can be known, when it might have sent him after the new science instead.
His faith was in the masters, not in the search: they had promised the secret itself, and the new theory, however astonishing, only showed that their promise was empty.
It seemed to me as if nothing would or could ever be known.
I took their word for all that they averred, and I became their disciple.
His temper goes all or nothing: the same vehement passions that made him a devoted disciple make him a scornful one, and he flees to the one study that seems certain.
My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement
In this mood of mind I betook myself to the mathematics and the branches of study appertaining to that science as being built upon secure foundations, and so worthy of my consideration.
A strong answer A strong answer might argue that the boy’s faith was in the masters rather than the search. They had promised the secret itself; the visitor’s theory, new and astonishing as it was, belonged to the modern science that had always left him unsatisfied, so once it threw the masters “greatly into the shade” it seemed “as if nothing would or could ever be known”. Another reading looks at Victor’s temper, “sometimes violent”, with passions “vehement”: he does nothing by halves, so the devoted disciple turns to “the greatest disdain” and flees to mathematics, which is “built upon secure foundations”. Either way a chance storm has turned him, and the best answers say what the way he turns shows about him.
5. Victor first calls his sudden turn from his old studies one of “those caprices of the mind” that come with early youth. A few lines later, he calls it the work of “the guardian angel of my life”. Why does he give one change two such different causes?Author's choice
What it asks It asks why the narrator explains one change both as a passing whim of youth and as the work of a guardian angel.
Hindsight: the boy felt only a whim, but the man, knowing how his story ends, reads it as a rescue that failed, so an accident becomes part of a plan.
When I look back, it seems to me as if this almost miraculous change of inclination and will was the immediate suggestion of the guardian angel of my life
By one of those caprices of the mind which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth, I at once gave up my former occupations
No conflict for Victor: an angel might well work through a whim, and the calm that followed is his sign that it was more than chance.
Her victory was announced by an unusual tranquillity and gladness of soul which followed the relinquishing of my ancient and latterly tormenting studies.
Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by such slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity or ruin.
A strong answer A strong answer notices that the two causes come from two moments. The change itself comes from “one of those caprices of the mind” that youth is subject to; the angel appears only “When I look back”, once the man knows how his story ends. One reading says hindsight turns a whim into a failed rescue, so that even an accident becomes part of a plan. Another says Victor sees no conflict, since an angel may work through a whim, and the “unusual tranquillity and gladness of soul” that followed is his proof. The best answers say what each cause lets Victor believe about the small things that turned his life.
1. Victor says that if his father had explained why Agrippa was out of date, he “should certainly have thrown Agrippa aside”. About two years later, a visitor explains a new theory to him. Does what Victor does next support his claim or weaken it?
What it asks It asks for a thesis on whether the later scene, in which a visitor’s explanation does topple the old masters, bears out Victor’s claim about what his father’s explanation would have done.
It supports him: once someone explains a newer science, the old masters fall at once, as Victor said they would have at thirteen, and his complaint that his father’s glance proved nothing gains force.
All that he said threw greatly into the shade Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus, the lords of my imagination
But the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no means assured me that he was acquainted with its contents
It weakens him: he claimed a real explanation would have sent him back to his former studies “with greater ardour”, but when the masters fall he turns from natural science altogether, and he himself says only that it is “even possible” his ruin could have been avoided.
by some fatality the overthrow of these men disinclined me to pursue my accustomed studies.
It is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin.
A strong answer A strong thesis might argue that the later scene supports Victor only by half. When the visitor explains his theory, the old masters are thrown “greatly into the shade”, as Victor said they would have been at thirteen, and his complaint that his father’s “cursory glance” proved nothing gains weight. The strongest objection is the claim’s second half: a real explanation was to send him back to his former studies “with greater ardour”, yet when the masters fall he turns from natural science altogether, and he grants only that it is “even possible” his ruin could have been avoided. A good revision might say that reasons can topple a master but cannot choose what the boy loves next, and ask how much weight one remark can then bear.
2. Victor longs to learn “the hidden laws of nature”. He finds “some law” at work in his own nature. In the end he blames Destiny’s “immutable laws”. Why might he tell his own life as if laws ruled it?
What it asks It asks for a thesis on why a man who longed to learn the laws of nature explains his own temper and his own ruin by laws too, and what that way of telling does for him.
It clears him: if a law in his temper and Destiny’s fixed laws decided everything, neither the boy nor the man could have chosen otherwise.
Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.
Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate
It is the same hunger turned on himself: the boy who wanted the hidden causes of things now looks for the cause of his own life, and laws are the kind of cause he trusts.
Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember.
but by some law in my temperature they were turned not towards childish pursuits but to an eager desire to learn
A strong answer A strong thesis might argue that the language of law is Victor’s old hunger turned on himself. The boy wanted “the hidden laws of nature”; the man finds “some law” in his own temperament and ends with Destiny’s “immutable laws”, as if a life could be explained like a thunderstorm. The strongest objection is that the same chapter is full of chance: he “chanced to find” Agrippa, the storm was “an accident”, and the turn to mathematics a caprice. A good revision might say that Victor tells a life of accidents and then reads them as laws, and ask whether that reading clears him or only consoles him.
3. Victor traces the road to his ruin back to a day of bad weather at an inn and a careless word from his father. Was it chance that set him on that road, or something that was in him all along?
What it asks It asks the chapter’s big question: whether the road Victor traces to his ruin began with chance (the weather, a found book, a careless word) or with a hunger he carried from his earliest memories.
Chance set him on it: only bad weather kept the family at the inn, the book was found by chance, and a father’s careless glance left the boy to read on alone.
the inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day confined to the inn.
In this house I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa.
My father looked carelessly at the title page of my book
It was in him all along: the hunger for hidden causes is among his earliest memories, and the same boy watches even a terrible storm “with curiosity and delight”.
It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn
I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature.
I remained, while the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight.
A strong answer A strong thesis might argue that chance chose the door but not the hunger that went through it. The weather, the found book and the father’s careless glance are accidents, and Victor is right that they shaped his road. But his longing for “the hidden laws of nature” is among his “earliest sensations”, and the boy who reads on “with the greatest avidity” is the same one who later watches a terrible storm “with curiosity and delight”. The strongest objection is that the only witness is the man telling the story, who reads his past from the far end of his ruin; a good revision might weigh the boy’s eager acts above the man’s pictures of being driven, and still leave open whether another door would have led to the same place.
Besides, in drawing the picture of my early days, I also record those events which led, by insensible steps, to my after tale of misery, for when I would account to myself for the birth of that passion which afterwards ruled my destiny I find it arise, like a mountain river, from ignoble and almost forgotten sources; but, swelling as it proceeded, it became the torrent which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys.Low in rank or worth; not noble (Latin in-, not, and nobilis, noble, a word that first meant well known). Victor gives the passion that “ruled my destiny” humble, obscure beginnings: springs “ignoble and almost forgotten”.
Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate; I desire, therefore, in this narration, to state those facts which led to my predilection for that science.A liking or leaning already in place; a preference (Latin prae-, before, and diligere, to love or choose). Victor uses it for his love of natural science, and sets out to state the facts that “led to” it.
When I was thirteen years of age we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon; the inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day confined to the inn.Harshness, especially of the weather (in-, not, and clement, mild or merciful). It is “the inclemency of the weather” that keeps the family shut in at the inn on the day Victor finds Agrippa.
I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature.Filled through and through, as cloth is soaked with dye (Latin imbuere, to wet or stain). With “always having been imbued”, Victor presents his longing as part of him from the start.
By one of those caprices of the mind which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth, I at once gave up my former occupations, set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation, and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge.A sudden change of mind or mood with no clear reason behind it; a whim (from the Italian capriccio). Victor uses the word twice: once to say his mother and father did not rule by caprice like tyrants, and once for the change of mind that turned him from his old studies.
Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.Unchangeable; fixed for all time (in-, not, and Latin mutare, to change, as in mutation). Victor gives Destiny “immutable laws”, so in his telling nothing could have turned his destruction aside.