It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.Jerking in sudden, violent spasms that the body does not control (kin to convulsion). It names the being's first movement; when Victor wakes from his dream, “every limb became convulsed”.
Frankenstein
Chapter 5
Mary Shelley · Mountaineers 10th–12th
Copywork
The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.
Read your copy aloud. Victor begins with a claim about all people before he says a word about himself. Why might he start there?
Discussion
Narration Tell the chapter in order, from the dying candle and the opening yellow eye to the spring day when Clerval mentions a letter waiting for Victor. Then choose the sentence you think matters most, and say what it shows about Shelley's purpose.
- Victor says, “I had selected his features as beautiful.” Some of them still are, like the black hair and the pearly teeth. Yet they “only formed a more horrid contrast”. Why might the beautiful parts make the face look worse? Inference
- Victor wakes from his dream “with horror”. By the light of the moon he sees the being at his bed. How might the dream shape what he makes of the figure at the curtain? Character
- At dawn Victor describes his walk with lines from Coleridge's “Ancient Mariner.” In the poem, a walker “turns no more his head” because he “knows a frightful fiend” is close behind. How well do these lines fit Victor that morning? Inference
- As they reach his college, Victor thinks, “I dreaded to behold this monster, but I feared still more that Henry should see him.” Why might the second fear be the stronger one? Character
- Victor finds his rooms empty. He can hardly believe “so great a good fortune” and claps his hands for joy. Good fortune for whom? Moral reasoning
- On the first night, the being reached toward Victor at his bed, and Victor ran. Through the months of fever after that, “Henry was my only nurse.” What does Shelley gain by putting both of them at Victor's bedside? Plot structure
Make a Connection Victor worked for nearly two years to make the being, then ran from it the night it woke. If you know another maker who turned away from what they made, in a book, in history or in life, set that case beside Victor's. Where does the comparison help, and where does it break down?
Vocabulary
- convulsive
- endeavoured
How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?
Tried hard, with steady and serious effort; an endeavour is a serious attempt. Here it names the long work of forming the being, done “with such infinite pains and care”.- ardour
I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.
Burning eagerness; passionate desire (kin to ardent, from the Latin for burning). In this sentence it measures how much Victor wanted the work: so much that it “far exceeded moderation”.- traversing
Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.
Crossing from one side to the other, again and again; here, pacing back and forth across his bedroom because he cannot settle. The word returns at dawn, when he “traversed the streets” without knowing where he was.- impelled
I did not dare return to the apartment which I inhabited, but felt impelled to hurry on, although drenched by the rain which poured from a black and comfortless sky.
Driven or pushed to act, as if by a force one does not choose (kin to propel and compel, from the Latin for drive). Here it is the push that keeps Victor hurrying through the rain instead of going home.- spectre
I threw the door forcibly open, as children are accustomed to do when they expect a spectre to stand in waiting for them on the other side; but nothing appeared.
A ghost; a frightening shape that appears, or that someone fears will appear (from the Latin for look, as in spectacle). Victor throws open his own door expecting one; soon after, in his fit, he thinks he sees “the dreaded spectre glide into the room”.- recurred
Doubtless my words surprised Henry; he at first believed them to be the wanderings of my disturbed imagination, but the pertinacity with which I continually recurred to the same subject persuaded him that my disorder indeed owed its origin to some uncommon and terrible event.
Came back to, again and again (from the Latin for run back, as in current and occur). In his fever Victor kept returning to one subject, and that returning is what persuades Clerval that the illness began in “some uncommon and terrible event”.
Critical thinking
- At the curtain Victor admits, “He might have spoken, but I did not hear”. Everything we know about the being comes from the man who escaped from it. How far can a reader trust Victor's account of that night?
- Victor had seen the body while it was unfinished, and “he was ugly then”. But once its muscles and joints could move, “it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.” What changed when the creature came alive: the creature, or the way Victor sees it?