Handout from my Oral Presentation

Introduction:

This assignment is the handout I provided for my peers during my oral presentation. My presentation covered Volume III, Chapters I-V of the novel, and this handout served as a guide to the presentation. During this section of the novel Victor was faced with a tough choice. This choice also led to a decrease of his mental state. I focused on these themes, exploring ideas such as moral and ethical decision making and isolation. I also discussed literary elements such as horror and Gothic, and irony and parallelism. I also included some important quotations, and offered some questions for class discussion.

Ben Outland   Frankenstein: Volume III, Chapters I-V  HR: Texts and annotations

5 Key Ideas from this Section:

1. Moral & ethical decision making — In this section Victor struggles with an important decision that he must make. Should he create a female creature in hopes that he will be freed from his ties to the creature, or should he refuse the deal and risk the creature’s revenge? If he creates the female creature, the monster may keep his word and live in solitude. However, there is a chance that they could reproduce, the monster would still be unsatisfied and return, or the experiment could yield different results, i.e the new creature may be inherently evil. If he doesn’t create the creature in hopes of preventing more damage, he knows the creature will harm him or those close to him. Mary Shelley plays on the motif of agonizing hopelessness and despair that Victor is constantly consumed with in this novel. It seems that there is no way for Victor to escape the living hell that his previous actions have caused.
2. Isolation — Victor feels more and more isolated in this section. He is haunted by a terrible secret and guilt which makes him feel as though the murders are his own fault. He is isolated mentally in that he cannot tell his secret to anyone, even his closest companions,  If he does he will seem like a madman. This theme of isolation is represented physically in the desolate Scottish islands where Victor retreats to work on the second creature. The only one who Victor can be truthful with about the situation is his sworn enemy, the creature. Interestingly, the creature is also isolated mentally and physically as well. In many ways, Victor has made himself like the creature as his secret causes him to lose his ability to get help from his family.
3. Inability to see that Victor’s misfortunes are his own fault — Victor’s dialogue is centered around his misfortunes and his belief that the misfortunes in his life are caused by bad luck rather than his own actions. It was Victor’s fault that he created the creature, and it was his decision to hate the creature based solely on its appearance, when the creature was not inherently evil. A major reason why Victor doesn’t want to make a new creature is because he believes it will be evil, but if he chose not to neglect it he could have taught it the proper values and morals. The reason Victor’s life has taken a terrible turn is not based on misfortune, but rather Victor’s inability to treat the creature properly, and Victor fails the realise this, instead he only blames the creature. Readers are sympathetic toward Victor, but the creatures own story still remains more moving than the problems faced by Victor’s.
4. Irony in the parallel between Victor and Justine — Victor and Justine are both wrongfully charged and tried for murder, however Victor walks free while Justine is sentenced to death. Ironically, Justine is completely innocent, but Victor is partially responsible for both murders due to his neglect of the creature.
5. Elements of horror — I think it’s important not to forget that the novel is a gothic horror piece and many elements of horror that are placed in the novel that likely terrified audiences in it’s day. In contemporary times, we often overlook these elements and fail to appreciate them, as we are desensitized to horror based on our exposure to modern films and other more over the top horror elements. For example, phrases such as “I trembled, and my heart failed within me; when, on looking up, I saw, by the light of the moon, the demon at the casement. A ghastly grin wrinkled his lips as he gazed on me, where I sat in fulfilling the task which he had allotted to me. Yes, he had followed me in my travels; he had loitered in forests, hid himself in caves. . .” (Pg 255). Or “The remains of the half-finished creature, whom I had destroyed, lay scattered on the floor, and I almost felt as if I had mangled the living flesh of a human being.” (259). These passages are scary in the idea that the creature is stalking Victor and watching him at all times, and the imagery of looking up to see him staring at your through the window could make it terrifying to look out of your window at night after reading. The gore represented in the second passage is also terrifying and likely blasphemous at the time of the novels release.

 

Important Quotations:

“You are my creator, but I am your master; — obey!” (257). This represents a power shift from creator to the creature. It highlights how physically and emotionally the creature now controls Victor’s life and happiness and there is nothing Victor can do.

 

“I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding-night.” (257) Repeated by Victor in his head numerous times, this quote shows that Victor has officially ruined his own life via his neglect of the creature. The repetition of the quote by Victor highlights the anxiety Victor battles with as his life falls apart at the hands of the creature.

 

Discussion Questions:

1. Did Victor make the right choice in destroying the female creature? Is there anything else he could have done to satisfy the creature? What would you have done?
2. Do you agree with my assertion that the creature’s story draws more sympathy from you as a reader than Victor’s story? Who do you feel worse for and why?
3. Would Henry have treated the creature in the same manner as Victor? Is Victor as selfish as we think, or was the creature really so terrifying that he seemed beyond nurture? Are we sure that we would have helped the creature in those first moments, or are we biased in the fact that we have read Victor’s story and learned from his mistakes?
4. Do you think the creature will stop murdering people after he has killed everyone important to Victor? Would that revenge even satisfy him? What would he do after he has accomplished his mission? Is he ever capable of happiness?