Session 18 Discussion Questions
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Questions for Discussion: Frankenstein, pp. 5-24.
- How does the 1818 Preface (written by Percy Shelley posing as Mary Shelley) compare to the 1831 Introduction (written by Mary Shelley) to Frankenstein? What do these introductions to the text tell us about each author’s views on authorship, narrative, literature, nature, and science?
- What kind of narrative structure is established in the opening pages of the novel? What is its significance?
- What philosophical, psychological, and political themes become apparent in the letters of Walton to his sister Margaret?
- How are the characters of Victor Frankenstein and his “daemon” first introduced in the story? What is the literary effect of this introduction?
- What parallels do you see between Walton and Victor?
- What is unnerving about Victor’s account of his happy childhood?
- What resonances are there between the novel’s opening chapters and Mary Shelley’s biography? What resonances are there between the novel’s opening chapters and earlier Romantic writings by Rousseau, Burke, Blake, and Wollstonecraft?
2008,
by the Contributing Authors.
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Botting, E. (2008, June 04). Session 18 Discussion Questions. Retrieved February 12, 2012, from Notre Dame OpenCourseWare Web site: http://ocw.nd.edu/political-science/mary-wollstonecraft-and-mary-shelley/discussion-questions/session-18-discussion-questions.
