Frankenstein by Ilaria Cena https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd en-us 2017-02-02 19:11:21 UTC 2023-08-14 20:15:31 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Thunder.png Summary of the Novel venny1971 https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/151276894 Robert Walton, an explorer, describes his trip to the Arctic in letters to his sister, Margaret Saville, who lives in England. After discussing his preparations for the trip, one of Walton’s letters informs Margaret that his ship is stuck and surrounded by ice. Walton then relates a strange event: As they looked out on the enormous ice field, Walton and his crew saw a gigantic man being pulled by a dogsled. The following day they discovered another, smaller man, desperately ill, adrift on a sheet of ice. Walton writes that he brought the man onto his ship, allowed him to rest, and attempted to nurse him back to health. After a week the man was able to talk and told Walton an incredible story.
The man’s name is Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist born in Geneva, Switzerland. He is a member of a wealthy family concerned with humanitarian issues. Victor goes on to relate his story to Walton, who writes it down as Victor speaks, making a record of Victor’s story, to be sent as a letter to Margaret Saville, Walton’s sister.
Victor tells Walton that, as a boy, he was always fascinated by science and alchemy and he eventually attended the University of Ingolstadt to study natural science. At the university he focused all his attention on experiments designed to create life. After months of exhaustive study, Victor constructed a huge creature from parts of human cadavers. He then discovered a method of bringing it to life. However, when the creature opened its eyes, Victor was horrified by his monstrous-looking creation. He ran from his laboratory and became very ill and disoriented for almost two years. During this time, he believed that the creature must have perished.
After he recovered from his illness, as he prepared to return home to his family, Victor learned that William, his seven-year-old brother, had been murdered. Justine Moritz, a young woman the Frankenstein family had adopted, had been accused of the crime. But Victor refused to believe that Justine committed the murder. Instead, he suspected that his creature wasn’t really dead, and was responsible for the horrible crime. However, after Victor returned to Geneva, Justine was tried, found guilty, and hanged.
Victor explains to Walton that he felt responsible for William’s murder and Justine’s execution. Guilt-ridden and desperate to be alone, he climbed into the mountains, where he encountered the creature. The creature told Victor that he had survived for the past two years, hiding out in the woods and eating nuts and berries. Lonely and miserable, he realized that he was repulsive to other human beings. In the forest, though, the creature discovered a gentle peasant family living in a cottage; by secretly observing them, the creature learned to read and write. Then, in his jacket pocket, the creature found Victor’s journal and read of the experiments that led to his creation. Enraged, he concluded that it was Victor Frankenstein who was responsible for his misery.
After relating his story, the creature demanded that Victor re-create his experiment and construct another creature. The creature explained he was desperate for a companion who would not find him repulsive. If Victor does as he asks, he will go away with the new creature and never bother Victor again. Although wary of the proposal, Victor says he reluctantly agreed to the creature’s request.
Victor tells Walton that he set up a new laboratory in Scotland and began the work of creating a companion for the creature. But he was haunted by the thought that this new monster might be more evil than the original, and he was terrified at the idea of the two creatures creating a new, horrible race of beings. So instead of completing his task, Victor destroyed his work before giving life to the new creation. But the original creature was watching Victor in his laboratory. Furious, he swore revenge, vowing to torment Victor for the rest of his life. Later that night the creature strangled Victor’s best friend, Henry Clerval.
Several weeks later, Victor married Elizabeth Lavenza, a girl who was adopted by his family, and with whom Victor had always been in love. But after Victor and Elizabeth marry, the creature appeared on their wedding night and strangled Elizabeth to death. Grief-stricken over the death of Elizabeth, Alphonse Frankenstein, Victor’s father, died a few months later. In utter despair, Victor vowed to pursue the creature and destroy it. He chased the monster for months, finally arriving in the Arctic where he met Walton and his expedition.
Having finished his story, Victor Frankenstein dies on Walton’s ship. Walton ends the tale in additional letters to his sister, telling her that the night Victor died, the creature entered Victor’s room and lamented his death. He then told Walton he planned to build a huge fire and burn himself to death. Before Walton could respond, the creature jumped from the ship and landed on a floating slab of ice. Walton concludes his final letter, telling Margaret that the creature was carried out to sea, where he disappeared into the darkness.

]]> 2017-02-02 19:46:59 UTC https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/151276894 Summary Chapter 2 venny1971 https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/151279691 Victor describes his perfect childhood. He and Elizabeth got along perfectly, though she favored poetry while he longed to unravel the "physical secrets" of life, including the "hidden laws of nature."

In addition to Elizabeth, Victor shares a close friendship with Henry Clerval, his well-read schoolmate. Like Victor, Clerval possesses a "soaring ambition" to leave his mark on human history.

As he grows up, Victor becomes fascinated with "natural philosophy," and reads widely among the thinkers in this field who want to penetrate the "citadel of nature."

One day, when Victor observes lightning strike a tree, he realizes that the laws of science are beyond human understanding and decides to focus on studies based in fact, like mathematics, rather than natural philosophy. Yet he notes that he eventually returned to it, leading to his "utter and terrible destruction."]]> 2017-02-02 19:55:24 UTC https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/151279691 Analysis venny1971 https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/151282701









An early hint at Victor's dangerous ambition, and his innocent belief that man is powerful and wise enough to comprehend nature.





Like Victor, Henry is also too young and innocent not to see the vanity and futility of his ambitions.








Nature portrayed as a fortress that will yield to an assault by man. This antagonistic relationship between Victor and nature bodes poorly.



Romantic writers viewed Nature as a sublime force beyond the power or understanding of man. Here Victor senses that too. But his final comment indicates that his ambition overcomes his sense, resulting in disaster.]]> 2017-02-02 20:03:50 UTC https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/151282701 venny1971 https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/151286654 2017-02-02 20:15:01 UTC https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/151286654 Geography of Frankenstein venny1971 https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/152145604 2017-02-07 14:34:36 UTC https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/152145604 Themes venny1971 https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/152147662 •Life, existence
•Science
•Revenge]]> 2017-02-07 14:38:45 UTC https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/152147662 Foundamental human needs venny1971 https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/152783680
  • subsistence
  • protection
  • affection
  • understanding
  • participation
  • leisure
  • creation
  • identity
  • freedom
]]> 2017-02-09 14:36:07 UTC https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/152783680 Human rights venny1971 https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/152787994 1. We Are All Born Free and Equal. We are all born free. We all have thoughts and ideas. We should all be treated equally.

2. Do not Discriminate. These rights belong to everybody, whatever our differences.

3. The Right to Life. We all have the right to life and to live free and safe.

4. No Slavery. No one has the right to enslave. We can not make anyone our slave.

5. No Torture. No one has the right to hurt us or subject us to torture.

6. Have Rights Wherever You Go. I am a person just like you!

7. We're All Equal Before the Law. The law is the same for everyone. It must treat everyone impartially.

8. Your Human Rights Are Protected by Legge.Tutti we can have recourse to the law when we are not treated fairly.

9. No Unjust Detention. No one has the right to put us in prison without a good reason and keep us there or to send us away from our country.

10. The Right to Trial. If we tried, must be a public act. The person that judges should not let anyone suggest what to do.

11. We're Always Innocent Until True Crime. No one should be blamed for doing something without proof. When people say we did something bad, we have the right to prove that is not true.

12. The Right to Privacy. Nobody should try to harm our good name. No one has the right to come into our home, open our letters or bother us or our family without a good reason.

13. Freedom of Movement. We all have the right to go where we want in our own country and to travel where we prefer.

14. The Right to Find a Safe Place to Live. If we fear being abused in our country, we have the right to go to another country to be safe.

15. Right to Nationality. We all have the right to belong to a country.

16. Marriage and Family. Every adult has the right to marry and have a family if they want to. Men and women have the same rights when they are married, and when they are separated.

17. The Right to What You belongs. Everyone has the right to have their own things or share them. No one should take away our things without good reason.

18. Freedom of Thought. We all have the right to believe in what we want, to have a religion or to change it if we wish.

19. Freedom of Expression. We all have the right to make us their ideas, to think about what we want, to say what you think and to share our ideas with other people.

20. The Right of Meeting and Association. We all have the right to meet our friends and to work together in peace to defend our rights. Nobody can make us join a group if we do not want.

21. The Right to Democracy. We all have the right to participate in the government of our country. For every adult should be allowed to choose their own leaders.

22. Social Security. We all have the right to a home, medical treatment, education and care for children, to have enough money to live and to health care when we get sick or grow old.

23. Rights of Workers. Every adult has the right to have a job, to receive a fair wage for his work and join a trade union.

24. The Right to Leisure. All we have all the right to rest from work and to relax.

25. Food and a roof for All. All we have all the right to a good standard of living. Mothers and children, the elderly, the unemployed, the disabled, and all people have the right to be safeguarded.

26. The Right to Education. Education is a right. The elementary school should be free. We should learn what is the United Nations and how to get along with others. Our parents can choose what we learn.

27. Copyright in. The copyright is a specific law to protect artistic creations and the works of a person; other people can not reproduce without permission. All we have all the right to live freely and to enjoy the arts, the scientific benefits and teaching.

28. A World Free and Fair. There must be a social order in which we can all enjoy rights and freedoms in our country and around the world.

29. Responsibility. We have a duty to other people, and we should protect their rights and freedoms.

30. None Can Get You Out of Human Rights.
]]> 2017-02-09 14:46:26 UTC https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/152787994 Quiz venny1971 https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/153439830 86,67% https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/f/frankenstein/study-help/quiz]]> 2017-02-13 14:54:48 UTC https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/153439830 Letters venny1971 https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/154941675 Summary: Letter 1

The novel itself begins with a series of letters from the explorer Robert Walton to his sister, Margaret Saville. Walton, a well-to-do Englishman with a passion for seafaring, is the captain of a ship headed on a dangerous voyage to the North Pole. In the first letter, he tells his sister of the preparations leading up to his departure and of the desire burning in him to accomplish “some great purpose”—discovering a northern passage to the Pacific, revealing the source of the Earth’s magnetism, or simply setting foot on undiscovered territory.

Summary: Letters 2–3

In the second letter, Walton bemoans his lack of friends. He feels lonely and isolated, too sophisticated to find comfort in his shipmates and too uneducated to find a sensitive soul with whom to share his dreams. He shows himself a Romantic, with his “love for the marvellous, a belief in the marvellous,” which pushes him along the perilous, lonely pathway he has chosen. In the brief third letter, Walton tells his sister that his ship has set sail and that he has full confidence that he will achieve his aim.

Summary: Letter 4

In the fourth letter, the ship stalls between huge sheets of ice, and Walton and his men spot a sledge guided by a gigantic creature about half a mile away. The next morning, they encounter another sledge stranded on an ice floe. All but one of the dogs drawing the sledge is dead, and the man on the sledge—not the man seen the night before—is emaciated, weak, and starving. Despite his condition, the man refuses to board the ship until Walton tells him that it is heading north. The stranger spends two days recovering, nursed by the crew, before he can speak. The crew is burning with curiosity, but Walton, aware of the man’s still-fragile state, prevents his men from burdening the stranger with questions. As time passes, Walton and the stranger become friends, and the stranger eventually consents to tell Walton his story. At the end of the fourth letter, Walton states that the visitor will commence his narrative the next day; Walton’s framing narrative ends and the stranger’s begins.


]]> 2017-02-20 14:31:58 UTC https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/154941675 Revenge (theme analysis) venny1971 https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/154965868 The monster begins its life with a warm, open heart. But after it is abandoned and mistreated first by Victor and then by the De Lacey family, the monster turns to revenge. The monster's actions are understandable: it has been hurt by the unfair rejection of a humanity that cannot see past its own prejudices, and in turn wants to hurt those who hurt it. As the monster says when Felix attacks it and flees with the rest of the De Lacey family, "...feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom...[and] I bent my mind towards injury and death." But in taking revenge, two things happen to the monster. First, it ensures that it will never be accepted in human society. Second, because by taking revenge the monster eliminates any hope of ever joining human society, which is what it really wants, revenge becomes the only thing it has. As the monster puts it, revenge became "dearer than light or food."

Revenge does not just consume the monster, however. It also consumes Victor, the victim of the monster's revenge. After the monster murders Victor's relatives, Victor vows a "great and signal revenge on [the monster's] cursed head." In a sense then, the very human desire for revenge transforms both Victor and the monster into true monsters that have no feelings or desires beyond destroying their foe.

]]> 2017-02-20 16:23:42 UTC https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/154965868 Review venny1971 https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/155243715 Good adaptation of the novel into this suspenseful, traditional horror film. While everything was not completely accurate to the novel, the film did an excellent job making its own way through the story. DeNiro as The Creature was amazing, definitely the best performance of any of the actors in the film. If you study this book in school, don't take your test based on this film, but it's a good supplement to the book.]]> 2017-02-21 18:03:36 UTC https://padlet.com/venny1971/cenn9jhu6rgd/wish/155243715