Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

1. Who writes the letters that make up Frankenstein’s introductory chapters?

A) Victor Frankenstein

B) Robert Walton

C) Mrs. Margaret Saville

D) the Creature

2. What is the purpose of Robert Walton’s sea voyage?

A) to find the Northwest Passage

B) to circumnavigate the Earth

C) to reach the South Pole

D) to reach the North Pole

3. What is Victor Frankenstein doing when Walton’s crew intercepts him?

A) searching for the Creature

B) running from the Creature

C) trying to reach the North Pole

D) searching for Elizabeth

4. What does Frankenstein say is his reason for sharing his story with Walton?

A) to warn Walton about how deadly the Creature is

B) to warn Walton about the dangers of pursuing knowledge at all costs

C) to unburden himself of his own guilt

D) to pass the time in the cold

5. What does Walton most regret about his upbringing? (short answer)

6. How does Frankenstein meet his future fiancé Elizabeth Lavenza?

A) on a research excursion in the Swiss Alps

B) on vacation in France

C) His parents adopted her when they were both children.

D) She is his biological cousin.

7. What best describes Frankenstein’s childhood?

A) happy and idyllic

B) boring and tedious

C) sad and melancholy

D) violently abusive

8. Which natural philosopher does Frankenstein read as a teenager, against his father’s wishes?

A) Plato

B) Aristotle

C) Agrippa

D) Galileo

9. Why does Frankenstein refer to the man who explains electricity to him when he is 15 as a “guardian angel”? (27)

A) He saves Frankenstein from being struck by lightning.

B) He saves Elizabeth from a falling tree.

C) He sparks Frankenstein’s interest in natural philosophy.

D) He disproves Agrippa’s dangerous occultist theories.

10. Which professor’s words about scientists’ “new and almost unlimited powers” (33) send Frankenstein off to pursue his “future destiny”?

A) Cornelius Agrippa

B) M. Waldman

C) M. Krempe

D) Henry Clerval

11. Why does Frankenstein spend so much time studying death and decay?

A) He is depressed and melancholy.

B) because studying how life ends may teach him how life begins

C) He is fixated on the early death of his mother.

D) because M. Waldman explicitly instructed him to

12. How does Frankenstein’s mother die? (short answer)

13. Which of these best describes Frankenstein’s initial reaction to the Creature?

A) horror and disgust

B) sublime awe

C) joy and elation

D) love for a son

14. Which childhood friend helps Frankenstein recover in the weeks after finishing the Creature?

A) Elizabeth Lavenza

B) Justine Moritz

C) William

D) Henry Clerval

15. What does Frankenstein study when he returns to the university following his recovery?

A) natural philosophy

B) navigation

C) languages

D) law

16. Why do the authorities charge Justine in William’s death?

A) Justine was jealous of the attention showered on William.

B) They believe she is working with the Creature.

C) The necklace William was wearing was found in Justine’s dress.

D) Justine was heard threatening William the day before his death.

17. Why doesn’t Frankenstein tell the authorities that the Creature is responsible for William’s death?

A) He doesn’t believe the Creature is responsible.

B) He knows no one will believe him.

C) He is afraid of being charged as an accessory to murder.

D) He believes Justine would have killed William anyway.

18. Why does Justine confess to a murder she did not commit? (short answer)

19. What stops Frankenstein from committing suicide by drowning in the lake?

A) He is afraid of death.

B) He wants to spare Elizabeth more grief.

C) He knows he is the only one who can stop the Creature.

D) Henry talks him out of it.

20. What best describes the Creature’s personality when Frankenstein encounters him in the mountains?

A) intelligent and articulate

B) slow and dimwitted

C) disinterested and vacant

D) nervous and scared

21. How does the Creature learn to speak?

A) He is born with the ability.

B) Frankenstein teaches him.

C) He learns by watching William and Justine.

D) He learns by watching the young brother and sister who live with the blind old man.

22. Why does the Creature become a killer?

A) because he is rejected by humanity

B) because he is inherently evil

C) because he is in constant physical pain

D) because he needs money

23. When talking to Frankenstein, the Creature likens himself to Satan, cast out of heaven. Who is Frankenstein in this Biblical metaphor? (short answer)

24. How does the Creature learn about God, Satan, and Adam?

A) from Felix and Safie

B) by reading the Bible

C) by reading Paradise Lost

D) he is born with this knowledge

25. How do the De Laceys react when they first see the Creature?

A) with pity and sadness

B) with joy and love

C) with ridicule and sarcasm

D) with terror and aversion

26. What does the Creature vow to do after the cottagers reject him?

A) to kill himself

B) to retreat to the North Pole

C) to devote all his energy toward convincing humanity to love him

D) to wage an ongoing war against humanity

27. What does the Creature initially plan to do with William after first seeing him?

A) kill him

B) educate him

C) frame him for murder

D) steal his necklace

28. Why does the Creature view his murder of William as a “triumph”?

A) because it proves his enemy is not invincible

B) because it was difficult to kill him

C) because the Creature was born with violence in his heart

D) because children are more deserving of death than adults

29. What does the Creature demand that Frankenstein do, or else he will kill all the doctors’ friends and family?

A) kill the Creature

B) kill himself

C) create a female companion for the Creature

D) close his laboratory forever

30. Where does the Creature say he and his companion will go? (short answer)

31. Why does Frankenstein believe that the Creature may eventually grow virtuous?

A) Frankenstein used the brain of a virtuous individual when creating the Creature.

B) Frankenstein considers the good deeds the Creature did for the cottagers.

C) Frankenstein believes he can teach the Creature to be good through books of moral philosophy.

D) Frankenstein does not believe that true evil exists.

32. Where does Frankenstein build the female companion for the Creature?

A) England

B) Scotland

C) Paris

D) Geneva

33. Why does Frankenstein change his mind and destroy the companion?

A) He fears the Creature and his companion will have children who will terrorize humanity.

B) He believes the Creature will break his promise about fleeing to somewhere far from civilization.

C) He does not want to give the murderous Creature any joy.

D) He no longer wants to live and hopes the Creature will kill him for refusing to create the companion

34. What does the Creature say to Frankenstein after learning that the scientist destroyed his companion?

A) “You will regret this.”

B) “I expected this response.”

C) “I will murder everyone you care about.”

D) “I will be with you on your wedding night.”

35. Which character does Frankenstein describe as “the image of my former self […] inquisitive and anxious to gain experience and instruction” (143)? (short answer)

36. Who is charged with Henry Clerval’s murder?

A) Elizabeth Lavenza

B) Frankenstein’s father

C) Frankenstein

D) The Creature

37. When does Frankenstein experience what he calls his last “last moments [...] of happiness” (176)?

A) when he is proved innocent in Clerval’s murder

B) when his father visits him in his jail cell

C) when he destroys the companion

D) on his wedding night

38. Why is Frankenstein surprised when the Creature murders Elizabeth?

A) He expected the Creature to murder Frankenstein himself.

B) He didn’t believe the Creature was capable of such a crime.

C) He thought the Creature was dead.

D) The Creature promised not to harm Elizabeth.

39. How do the authorities react when Frankenstein finally tells them about the Creature and his crimes?

A) They accuse him of delirium.

B) They form a hunting party to kill the Creature.

C) Frankenstein himself is thrown in jail.

D) The Creature enters and murders the authorities.

40. At the end of the book, what does the Creature tell Walton he plans to do? (short answer)