Frankenstein
A Level Literature
In the following activities, you will be developing the following Assessment Objectives: AO1 Articulate creative, informed and relevant responses to literary texts, using appropriate terminology and concepts, and coherent, accurate written expression. AO2 Demonstrate detailed critical understanding in analysing the ways in which structure, form and language shape meanings in literary texts. AO4 Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received. Read the following opening from Chapter 5 of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley:
Chapter 5 It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. 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. 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? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.
Comprehension
1. Discuss - with reference to the text - how the author creates an appropriate atmosphere in the opening paragraph. 2. Try and draw your own interpretation of the creature’s face. Discuss how this may differ from your own preconceived ideas.
Extension 1. How does the fixed perspective of Frankenstein as narrator create a prejudice reading of the chapter? Make use of textual references in your answer. 3. Discuss an alternative interpretation of this chapter. Is this creation of science a “miserable wretch”? 1