Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Characters in Frankenstein
- Victor Frankenstein
- Creates a monster
before abandoning
him
- The
monster
retaliates by
killing his
family
- Monster forces him to
make a 'wife'
- Frankenstein destroys this
- Leads to deaths of Liz and
Clerval
- Is the son of
Caroline and
Alphonse
Frankenstein
- Brother of William and
Liz (through adoption)
as well as future
husband
- Victor follows his
creature across
the Arctic where
he meets Walton
- Dies on
Walton's
ship
- Isolated
like the
monster
- Self-imposed
through his
obsession in
his work
- Avoids and
rejects his
loving family
- Says that this
is necessary
for success
- Is an ominous
decision
- Rebelling against what
binds human
relationships; family,
community, sexual
- A modern
Prometheus??
- Searching
for
forbidden
knowledge
- Doesn't
accept
boundaries/
limitations and
is ultimately
punished
- Is he driven to
be the saviour
of mankind, to
help or is it just
glory and fame
- Ambitious: 'A
new species
would bless
me as its
creator and
source'
- Question of
what is the real
crime: creating
the monster or
not taking
responsibility
for his actions
- Through
Victor it is
thought that
Shelley
criticises
Romanticism
- Demonstrates the
dangers of isolation
and solitude which
were common
tendencies of
Romantics
- Victor always
talks of the
suffering he has
to go through for
success
- A competition
between him
and the
monster: who
can suffer
more??
- Monster at
the end of the
novel: 'Blasted
as thou wert,
my agony was
still superior to
thine'
- 'I pursued
nature to her
hiding places.
Who shall
conceive the
horrors of my
secret toil...?'
- Original
Prometheus
emphasised
his suffering
- Central to
conception
of 'tortured'
Romantic
poet
- Chris
Baldick
- Like
Marlowe's
Doctor
Faustus
- Both become
tied to
powerful force
which they
don't
understand
- However, unlike
Doctor Faustus who
was tempted by
Mephistopheles,
Victor has no one to
blame but himself
living in a secular
world
- Mirrors
Coleridge's
'Mariner'.
Barely
alive,
retelling his
tale to warn
others
- Walton on
Victor:
'divine
wanderer'
- Original aim: 'if I could
banish disease from the
human frame and render
man invulnerable to any but
a violent death!’
- Commendable but is later
corrupted by desires.
Uses almost sexual
language with his
desires, 'penetrate into
the recesses of nature'
- First person
narrative suggests
biased view.
Interesting to look at
often contradictory
views of how he is
perceived
- Walton: 'helpless creature' (ironic),
adjectives used like 'madness',
'wildness', then starts to 'love him like a
brother', says he is a 'glorious spirit' and
'so noble a creature, destroyed by misery'
- Frankenstein: ‘no human being could
have passed a happier childhood than
me’, ‘my temper was sometimes
violent’, ‘I always came from my studies
discontented and unsatisfied’, ‘No one
can conceive the anguish I suffered’,
‘My own spirits were high... I bounded
along with feelings of unbridled joy and
hilarity.’
- Monster: 'my
creator', 'father',
'cursed, cursed
creator'
- He has a narrow
mental interest: has
no interest in
government, politics,
language all of which
relate to 'real' people
- Only interested in
himself and his
own actions
- Start of the novel has
elements of
"bildungsroman"
- A novel about the
development/
formation of the
protagonist
- However the reader sees that he
rejects the 'silken cord' of love and
affection in his childhood in later life
only to notice its worth at the end
- Shelley creates a HUGE
contrast between the
affection and comfort of his
domestic life and the
extreme isolation the
monster causes
- Ends up travelling
backwards and
forwards, chasing
the monster with no
comfort or security
or hope of
protection
- Completely alone,
ultimate outsider
- Suffers exclusion
due to his desires
to break scientific
boundaries and
his rebellion
- Separated
from the
natural
world and
the beauty
of creation
- Monster
- Created
and then
abandoned
by Victor
- He is rejected by all
due to looks
- He seeks vengeance for his
treatment by killing William and
setting up Justine
- Meets victor and asks
for a 'wife'
- After Victor destroys
this 'wife' he retaliates
by killing Clerval and
Liz
- The monster
leads Victor on
a journey
through
Europe before
the Arctic
- Upon Victor's
death, he mourns
and disappears
(supposedly to his
death)
- The monster
can be seen as
a new Adam or
a 'noble
savage'
- Idea of Rousseau's
that one of a primitive
society is more noble
than one of civilisation
as this corrupts us
- Monster is not
corrupted by
society at first
- He is benevolent,
innocent, holds no
prejudices
- Nature vs. Nurture
- Receives an
education learning
about nature, culture,
injustice in society,
emotions and so
craves love and
companionship
- BUT he is rejected
because of his
looks. Shelley
criticises the
aesthetic society
- Peter Brooks
- Creature's
education: 'is a
classic study of
right natural
instinct perverted
and turned evil by
the social milieu
- Milieu- a
person's
social
environment
- Inspired by
Caliban in 'The
Tempest'
(Shakespeare)??
- He is rebuked by
Prospero for the
way in which he
behaved with a
reminder of his
education
- 'You taught me language, and my profit
on't/ Is I know how to curse. The red
plague rid you/ For learning me your
language!'
- David Lodge
- Names always mean
something so his lack
of one could suggest
his search for his
identity
- Reads 'Paradise
Lost', 'Plutarch's
Lives', 'Sorrows of
Werter'
- Therefore very
eloquent and uses
the rhetoric
- Thinks that his superior
language will help him gain the
favour of the De Laceys in
spite of his looks
- However this does not
happen and it is only through
his education that he learns
of his differences. Is it his
education that makes him
unhappy and miserable??
- Makes
him ask
'What am
I?'
- They still
reject him, 'I,
like the arch
field, bore a
hell within
me'
- The Double
- He persuades
Victor to agree
to make him a
companion to
ease his misery
- 'I am
malicious
because I am
miserable'
- After Victor denies the monster
this after destroying his 'wife', he
takes revenge by going after all
off his loved ones. If the monster
can't have love then neither can
Frankenstein
- He tries to
destroy all of
Victor's loved
ones but Victor
attempted to cut
them off himself
- Is he acting out
Victor's true
destructive
desires and his
fears of family and
sex
- Victor intended
him to be beautiful
by selecting the
best body parts;
'selected his
pieces as
beautiful', 'lustrous
hair', 'teeth of pearly
whiteness'
- Does not have a 'beautiful' effect
though. Instead the monster has
'straight black lips', 'yellow skin'
which barely covers 'muscles and
arteries', 'watery eyes'
- Suggests death and decay-
not the intention for his 'new
species'. It still looks like a
'lifeless creation'
- People reject him
because they fear his
looks will reflect his
character
- The
abandonment by
his creator
intensifies his
isolation
- Condemns him to a life of
rejection
- His time spent observing
the love and affection within
the De Lacey household
develops sympathy and
Pathos for him because the
reader knows he will never
be accepted and this is the
only thing he yearns for
- The monster
volunteers to live a life
of absolute isolation if
Victor agree to build
him a 'wife'. He
recognises that he will
never be accepted by
society
- Isolation is only
deepened when this
creation is destroyed
at the hands of Victor
- His birth is like that of a
baby: 'His jaws opened,
and he muttered some
inarticulate sounds, while
a grin wrinkled his
cheeks. He might have
spoken, but I did not
hear; one hand was
stretched out, seemingly
to detain me, but I
escaped and rushed
downstairs' except his
'father' does not stay but
runs away
- Like an
abandoned
child
- At the end, the creature has
become the 'monster' that
everyone feared he was. He
realises what he has turned
into; 'the miserable', 'the
accursed'
- Caused by his
contact with
society/culture?? Key
Romantic idea.
Rousseau- ''man is
born free but
everywhere he is
chains’, William
Blake- 'mind-forged
manacles'
- With his education he learns the
abstract words 'virtue' and 'vice'. At this
point he has no practice of these
qualities and only knows of their
existence. When he experiences and is
rejected by the world, he adopts many of
the characteristics he used to hate.
Shelley is critcising the ideologies of
the French Revolution which began with
abstract words too: 'liberty and 'justice'
- A Marxist reading would say
that the monster represents
the proletariat (the lowest
group of people in the
working class) who after
being alienated by humanity
seeks vengeance on the
bourgeois and his creator.
His aim is to destroy tyranny
and the typical social
structure of the family
- Robert Walton
- An explorer
who wants
to discover
the
'Northwest
Passage'
- On an
Arctic
expedition
- He rescues
Victor and is the
sole recipient of
his tale
- He records this
narrative in his
letters to his sister
- Margaret
Saville,
England
- Is warned about
the dangers of
going too far
- 'You seek for knowledge
and wisdom, as I once did;
and I ardently hope that the
gratification of your wishes
may not be the serpent to
sting you, as mine has been'
- Seen as a double of Victor
- Goes against
the wishes of
his dead father
who did not
want to go sea
- Victor rebelled
against his
father's views on
alchemy
- Both explore the
unknown
- Victor wants
to know the
secrets of
nature and
creation
- Walton wants to
discover the Northwest
Passage
- Both want to
replace natural
geography with
human
geography
- Both are
obssessed with
their missions
- He leaves the
domestic world
which featured his
sister for
achievement and
success
- Both demonstrate a
complete disregard for
human consequences
- It is
through his
obsession
to test the
limits that
he deserts
his
family/sister
- Both have a
high
self-regard
- Also seeks glory:
'My life might have
been passed in
ease and luxury;
but I preferred glory
to every enticement
that wealth placed
in my path'
- Craves
recognition
for his quest
- Ambitious: 'you
cannot contest the
inestimable benefit
which I shall confer
on all mankind to the
last generation'
- Walton is not
as isolated as
Victor
- Is not hidden and
alone in a
laboratory
- Has to
rely on his
crew to
have
success
- They save
him from a
fate like
Victor's with
his 'mad
schemes'
- Walton does
not appreciate
this though.
He is bitter
and thinks his
grew shows
'cowardice
and
indecision'
- Complains of
loneliness to his
sister, 'I have no
friend'
- Believes
himself to be
better than his
crew. Not good
enough for his
friendship
- - ‘[I] desire the
company of a man
who could
sympathise with me,
whose eyes would
reply to mine.’
- Turns to
stranger
(Victor) due to
lack of friends
and company
- Recognises
dangers of
isolation
- He sees Victor as
'the brother of my
heart' straight away
- Uses a familiar
term even
though he has
escaped the
domestic world
- Walton
recognises
himself in Victor
- Praises
Victor:
'glorious
creature' which
means he also
praise himself
- Demonstrates
his
conceitedness
and high
self-regard
- Something
he has in
common
with Victor
- 'What a glorious
monster must he
have been in the
days of his
prosperity, when he
is thus noble and
godlike in ruin'
- Not so much
looking for a
friend but
someone like
himself
- Shelley
demonstrating
the corruption
of friendship
through
egotism
- Robert Kiely,
'The Romantic
Novel in
England'
- The novel doesn't
just focus on 'the
monstrous
consequences of
egotism' but the
'virtue of friendship'
which is the
opposite
- Says that the great
crime against nature/
mankind by
Frankenstein might
have been avoided by
human friendship/
sympathy
- The reader sees
a sense of
insecurity due to
lack of privilege
and his inferior
education
- Epistolary
form: create
idea of a
listener
- Introduces key
themes: breaking
boundaries, journey,
pride, wild landscapes,
madness, realtionships
- isolated from his
home and domestic
security
- Self-imposed
like Victor's
isolation
- Withdrawn
from the
crew as
Captain- not
part of their
'group',
doesn't fit in
- Jokes of killing
albatross: 'I am
going to unexplored
regions, to the "and
of mist and snow"
but I shall kill no
albatross'
- Great crime against
nature according to
Coleridge- shows the
lengths he will go to to
break the boundaries
- 'Listener' of the story. His
reactions supposedly
mirror those of the reader.
However he only stops his
quest because of the 'loss
of a friend' (Victor's death)
and because of 'fresh
dangers' ( adverse weather
conditions)
- Maybe it is the
ultimate reader, Mrs
Saville, who will pay
heed to the words of
Victor and will learn
the true dangers of
Enlightenment and
breaking boundaries
- Victor's tale has an effect on
Walton. Upon seeing the
creature he decides he is
'loathsome, yet appalling
hideousness' and he 'shut my
eyes, involuntarily, and
endeavoured to recollect what
were my duties with regard to
this destroyer. I called on him
to stay.' This means that the
monster is allowed to speak
and have the last word of the
novel.
- Does not have
complete
understanding and
is not taken in by
'his powers of
eloquence and
persuasion’, but
allows the monster
be 'borne away by
the waves, and lost
in darkness and
distance' instead of
causing him harm
- Has such a desire to
complete his quest
uses almost sexual
language to describe
it: 'satiate my ardent
curiosity’'
- Alphonse and Caroline
Frankenstein
- Parents
of Victor
and
(adopted)
Elizabeth
- Caroline looked after
her father until he
died when Alphonse
married her to save
her from poverty
- Carolines dies after
nursing Elizabeth back to
health from scarlet fever.
Alphonse died upon the
news of Elizabeth's death
- Caroline serves
as the ideal of
femininity
- In some
sense the
ideal
partnership
and parents
- Have a mutual
partnership
- Caroline has a
passive
dependence on
Alphonse
- A father
substitute after
the death of
her own??
- Alphonse is
her protector
- 'He strove to shelter her,
as a fair exotic is sheltered
by the gardener'
- Caroline lives in the
domestic circle and only
leaves for charitable
deeds
- 'guardian
angel to
the
afflicted'
- Her last act
leads to her
death: Her
life for Liz's
- Alphonse used to be
'perpetually occupied'
with his work but
comes to domestic
sphere upon his
marriage to Caroline
- Demonstrates
you cant have
both professional
and public
- Successful
family unit
depends on
self-sacrifice
for benefit of
the children
- Not shown with
Victor and his
off-spring
- Are aware of
their duties to
their children
- Indulgent
but firm
- Guiding
Frankenstein
with a 'silken
cord'
- Victor later sees this as
'remarkably secluded
and domestic' and so is
happy to leave his family
behind who are
'endeavouring to bestow
mutual pleasure'
- 'this deep
concsiousness
of what they
owed towards
the being to
which they had
given life'
- Two portraits of Caroline: 'pocket
picture of my mother' which is the
miniature that William wears on the
day of his death, and the painting
commissioned by Alphonse in which
Caroline is seen to be 'in an agony
of despair, kneeling by the coffin of
her dead father'
- Supports the idea that all
the other female
characters in the novel
are copies of Caroline. A
series of devoted
wives/daughters/mothers
etc. Emphasis on the role
of women in the 18th
century
- Dale Townsend:
fatherhood in Gothic
texts is 'based upon
a complex process
of metaphorical
substitution'
- Shown
through the
relationship
of Alphonse
and Caroline
- The painting that
Alphonse commissions,
serves as a reminder that
he was a close friend of
Caroline's father and that
he is attracted to the
devotion she had towards
him.
- He is old enough to be
her dad and takes that
role when he becomes
her protector
- 'He came like a
protecting spirit
to the poor girl
who committed
herself to his
care'
- When she
marries him,
Alphonse is
the substitute
for her late
father
- Alphonse
changes when
Caroline dies. He
becomes shut off
- Becomes more
isolated when
Victor goes to uni
and shuts off his
family
- Becomes even more
of an outsider as each
of his loved ones is
killed by the monster
which leads to his
death
- 'in the decline of
life, having few
affections, clings
more earnestly to
those that remain'
- 'He could not
live under the
horrors that
were
accumulated
around him'
- 'sunk under
the tidings that
I bore' (the
news of Liz's
death)
- Elizabeth
- An orphan
of noble
parentage
- Adopted by
the
Frankensteins
- It is intended
by Caroline that
she should
marry Victor
- 'daughter
of a
Milanese
nobleman'
who died
- She marries
Victor after
the death of
Clerval
- Is murdered
by the
creature on
her wedding
night
- Victor's fault
- She is
singled out for
her beauty
- 'Fairer than a
garden rose
among
dark-leaved
brambles'
- Set apart
from others
because of
her looks
- Like the
monster
- Described as a
Madonna using
religious
imagery
- Name
means gift
of God
- Victor: 'The
saintly soul of
Elizabeth shone
like a
shrine-dedicated
lamp in our
peaceful home
- She is
spiritualised
- 'celestial
eyes'
- 'saintly
soul'
- 'living
spirit of
love'
- 'heavenly soul'
- Moulded
into the
'angel of
the
house'
- Has the ability to
'soften and attract'
- Seen as a
woman's most
precious quality
- The opposite of Victor
- Selfless
and passive
rather than
egotistical
- Limited to the
domestic circle like
the other female
characters
- Like Justine
is unable to
have
children,
right taken by
Victor
- Marginalised
by Victor
through his
dedication to
his work
- A stark contrast
to her
acceptance in
the Frankenstein
family
- Victor objectifies her: she is
his 'gift' and 'possession'
- She is 'a pretty
present' for
Victor
- 'I looked upon
Elizabeth as
mine- mine to
protect, love
and cherish'
- She is a double of the
creature on how to nurture:
'The innocent and helpless
creature bestowed on them by
heaven, whom to bring up to
good, and whose future lot it
was in their hands to direct to
happiness or misery,
according as they fulfilled
their duties towards me.’
- Again Victor
does not do as
he should
- The
impossible
ideal??
- A society
obsessed
with only the
visually and
aesthetically
pleasing: ‘the
passionate
and almost
reverential
attachment
with which
all regarded
her became’
- The only time she
shows passion is
when she defends
Justine in court,
attacking the
Church and Court
(subconsciously a
patriarchal
society??) and
ironically Victor
- Her defence
has no effect
illustrating that
the female
voice has no
power
- A "Godwinian"
attack
- Her murder
- Victor leaves her as
he is self-obsessed
and so is convinced
that after hearing the
monster's threat, he
will be the victim
- Could also be due to his
possible fear of sexuality. It is
only when she is dead that he
'embraced her with ardour' This
idea is also examined through
his dreamed in which Liz turns
into his dead mother's corpse
once he kisses her
- Perhaps based on 'The
Nightmare' by Henry Fuseli
in which a daemon is seen
to be squating on an
immoblised woman
- 'She was there, lifeless and
inanimate, thrown across the
bed, her head hanging down,
and her pale and distorted
features half covered by her
hair.'
- Just like the
creature in
Frankenstein,
he wished to
prevent a
marriage
- Justine
- Framed for
the murder
of William
by the
monster
- Convicted
and executed
- Condemned by gender
and social status
- Becomes
an outsider
within
society
- The
Frankensteins
always have
faith in her
- Liz does not
abandon her
- Victor does
- He is indirectly guilty for
the crimes she is
convicted of
- Guilty of her injustice
- Most passive
woman in the
novel
- Little of her
own character
- Tries to mimic
Caroline
Frankenstein
- Is an
orphan
too
- Servant to the
Frankenstein
household
- Is only taken in as a servant
rather than a daughter like
Liz because she belongs to
the 'lower orders'
- Is taught 'the
duties of a servant'
- Lives a limited
life just like the
other female
characters in
'Frankenstein'
- Does not create
- As if this right has
been removed by
Victor
- Ironically named
- Justine means
righteous and fair
but her fate is the
opposite
- She is the only
character to call
upon God
- She accepts her
fate and asks Liz to
accept the 'will of
heaven' too
- 'Learn from me, dear
lady, to submit in
patience to the will of
heaven'
- Accepts it through
her Catholic guilt
- 'in an evil hour, I
subscribed to a lie'
- Forced to confess:
'he threatened
excommunicataion'
- Biggest fear
for a Catholic
- So fearful
of hell
- Clearly
presented as
a victim
- 'Justine also was a
girl of merit, and
possessed qualities
which promised to
render her life happy'
- She had
potential
- 'exquisitely
beautiful'
- 'A tear seemed to dim her
eye when she saw us'
- 'only returned
a confused and
unintelligible
answer'
- Innocent so
doesn't know
what to say
- 'she struggled
with her tears'
- Safie
- She is the
daughter of a
Turkish
merchant and a
Christian Arab
slave
- Taken in by the
De Laceys
- The independent
woman
- The most
positive
representation of
a woman in the
novel
- Represents
the
idealisation
and
spiritualisation
of women
- Just like
Caroline,
Safie's mother
is rescued by a
man
- More
obvious form
of slavery
within the
home
- Does not devote
her life to her
husband but
rejects, unlike
Caroline
- Encourages Safie
to pursue 'higher
powers of intellect
and an
independence of
spirit forbidden to
the female followers
of Mahomet'
- As a result Safie does not
wish to be locked away
where she would be 'allowed
only to occupy herself with
infantile amusements'
- She holds
masculine qualities
of independence
and action as well
as feminine
qualities of
gentleness
- She has a combination
unlike Liz
- She does not
wait for someone
to rescue her
- She breaks the
norm by travelling
to the De Laceys
by herself
- She is the only 'real' female
character
- Has been in the real
world, travelling through
Europe with no man
- Some say she
represents Shelley's
mother, Mary
Wollstencroft
- Wrote 'The
Vindication of
the Rights of
Women'
- She is an
outsider
- Like her father, Safie
experiences
isolation in Paris
- Her lack of rights as
a Muslim woman is
explored by Shelley
- After her dad
betrays the De
Laceys, she is
separated from her
family
- She risks
everything to be
reunited with Felix
- Regardless she has
huge strength of mind
- Breaks away from
her restrictive
upbringing
- Even learns a
new language
- It turns out to be a false
escape for her
- Perhaps mirroring
Shelley's elopement
with Percy Shelley
- The last the reader
hears of her she has a
domestic role in the De
Lacey household
- Her name
means
wisdom
- Henry Clerval
- Childhood friend of
Victor and Liz
- Murdered by the
monster after Victor
destroyed the monster's
'wife'
- Unfair death
- Victor is ultimately responsible
- Is the opposite of Victor
- Glorified version
of a Romantic
poet
- Combines the masculine
characteristics of ambition
and independence with the
feminine sensitivity and
affection
- Balanced charcter
- 'loved enterprise, hardship
and even danger for its own
sake'
- Overly idealised??
- Prefers
softer
landscapes
- Victor prefers
harsh, rugged
landscapes e.g.
mountains
- Likes the Persian
and Arabic tales
more than 'heroical
poetry of Greece
and Rome' which
Victor prefers
- Likes literature of
conquests that result
in the good for all
- Arthurian tales
- Peter Dale Scott
- Clerval: 'clear valley'
Frankenstein: 'open rock'
- Demonstrates
the
differences in
the their
characters
- Goes to uni but does
not alienate others as
Victor does
- Makes Victor
a nicer
person when
he is around
- Clerval is
Frankenstein's
'friend and
dearest
companion'
- Closer than Liz
- Possibly his true 'soul mate'
- Is marginalised by Victor
like others when he
becomes distracted with
his experiment
- Is also sidelined on their trip
to England when Victor
becomes obsessed with the
creation of the female
monster
- Safie's father
- He is an
outcast
because he
is a
foreigner in
Parisian
society
- Alienates himself
from his daughter
through his
ungratefulness and
betrayal of the De
Laceys after they try
to help him
- His treatment mirrors
xenophobic attitudes in the
18th century
- The stereotypes
that all foreigners
were evil, not to be
trusted, dishonest
etc.
- The De Laceys
- Made up
of the
blind
father, his
son, Felix,
and his
daughter,
Agatha.
- The monster
stays in a
shelter attached
to their house
- The monster gets an
education listening to them
teach Safie
- The monster goes into
talk to the blind father
but before he can
reveal himself, the rest
of the family return and
reject him due to his
ugliness
- The monster goes
back to find the
cottage deserted
and burns it down
in vengence
- Paragons of Virtue
- Noble, hard
working, pure
hearted,
affectionate, moral
- Opposite of
Frankenstein
family
- Stark contrast
- However these
qualities do not
help them in times
of conflict against
'evil' characters
- Put into
prison in
France
- Demonstrates that
it takes more than
a few virtuous
people to overturn
society and make
the world a more
moral place
- They also reject the
monster because of his
ugliness...are they really
that good??
- Prejudice against
the different runs
deep and is alive
even among the
most virtuous
people
- Demonstrating
society's aesthetic
prejudice
- Maybe due to
the absence of a
mother
- Showing what
would happen if
Victor took the
female role of
motherhood away
- Overly idealised??
- Mirroring the
monster's original
view of them??
- Alternatiive family model
to the Frankensteins
- Based on
equality, morality
and justice
- They all share
the roles of the
household
- Meanings of their
names illustrate
their importance all
together
- Felix: happiness
- Agatha: goodness
- Safie:
wisdom
- Mirrors the ideal
of
Wollstonecroft
in 'The
Vindication of
the Rights of
Women'
- However their family
structure is similar to
the Frankensteins'
- Motherless with
Agatha (sister)
acting as mother-
like Liz
- Become outsiders
when they chose to
support Safie's father
in the face of
prejudice
- Loose social
position and
wealth
- Forced to leave
Paris after they are
betrayed by Safie's
father
- Have to live a
lonely and
humble life in
poverty
- Fighting for
justice
- Mrs Saville
- The sister of
Robert Walton
who the reader
never actually
meets
- Has no voice
- The sole recipient
of Walton's letters
- The correspondence is
one-sided because Walton
is on a ship and therefore
can't receive letters
- Not really a
correspondence
- Supports the idea that
women are supposed
to listen to the men
without the chance to
offer their own opinion
- Passive listener
- Frankenstein's professors
- M. Krempe
- 'professor in
natural
philosophy'
- 'uncouth but deeply
imbued in the secrets of
his science'
- Tells Victor that he has
'wasted' time by focusing on
ancient ideas such as
alchemy and ancient
physicians e.g. Paracelsus
- Victor is
'disapointed' and
dislikes him
- Slanders him: 'repulsive
countenance..therefore did not
prepossess me in favour of his
pursuits', 'little conceited fellow'
- Also goes on to criticise 'modern
science and methods calling them
'realities of very little worth'
- M. Waldman
- Victor is more
complimentary
towards him
- More
aesthestically
pleasing
- 'aspect
expression of the
greatest
benevolence...his
voice the sweetest
I had ever heard'
- He
attracts
Victor with
language
- 'panegyric
upon
modern
chemistry'
- Divine lexis
- 'miracles'
- 'unlimited
power'
- Adopts Victor as
his 'disciple' which
ensures his
'destiny'
- There is little
difference in the
knowledge/
expertise of the two
professors
- Victor simply prefers
Waldman because he
is more complimetary
towards him
- Shows a lack of
objectivity
- Not the
mark of a
good
scientist