14
votes
Where did the idea that Frankenstein is the name of the monster come from?
Actually, it started very early on and probably wasn't inspired by anything in particular. Probably it was created of either laziness ("Frankenstein's monster" is so long) or ignorance ("Dracula" is ...
- 2,004
11
votes
Accepted
How could Frankenstein get the parts for his second creature?
The beginning of chapter 19 says that Frankenstein spent six months in London assembling the ‘materials’ for the new creature, before setting out for the Scottish island.
London was our present point ...
- 63.9k
8
votes
Accepted
What is the origin of the name "Frankenstein"?
In short, there are countless theories for the origin of the name "Frankenstein". One thing that they all have in common is either a severe lack of evidence, or the evidence being of dubious ...
- 18.9k
7
votes
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Meaning of 'more familiar to reason than to the imagination'
The speaker of these words is Elizabeth, a member of Viktor Frankenstein's household. She is responding to the murder of Viktor's young brother William. The Frankensteins' innocent housekeeper, ...
- 31.5k
6
votes
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Stories From the Year Without a Summer
Essentially, Yes. The other stories were abandoned.
On that famous night, there were four people trying their hands at ghost stories: Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, his wife to be Mary Godwin and John ...
- 23.6k
5
votes
Was Frankenstein's Monster really an illusion?
The first relevant document I managed to discover on this is an undergraduate biology thesis titled The Real "Monster" in Frankenstein. Here is an extract from the abstract:
I argue that that the ...
- 23.6k
4
votes
Where did the idea that Frankenstein is the name of the monster come from?
It seems really unlikely that there's any single path, and the monster is "a Frankenstein" in at least some of the same ways that a Model T. is "a Ford" or Guernica is "a Picasso." But James Whale is ...
- 41
3
votes
Accepted
Was Victor Frankenstein an aristocrat?
I think the closest you come to an answer is in the first paragraph of chapter I (of the Project Gutenberg edition)
I am by birth a Genevese, and my family is one of the most distinguished of that ...
- 4,360
2
votes
What is the origin of the name "Frankenstein"?
An easy might-be-true answer is in Wikipedia: from Burg Frankenstein, a castle in Germany, where your predecessors conjectured Shelley visited and possibly drew inspiration from the castle's legends.
...
- 4,360
2
votes
Accepted
Was Frankenstein was influenced by revolution, the pace of technological change and debates over racial equality?
Yes, there is evidence to suggest that Frankenstein was influenced by revolution, the pace of technological change and debates over racial equality. (It's also a book about parenthood.)
As has been ...
- 191
2
votes
Does "Natural Lord" in Frankenstein mean "Father" or something to that effect?
The quotation in question:
I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king if thou wilt also perform thy part[.]
The monster says that he [the monster] is ...
- 681
2
votes
Does "Natural Lord" in Frankenstein mean "Father" or something to that effect?
The phrase "natural lord and king" (or just "natural lord") refers to the king. There are various examples of this:
texts about and by King Charles II:
... That we do not represent this day the ...
- 7,099
2
votes
Accepted
Why were they keeping the mother from helping the daughter in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?
Check out the Wikipedia entry on scarlet fever, I don't know if this is really related, but it is a bacterial infection. Considering that at the time the story goes there were no antibiotics, I might ...
- 44
2
votes
Accepted
"the unnatural stimulus ceasing to operate, I had returned to my old habits" in Frankenstein
In this case, "habits" is probably using the definition of "a settled tendency or usual manner of behavior". Once this trance that led to him creating the Creature had passed, he ...
- 11.4k
2
votes
"It was very different, when the masters of the science sought immortality and power" in Frankenstein
"It" does not refer to anything; it is an impersonal pronoun that is required by the syntax but does not have any real meaning. It is basically the same "it" as in "It's ten o'...
- 51.1k
2
votes
Accepted
Her sympathy was ours
“Her sympathy was ours” is ambiguous between two meanings:
“her sympathy was [the same as] our sympathy”, that is, she was sympathetic to the same things that we were sympathetic to (whatever they ...
- 63.9k
1
vote
Accepted
"This was the forest near Ingolstadt" in Frankenstein
The "This" in the quotation refers to the "place where I could receive shade".
Think of it as "I wanted a place where I could receive shade" and "The place where I ...
- 386
1
vote
"otherwise" in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
"Otherwise" does not mean "already" in this circumstance. He means that the only instance in which talking about his creation would seem acceptable comprehensible to others is if ...
1
vote
"otherwise" in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
There is no dictionary meaning of the word "otherwise" as "already." A Google Ngrams search of the usage of "otherwise" for the years 1800–1820 does not reveal any ...
- 31.5k
1
vote
"just at the time that I dated my creation" in Frankenstein
In the last paragraph of chapter 3 (of the 1823 edition), when Frankenstein was on the verge of completing his work, he was “oppressed with a slow fever” making him “nervous to a most painful degree”:
...
- 63.9k
1
vote
Accepted
What does "hold" mean in this context from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?
The word "hold" is part of the phrasal verb "took hold", which is divided here by an adverb "so fast". The pronoun "it", the thing that it taking hold of his mind, refers to "[h]is grief", the subject ...
- 76.7k
1
vote
Where did the idea that Frankenstein is the name of the monster come from?
The popular recognition of Victor Frankenstein's Creature as simply "Frankenstein" started with the films; since more people were familiar with the films, popular culture began to ...
1
vote
Questions on the meaning of a passage about friendship in Frankenstein, Letter 4
The language of the time tended to be a little Yoda-like in its grammar, so you have to be patient with it. Also, all three of your lines run together to explain one thing: That Victor loved someone, ...
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