Chapter 10: What are your main impressions of Frankenstein's meeting with his creation?
Chapter 11: How does Frankenstein's creation describe his early development? What gives him pleasure?
Chapter 12: How does Frankenstein's creation describe his impressions of the family in the cottage? What are their actions and way of life? How does he respond to what he sees? What does Frankenstein's creature seem to be like? Does this surprise you? Is the process by which the creature becomes aware and learns about people and language realistic?
Thanks and please remember to respond to at least one other students response directly.
25 points!
Thanks,
M. Breen
Chapter 10: I was surprised by the intelligence harbored by the monster. He spoke eloquently and with a high level of diction. I also found it funny how Victor attempted to fight the monster when they first met. Surprisingly, the monster did not react with the same hostility. He did not want to become violent before he told his story to him.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11: The monster recounts his dark and lonely days of suffering that he experienced his first days of development. He learned about the pangs of hunger and what it felt like to be cold. He is confused and puzzled by the world around him. The monster experienced pain and solitude. Upon discovering the miracle of fire, he even burns himself. However, he is thrilled by the warmth that the fire emanates and how fire makes his food more delectable. This gives him great pleasure. Also, during this time, the monster has its first encounters with humans, who shriek and run away at his repulsive appearance. He learns to become ashamed of himself, leading him to isolate himself from society.
Chapter 12: The monster is fascinated by the family in the cottage. He first notices their beauty. He then observes that although the family has all that they could desire: physical appeal, food, shelter, and company, they are still miserable. He questions why they are not happy even though they have all that they can desire. It is not until later that he realizes that they are unhappy because they live in poverty. The family's way of life is farming. Some members harvest firewood while others cultivate the garden. This does not provide them much sustenance to live by, especially in the winter. They are a close-knit family. When the monster sees that his actions of surreptitiously stealing food from this family brings the family hunger and pain, he stops. This is surprising because in this action, the reader sees that the monster does in fact have a conscience. The monster is even caring enough to harvest the wood for the family so that they may occupy themselves with other things. In a sense, this shows the monsters ability to love and grow. The process by which the creature learns and becomes aware about people and language is realistic. The monster has heightened abilities, so his ability to perceive and learn must also be more advanced than a normal human.
Chapter 10: Victor Frankenstein attempted to fight the monster during their confrontation. Victor was angered by the sight of his creation because he knew that the creature had murdered William and an innocent girl had been executed. I was impressed by the monster’s ability to both communicate and compromise with Victor. I was surprised that Victor expressed anger and not fear this time.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11: The monster is given human qualities in this chapter. He finds himself alone in the woods and realizes that he is not wanted in society after noticing how the humans respond to his presence. His search for food to assuage leads him to travel around and explore. Frankenstein’s creation had no guidance yet he was able to quickly learn the ways of humans by observing villagers or those who went into the woods. The fire that a few men let lit in the woods gave him warmth and a way to “cook” the food he gathered.
Chapter 12: The monster is drawn in by the cottagers. He begins to analyze every part of the lives of these humans and begins to get attached to the family members. This poor family is usually very gloomy and preoccupied with many household duties. Frankenstein’s creation secretly wishes he could have a companionship with others and begins to fully realize what it is to be completely alone and abandoned. He is compassionate, caring, and able to love- traits that make him appear more human than monster. It is surprising to think that something that was made from pure science and had no care or upbringing would be able to feel love. The monster also begins to learn the language. It is realistic because he learns by listening and watching both the facial and body expressions of those speaking which is the way babies learn. It is incredible how quickly he learned but he dedicated his time to being able to understand what his cottagers were saying.
Liz, I like the way that you portrayed the monster. When you stated that the monster "does in fact have a conscience," I thought of the fact that the monster, at this point of the story, deserves more pity and sympathy from the readers than Victor. Victor was raised by very caring parents and in a supportive environment while the monster had no one to care for him yet he exhibits human characteristics that aren't expected from a typical "monster."
ReplyDeleteYaritza, I was also surprised by Victor's reaction to the monster. Instead of fearing it, like he did when he created it, he confronted the beast. The analyzation you mentioned about the monster's ability to reason and react to different situations also shows that he has human qualities. I agree that Shelley uses these different accounts to show that the monster is "more human than monster" as you said. I was also shocked that Victor was able to create something that has emotions and responses similar to human ones.
ReplyDeleteChapter 10: Victor's meeting with the monster was shocking because surprisingly the monster could speak well. It seemed like he learned a lot of things about his language while he left Victor's house. One would think that when the monster was approaching Victor he would've tried to harm Victor but that wasn't the case instead he talked to Victor and told him what he went through when Victor left him alone.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11: Victor's creation described his early development as lonely and sad. He had to learn how to survive in the wilderness by using his senses. When he would get hungry he would eat berries. As the monster started to walk through cottages he noticed how people would run away from him horrified. Then he realized that he was different than everyone else. He seemed to be taller and had a deeper voice than everyone else. As he passed to another cottage he observed a family whom he learned his language from. He also learned that taking their food was bad and thus he stopped taking their food.
Chapter 12: The monster describes the cottagers as humble people who work hard and love each other. But even though they love each other he sees sadness in their eyes as if something were missing. The cottagers do a lot of labour. Felix does the hard work for example cutting the wood and his sister cleans and cooks. The father of the two is blind and always tries to cheer them up with his smiles. Surprisingly the monster is very innocent and harmless. He even helps cut the wood in the winter for them without them even knowing it. I found this very shocking because this showed how innocuous and loving this creature is. By observing these humans he learns from them and it's very realistic. It's like when a baby is growing up, the baby observes his or her parents and learns from them and then he or she says his or her first word. Just like a baby the monster learns slowly the language that the cottagers are speaking and then he tries to speak like them.
Yaritza I totally agree with you on chapter 12. One would think that a monster made from science would actually have the ability to act like a real human being. The fact that he showed his compassion for these cottagers made him seem more harmless and lovable instead of harmful and hateful.
ReplyDeleteChapter 10: During Victor’s confrontation with his creation, I was initially shocked at how Victor was acting. Instead of running away scared as he did before, he confronted the monster, first yelling at it; telling it to go away, then threatening to harm it. The monster didn’t seem to react to Victor’s hostility, and in an eloquent manner asked Victor to accompany him to his ice cave, so that he may share his story with his creator. I wasn’t expecting the monster to act civilized. I was expecting him to kill Victor as he did with William.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11: The monster describes his early life as a sad and lonely existence. He quickly discovers that humans need to feel loved and accepted to flourish, and he wasn’t receiving that. He discovers that he does not fit into society; after every time a human see’s him they sprint away in fear of his horrific appearance. Secluded from society, he has to use his own means to survive, he does this by eating berries from a tree when famished, and drinking from a river when parched. The one source of pleasure for him is when he discovers fire. He puts his hands around it and burns himself at first but he is soon comforted by the warmth. He also figures out that with heat, food becomes more palatable.
Chapter 12: The monster observers the family, and soon realizes what he is missing in his life. The family is happily living together; they socialize, have fun, and enjoy time with each. The cottagers work together towards a common goal, such as preparing a meal. Witnessing this type of family relationship causes the monster to become even more depressed because he knows that he does not have that happy living situation, and because of his appearance he may never have it. Unaware of the consequences of his actions the monster begins to eat the families’ food, causing them to become sad and hungry. After realizing his wrongdoing, he does his best to aid the family, by not taking their food and providing them with fire wood. The monster is acting like a child; he will make a mistake but soon realize and feel bad about it. It isn’t surprising that he acts this way, because he hasn’t been taught how to act so he doesn’t know any better. The method by which the monster becomes aware of his surroundings is realistic, he first observers something, and then finds ways to use it, such as the fire. The way he learns the language is unrealistic. Purely listening to someone speak and watching their hand gestures is not enough to learn a foreign language.
@Mirelys, Yaritza and anyone else that brings up the same point as them.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with how you believe the monster is learning the language in the same way a baby would. A baby doesn’t just listen and watch. Mothers will try to teach them by asking them to say something such as “Mama”. By continuously repeating it the child will then figure out how to say it, but still not actually know the meaning until it further develops. The monster is just listening and watching, without a specific teacher telling him specific words and meanings, the odds of him becoming fluent in the language is very unlikely. Once Safie comes the monster has the best chance to learn, because Felix starts to teach Safie the language and the monster can listen in to his teachings.
Chapter 10: My first impressions were how rude and mean Frankenstein was to the monster, as soon as he saw him he just began to say harsh things without even giving the monster a chance to talk. It shows how selfish and self centered Victor is. Just like my classmates said, I was also surprised on how smart the monster sound when he spoke and with a calm reaction to Victors words.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11: The monster describes his early developments as lonely. He says how cold it was and how he didn’t have a home. While roaming around the mountain he finds a cave were he has been staying but he has no bed, no food, or anything. While exploring and looking for berries to eat he finds a fire and he learns that with it he could make food, and keep himself warm. He also learns that by adding more wood, the fire would not burn out, so that’s what he does. While looking for more wood he finds a village and this is when he notices how ugly he is. Two people saw him and ran away, he decides to hide in a hovel and he spies on Felix and Agatha while there. He learns how care for someone, and the longer he stays there the more attached he gets.
Chapter 12: At first the monster, just stayed in the hovel so that every time Felix and Agatha left the cottage he could go in and steal the food. He does this for a while, but as he stays there observing they’re every step, the more he admires them. He says they have anything they could have food, a place to live, love from each other, what else they could have but he notices that in they’re faces there is something missing and something that isn’t making them happy as they seem. After a while he notices, that they are poor, he stops stealing they’re food and instead tries helping them by getting them wood and putting it in they’re front step. This action surprised and it shows that the monster actually does have feelings and emotions and that he is not evil how Victor describes him. It shows that he cares for other and that he wants to help them. The process by which he learns the people’s language by observing they’re actions and listening to what the say is realistic. It shows that he does have the abilities of a human to learn and to know what’s wrong from right.
Those who have not commented by 5pm this evening will receive a 0/25.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Mirelys had to say about Liz and Yaritza's post. It is surprising how he could do things a human can even though hes not. Learning is something that takes times, thats why i also with what george said, he doesnt learn it just like baby's do. It migh say he learns it but its probably not perfect. For us humans to learn something it has to be repeated to us several times but he just observed and listened.
ReplyDeleteok... so I replied to all the questions but it won't show up on the screen...
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBefore Chapter 10, the reader had no knowledge or idea of who the creature was except what Victor thought of him. When the creature starts speaking he seems eloquent and possesses a diction that a “monster” shouldn’t possess. In pop culture, “Frankenstein” or the creature has the intelligence level of a Neanderthal but in the novel he’s smart and possesses a keen intelligence. What was also surprising was Victor’s reaction to the creature. Victor was angry and hostile towards the creature. It was rather surpsing to see Victor try to attack the creature despite the creature’s stature and swiftness. Basically the creature’s appearance does not indicate how intelligent the creature really is.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11 is the beginning of the creature’s narration. Chapter 11 is mostly about how his life began. The creature woke up to a shadowy world. He only saw darkness. He confused by his senses. As time passed, he was able to distinguish objects.” I began also to observe, with greater accuracy, the forms that surrounded me, and to perceive the boundaries of the radiant roof of light which canopied me.” He entered the world alone with no one to guide him or care for him.
The creature was fascinated by nature. “Soon a gentle light stole over the heavens, and gave me a sensation of pleasure. I started up, and beheld a radiant form rise from among the trees.”
He was also fascinated by fire. He was perplexed by the nature of fire. How fire could cause pain yet give out warmth.
The creature also had his first human interactions during this time. He didn’t understand why the villagers ran away from him or chased him out of their villages. He soon realized that he was different than humans, thus he was isolated from humanity.
At the end of the of chapter he discovers the cottagers. The creature is curious about the cottagers. He observes how they can prolong light. He also observes how they are depressed and he doesn’t understand why they were feeling this.
Chpater 12: the creature stays in his “kennel” all winter all this time observing the De Laceys. He observed that the young girl did chores, while the young man was outside. The older man was blind and spent his days playing an instrument. The creature doesn’t understand why they are sad but he does feel sympathy for them. He soon discovers how the De Laceys were poor therefore he stopped stealing from them.” "A considerable period elapsed before I discovered one of the causes of the uneasiness of this amiable family: it was poverty; and they suffered that evil in a very distressing degree.”
He also saw how the young man (Felix) gathered wood for the fire so the creature at night wood gather wood for them.
The creature also discovers language and learns the name of the cottagers, Agatha and Felix.
“"I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers--their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions: but how was I terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool!”
Although he wishes to join and be part of the cottager’s family he can’t.
The creature finally realizes that he’ll always be isolated from humans due to his deformed appearance.
The creature is the kindest, most compassionate character that we have seen in the novel. He behaves unlike a monster would.
The manner in which the monster learns language is unrealistic. He merely observes the De Lacey’s and quickly learns the language. Because the creature is isolated from humanity he is able to see things that humans can’t see. The creature is also unnatural meaning he has heightened senses and abilities that humans do not possess.
I disagree with Cristina and I don't feel the creature learns language realistically.Humans learn language partly from observation but they are also taught. The monster speaks to eloquently to be someone who has learn language by observation. I do agree the the monster possess human qualities and emotions.
ReplyDelete10. Victor becomes angry when he sees his creation. Before he saw the creation, he was sorrowful by the events he had experienced in his hometown. He went from being somber and upset to being angry and hateful. Victor wanted to “trample his creation to dust”. Listening to this part of the novel, I thought about how stupid Victor must be to challenge such an opponent. The creation could have killed Victor in seconds but it did not. In this scene, both characters were angry with one another. Victor wanted to fight his creation to the death, but his creation only wanted to reason with him. Listening to this scene made me question which of these two were acting more “human”.
ReplyDelete11. The creation is alone when it first experiences life. Being able to use the five human senses was a new experience to the creation. It knew nothing of the world and had to learn how to survive on its own. The creation is forced to experience the worst of its new senses feeling cold, hunger, pain, and darkness. The restoration of these feelings gives it pleasure. It finds clothes, fire, food, and a gentle light from the moon which gives him comfort. The moon acts as a guide to the creation on its journey. The creation also finds pleasure from singing birds.
12. The creation did not enter the cottage because it fears attack. The creation describes the sight of the family as beautiful and gentle mannered but notices the family is sad for some reason. Some members of the family are assigned chores and a blind old man plays a guitar. The creature becomes curious to why the family often shows signs of sorrow. The creation is moved by this sadness and by the occasional acts of kindness. The creature likes to see signs of happiness because it gave the creature pleasure. The creature proves itself observant when it figures out what makes the family happy and what makes them sad. The creature proves it has human traits of logic and emotion and acts upon both. I was not surprised by the actions of the creature because I remembered the creation was made to act human. It goes through the same realistic process by which humans go by to learn about people and language. It takes bits of information at a time to master a new skill such as language. The creature starts learning French by first leaning the names of the cottage family and learns terms like fire, milk, bread and wood.
I agree with Mirelys19. The creature acted as a child acts to a new environment. It wants to see everything the new experience has to offer. It also tries to learn and react to the new situation and sees the experience as valuable.
Chapter 10
ReplyDeleteWhen the monster spoke to the first time to Victor, he spoke as an intelligent man. I think Victor was surprised in how the monster turned out to be. Victor feels anger when he faces the monster. He feels this way because the monster did not turn out the way Frankenstein intentionality wanted him to be. The monster tells Victor: "We are going to be tied up until one of us dies" From this I can tell the monster will not be gone for a while and there will be some type of fight between human and monster.
Chapter 11
The creature at first wakes up being lost and trying to figure things out. He awakes being hungry and thirsty. To help his hunger he decides to have some berries. By understanding how to do certain things give the monster pleasure. For example the monster approached a fire and as he came closer it brought pain. But realized this fire brought warmth and was able to heat up food. Also to keep the fire going, the monster figures out that more wood is needed to do such task. The monster sees a family living in a cottage and is able to to see what each one is doing.He spies on this family but as well as learn from their actions.
Chapter 12
The monster notices at first that the cottagers are unhappy even though he thought they were happy. He was able to find out what made them unhappy and that was poverty. The cottagers do a lot of house work for example shoveling snow which made the monster think that he should do that too. Just by observing the family's actions he was able to learn what they were about which was very surprising. Also just by how the family is talking to one another he can pick out what kind of emotion they are and how they feel. Even more the creature was able to learn each of the cottager's names that shows the monster is curious but determined to be educated. he is learning this language they speak and is trying to understand to be able to communicate with people.
I agree with the post by Karolina how the monster came in this world dark and alone. I am proud of him and his ability to be willing to learn even though he has no one to nurture, care, or even love him. He sees that but it isn't happening to him. The way one pictures a monster is not seen yet how this monster is behaving. Karolina is right that he is being seen as a kind and compassionate creature. Just by him being in the village and telling his story make me see the monster as an innocent creature.
ReplyDeleteChapter 10: When I knew the monster and Victor were going to encounter each other, I thought a deadly battle was going to occur. Since the monster had probably been enraged because Victor abandoned him, I thought he would have beaten or even killed Victor. But to my surprise the creature did not want to get violent and only wanted Victor to hear what he had to say. I was surprised by how the monster spoke because I thought he would have spoken like a baby since he was just created.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11: The creature was in pain and so lost because he was not knowledgeable of the world he was brought into. He experienced all the senses, but did not know why he did or what they meant. He left alone and everything was so miserable for him. Then after he sits and weeps he notices the moon that gives him a sense of pleasure. The creature gazed at its appearance and felt pleasure because it enlightened his path and was the form of guidance he had wanted. Since Victor or no other human is present in his life to be a sort of guidance, the moon takes responsibility for this role and leads him to the berries.
Chapter 12: Frankenstein’s creation describes the people as gentle mannered and really wants to approach them, but is scared that they might react the same as the previous villagers he came across. The creature notices the cottager’s way of life and their daily routines. He notices that the young lady usually stays indoors and does chores there while the young man works outdoors. Both of them are very affectionate and gentle with the older man who is blind and just sits around playing his instruments. Even though they were happy most of the time, the creature notices they seemed deeply hurt at other times and would weep. He did not understand the cause of their heartache, but he empathized with them and also felt saddened when they were like that. The creature was very observant and willing to learn about humans and their ways of living life. I never thought he would be so intelligent as to observe people to then learn from them with the hopes of being accepted in their society someday. The creature then figured out that the family was depressed because they lived in poverty and sometimes there was not enough food to eat, so the young cottagers would give sacrifice their food to give it to the older man. Frankenstein’s creation tended to steal a part of their food at night, and since he was touched by the generosity of the young cottagers he decided to not steal their food anymore. He is indeed a human because he feels emotions and learns from his mistakes.
Liz, I completely agree with you on how the creature’s speech was surprising. I never knew he would be so knowledgeable and be so well spoken. He indeed is intelligent and speaks eloquently as you said. I was expecting for him to speak like a baby and maybe make groaning sounds but not to speak in complete reasonable sentences. He understood that Victor had abandoned him and has even decided to take revenge on him and to blackmail him. A baby in no right mind would even think of such a scheme. His actions demonstrate that he is a grown person who has a mind and can think reasonably.