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Summary Notes of Chapter 2 of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
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Summary Notes of Chapter 2 of Frankenstein. Includes summary of events, key sections of analysis and links to The Handmaid's Tale.
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Frankenstein Volume 1 Chapter 2Victor describes his perfect childhood. He and Elizabeth got along perfectly, though she favoured poetry while he longed to
unravel the "physical secrets" of life, including the "hidden laws of nature." In addition to Elizabeth, Victor shares a close
friendship with Henry Clerval, his well-read schoolmate. Like Victor, Clerval possesses a "soaring ambition" to leave his mark
on human history. As he grows up, Victor becomes fascinated with "natural philosophy," and reads widely among the
thinkers in this field who want to penetrate the "citadel of nature." One day, when Victor observes lightning strike a tree, he
realizes that the laws of science are beyond human understanding and decides to focus on studies based in fact, like
mathematics, rather than natural philosophy. Yet he notes that he eventually returned to it, leading to his "utter and
terrible destruction
Themes and Quotes Links to HT
Themes – highlight themes and add a quote for each that
are present.
Social status/class
Loneliness and Isolation
Violence
Language and Power
Playing God
Relationships and family
Treatment of women
Science
Mankind and nature
Victims
Warnings
Social status/class- Victor admits the easiness of his
childhood ‘No human being could have passed a
happier childhood than myself’, which is all the more
emphasised by his dramatic use of hyperbole, as
Shelley uses the adverb ‘no’ in the line ‘no human
being’ to suggest the extent to which his childhood
was impossibly happy. The main reason for this being
his company, but it is also most likely that this was
due to the class of his family, and his ability to receive
a good education in order to fuel his ‘thirst for
knowledge’, without which he would never go on to
create the creauture.
Loneliness and isolation- Parallels can already be
made between the characters of Victor and Walton in
their isolation, however there is a suggestion that
Victor choses to isolate himself from the presence of
others, ‘It was my temper to avoid a crowd, and
attach myself fervently to a few’. However, there is a
suggestion that by having few close bonds with
people, means that the bonds that you do have are
much more significant, as Shelley suggests through
the use of the adective ‘fervently’
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