Frankenstein Read along notes Chapters 1-3 and letters

Frankenstein read along notes. Letter 1 To Mrs Margaret Saville From Brother R Walton Has arrived safely in Petersburg and traveling in exploration on to the north pole hoping to discover some wondrous country of the eternal sun and why all compass needles point there. Despite an early obsession with exploration, the final wish of his father was to ban him from entering the a seafaring profession so became a poet. Failed Then gained an inheritance from cousin and hence started to train for this expedition. Letter 2 To Mrs Margaret Saville From Brother R Walton R Walton has arrived in the port town of Archangel where he had hired a ship and is putting together a crew. He is feeling the loneliness of his position not just in this town but throughout his life. He is lamenting his lack of a single friend to just look in the eye and see his own views reflected back at him. He goes on to tell his sister about one of the men that he has hired but does not go so far as to say that this man could be a friend. Its seems that he deems him unworthy of his station. Robert worries that they have delayed by the harsh winter but is confident of starting in spring and having much success in his voyage to the “mists and snow”. Letter 3 To Mrs Margaret Saville From Brother R Walton Roger is on his way from archangel and all has passed without incident so far. Letter 4 To Mrs Margaret Saville From Brother R Walton Roger recounts an incident when the ship was locked in ice suddenly surrounded by fog. As the fog cleared they saw that they were locked into the ice in irregular sheets all around. They saw, in the distance a giant of a man in a sled with dogs. This man passes over the horizon and soon the ice begins to break up. The next day they find a man in a wretched way on a sled with only one live dog and take him aboard ship. Roger tells his sister that this stranger could have been his friend and he now considers him a brother. He was pursuing the demon they saw. The stranger is obviously haunted and asks Roger if he too is haunted by the same madness in pursuing his quest with a single mindedness as he has. The stranger agrees with Robert that a friend/ship is the most noble of callings but he himself is beyond hope of that. However Robert still holds him in the high esteem and waxes lyrical about his qualities that lead him to it. The stranger agrees to tell Roger his story of woe on the chance that he can be prevented from following the same path. Chapter 1 He is of Genevese of a well to do family. His father was late to marriage and children. His father’s dearest friend became low and removed himself and his daughter to a small town called Lucerne where his father finally found him dead and placed the daughter in the care of a relation. Two year later he married her. The age difference was great but so was the love which extended to him the first born son. His mother did charitable works with the poor, remembering how horrid it was for her. In these endeavors she found Elizabeth Lavenza who became his “more than sister” The night before they bring her into their home his mother tells him “I have a pretty present for you my Victor” and this is how we find out the stranger’s name, through the speech of his mother. He thought she truly was his “my more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only.” Chapter 2 Victor and Elizabeth were less than a year apart and acted much like siblings. When the second son was born (7 yrs his junior) victor’s parents settled down and got a home in Geneva. Victor was a loner with one true friend Henry Clerval. He had a burning passion for learning the secrets of nature and one rainy day where being outside was not an option, came across a book that described alchemy (i assume) which his father discounted as trash. Victor becomes obsessed with the elixir of life, attributing all his failures to fults with his executions and not with the fundamental problems with alchemy. Then during a particularly violent thunderstorm, he witnesses and oak tree destroyed by lightning and finds and interest in electricity and galvanism. Chapter 3 Victor is now 17 and is being sent to university. This is when Elizabeth contracts red fever and their mother, against advice goes to tend to her and also comes down with the fever and dies. Her deathbed request is for Victor and Elizabeth to wed and for Elizabeth to replace her as mother to the younger children. Victor still left for university and regretted the loss of all that was familiar. Henry was not allowed to go as his father looked upon it as a trivial pursuit. The day after his arrival he was introducing himself to the professors and met M. Krempe, professor of natural philosophy. He derided Victors study of the alchemists and sent him on his way with a list of the books he will need to study. Victor ignored his advice. He soon attended professor M. Waldman’s lectures and finds his passion for the new sciences restored and leaves with a new list of books and a promise of the use of the professors equipment.