Lesson 4 After reading: Chapters 1 & 2 Victor's Early Life

CH 1. Class close reading and note taking / discussion of the first chapter. Key questions:

• What do you make of the rather unusual way Victor’s parents got together?
• How far are you convinced by Victor’s description of an idyllic childhood – what might be suggested by the image of the ‘silken cord’?
• How are Caroline (with her ‘soft and benevolent mind’) and Elizabeth (‘my more than sister’) presented in this chapter?
• Why might Mary Shelley have given such an emphasis to describing Victor’s family? (note that this is a novel very concerned with parental responsibility).

CH2. Close focus on the passage from the description of the lightning strike on the tree to the end of the chapter. Consider symbolism of lightning – what might it represent (fate, violent nature, electricity…?) Begin process of cataloguing recurring symbols in the novel (e.g. fire, lightning, light, books) in notes. 


You should consider the polysemy of symbols, that they can represent more than one concept.