I didn’t have specific essay topic jump out at me for Frankenstein, but I did want to share my journal notes.
I had to look up many words in this book. While I thought I could figure out the gist of word, I am sticking to my goal of actually looking up words this year.
· Chimerical: existing only as the product of unchecked imagination; fantastically visionary or improbable; given to fantastic schemes.
· Charnel: a building or chamber in which bodies or bones are deposited; also called a charnel house.
· Portmanteau: a large suitcase that opens into two parts.
· Succor: something that you do or give to help someone who is suffering or in a difficult situation.
· Sanguinary: blood thirsty.
· Contemn: to view or treat with contempt; scorn.
· Assize: a judicial inquest.
· Futurity: the quality of being or happening in the future.
· Chamois: a small animal that looks like a goat and that lives on the mountains in Europe and western Asia. (I’m not sure if I can wash my car again! I had no idea the original chamois actually came from a goat like creature!)
I noted that Frankenstein wouldn’t listen to his first mentor at the university who told him to give up alchemy. He then changed mentors to find one who would let him study what he wanted. I don’t know what to think about this. On one hand finding the right mentor is important. But his first mentor was on the right track in the end. Meddling with nature can be very wrong. It is one of the many things in the book that left me unsettled.
The slow destruction of Frankenstein, how he became sick, sallow and withering away from the guilt, reminded me of Arthur Dimmesdale from The Scarlet Letter. He too was so overcome with guilt that it tore him apart.
Finally, in the end I thought that Frankenstein asked too much of Walton when he asked him to continue his journey to kill the monster. The monster had destroyed him and his family and now he was asking a stranger to take that on. Luckily the monster said he would kill himself which enabled Walton to not have to do it.
I had to look up many words in this book. While I thought I could figure out the gist of word, I am sticking to my goal of actually looking up words this year.
· Chimerical: existing only as the product of unchecked imagination; fantastically visionary or improbable; given to fantastic schemes.
· Charnel: a building or chamber in which bodies or bones are deposited; also called a charnel house.
· Portmanteau: a large suitcase that opens into two parts.
· Succor: something that you do or give to help someone who is suffering or in a difficult situation.
· Sanguinary: blood thirsty.
· Contemn: to view or treat with contempt; scorn.
· Assize: a judicial inquest.
· Futurity: the quality of being or happening in the future.
· Chamois: a small animal that looks like a goat and that lives on the mountains in Europe and western Asia. (I’m not sure if I can wash my car again! I had no idea the original chamois actually came from a goat like creature!)
I noted that Frankenstein wouldn’t listen to his first mentor at the university who told him to give up alchemy. He then changed mentors to find one who would let him study what he wanted. I don’t know what to think about this. On one hand finding the right mentor is important. But his first mentor was on the right track in the end. Meddling with nature can be very wrong. It is one of the many things in the book that left me unsettled.
The slow destruction of Frankenstein, how he became sick, sallow and withering away from the guilt, reminded me of Arthur Dimmesdale from The Scarlet Letter. He too was so overcome with guilt that it tore him apart.
Finally, in the end I thought that Frankenstein asked too much of Walton when he asked him to continue his journey to kill the monster. The monster had destroyed him and his family and now he was asking a stranger to take that on. Luckily the monster said he would kill himself which enabled Walton to not have to do it.
RSS Feed