Frankenstein
Before Reading 5 T
ACTIVITIES ANSWERS
BEFORE READING ACTIVITIES (PAGE 60)
ACTIVITY 1 BEFORE READING
Victor Frankenstein is a scientist. He takes parts from
dead people and builds a new man with them. This
huge and ugly monster needs love, but nobody cares
about him, and so he soon learns to hate. Because he
is unhappy, he turns against the man who created him,
and destroys everything that Frankenstein loves.
ACTIVITY 2 BEFORE READING
There are some clues (like a father, no family or
friends, born, loved ones), but it is not important
that students guess correctly, and you should not
tell them the answers. Encourage students to notice
that some of the remarks are quite similar, and that
it is not just a case of a ‘good’ man versus an ‘evil’
monster.
1 Victor Frankenstein
2 The monster
3 The monster
4 The monster
5 Victor Frankenstein
6 Victor Frankenstein
7 The monster
8 The monster
While Reading
CHAPTER 1 WHILE READING
Open answers. Encourage students to speculate
and to make guesses, but do not confirm students’
guesses at this stage. The answers are:
1 Yes.
2 Because Victor Frankenstein (who was on the second
sledge) wanted to catch and kill the monster.
3 The ‘huge figure’ (the monster) has not gone far; he
is waiting near Captain Walton’s ship, to see what
happens to his creator.
4 Yes.
CHAPTERS 2 TO 4 WHILE READING
1 F Mrs Frankenstein was not Elizabeth’s real
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mother.
2 T
3 F Victor’s mother hoped that he would marry
Elizabeth.
4 F Victor went to university alone.
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STAGE 3
6 F He did not want anybody to know the secret of
his machine.
7 F He was very frightened of the creature that he
had made.
BEFORE READING CHAPTER 5
Encourage speculation. Do not confirm or reject
suggestions at this stage. The ‘yes’ answer is 3.
CHAPTERS 5 AND 6 WHILE READING
1+10 William was murdered while he and Ernest were
playing in the countryside.
2+14 At the time, William was wearing a gold chain,
which Elizabeth had lent him.
3+8 When Victor saw the monster at the scene of
the crime, he knew at once who had killed
William.
4+13 Victor tried to catch the murderer, but the
monster could run much faster than any man.
5+11 The police thought Justine had killed William,
so they arrested her and put her on trial.
6+12 Because everyone hated him, the monster was
the unhappiest creature in the world.
7+9 Victor realized he had given the monster life,
but he had not given him love.
CHAPTERS 7 TO 9 WHILE READING
1 What . . .? They shouted, screamed, ran away, or
threw stones at him.
2 How . . .? He cut firewood for them.
3 How . . .? He listened to Felix and his family
talking, and also learned by listening to Felix
teaching Sophie.
4 What . . .? He wanted him to understand that he was
a kind creature, and not a monster.
5 Who . . .? The father of the girl that the monster
rescued from the river.
6 Who . . .? The monster.
7 What . . .? He put it into Justine’s pocket.
BEFORE READING CHAPTER 10
Open answers. Encourage speculation, and ask for
students’ own opinions, e.g. What should Victor
do? What would you do if you were Victor, and
why? In fact, number 2 is what happens, but do not
tell students this.
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CHAPTERS 10 TO 12 WHILE READING
1 Victor Frankenstein to the monster, who has caused
the deaths of William and Justine, but who is now
asking for a woman monster to share his life.
2 The monster to Victor Frankenstein, promising to be
good if Victor makes a woman companion for him.
3 Victor’s father to Victor, asking him if he loves
another woman, not Elizabeth.
4 The monster to Victor, after Victor had destroyed
the woman monster.
5 Victor to the dead Henry Clerval, realizing that a
third person was now dead because of the monster
that he had created.
6 Elizabeth to Victor, explaining that Victor need not
marry her if he didn’t want to.
BEFORE READING CHAPTER 13
Open answers. Encourage speculation. In fact, the
monster kills Elizabeth on her wedding night, but
do not confirm this answer if students choose it.
CHAPTERS 13 TO 15 WHILE READING
1 Because he was afraid the monster would go there
and kill the rest of his family.
2 In order to find and destroy the monster.
3 To make Victor feel as much pain and misery as he,
the monster, has felt.
4 To chase the monster and kill him.
5 He planned to build a great fire, and lie down on it
to die.
After Reading
ACTIVITY 1 AFTER READING
Any appropriate answers are acceptable. Suggested
answers:
F AT H ER : My boy, you were wrong to hit that poor man.
F EL IX : But he was going to kill us, father!
F AT H ER : Kill us? Why do you think that?
F AT H ER : What! Leave our home! Why should we do
that?
F EL IX : Because I’m afraid the monster will come back,
and next time, he’ll murder us all.
F AT H ER : Well, I thought he was just an unhappy, lonely
man, not a murderer. But if you say we must go,
ACTIVITIES ANSWERS
then we’ll go.
ACTIVITY 2 AFTER READING
I was so happy when Frankenstein agreed to create a
woman monster for me! With a wife, I would never
be lonely again, or want to hurt anybody. I wanted
to be sure that Frankenstein would keep his promise,
so I followed him to England, and then to a Scottish
island. He built his laboratory and a tall mast above it,
which would bring the electricity from lightning down
to his machine. Then he built a huge woman from
parts of human bodies, and I waited happily to see her
come alive.
But one night he saw my face in the moonlight out-
side the window. Suddenly he pulled off the wires that
joined her to the machine, took a sharp knife and cut
through her body. In one moment, he destroyed my
wife, and all my hopes of happiness.
I cannot forgive him for this. He has broken his
promise to me, and I shall make him sorry that he was
ever born. I know just how to do it . . .
ACTIVITY 3 AFTER READING
These antonyms are not precise, and sometimes
more than one answer is possible.
create destroy
evil good, kind
miserable happy, cheerful
sadness happiness, joy
horrible nice, pleasant ugly beautiful, pretty, lovely
ACTIVITY 4 AFTER READING
1+12 2+15 3+11 4+14 5+10 6+18 7+17
8+16 9+13
My dear Elizabeth,
You will be happy to hear that Victor and I are now
F EL IX : You didn’t see him – his face was evil.
F AT H ER : The poor man can’t change his face, Felix.
And he didn’t sound evil to me.
F EL IX : What did he talk about? What did he want?
F AT H ER : He talked about kindness and love. And he
asked for my help because he wanted us to be his
friends.
F EL IX : Friends? He was a monster – you can’t be
friends with a monster.
F AT H ER : Perhaps he looked like a monster, Felix, but
that doesn’t mean he had an evil heart.
FELIX : I’m sure he was evil, and that he wanted to kill us.
F AT H ER : But you hit him first – and he didn’t fight
back.
F EL IX : That’s because I had a stick and he didn’t.
F AT H ER : But was it fair to hit him with your stick?
F EL IX : Well, I think I did the right thing. And now we
must pack our things and leave the house tonight.
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ONOURWAYBACKTO'ENEVAso you will be able to see
him very soon. When he gets home, he will need your
loving care because he has been very ill. His illness
was like a kind of madness, which made him cry out
in his sleep that he was the murderer of poor William,
Justine and Henry. I couldn’t understand why he said
these things, and I think he is keeping a secret from
me. He won’t tell me what it is, but perhaps he will
tell you.
There is one last thing I want to say, Elizabeth,
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before we arrive home. Although I have always wanted
you two to marry, I want you to be sure that Victor
really loves you. Perhaps he loves another woman and
this is why he is so unhappy. But whatever happens,
Elizabeth, remember that you will always be my dear
daughter.
Your loving ‘father’
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 ACTIVITY 5 AFTER READING
Open answers. Encourage discussion of the issues
raised by the story, and point out how relevant they
are to us today.
PROJECT WORK AFTER READING
If appropriate, and if suitable resources are
ACTIVITIES ANSWERS

available, students might like to collect information

about some of the scientific debates of today;
for example, using animal organs for transplants
into humans, or prolonging a sick person’s life by
means of machines. They could then write up the
information into short articles for a ‘Frankenstein’
class newsletter.
ACTIVITY 6 AFTER READING
Open answers. Encourage students to discuss the
ambiguity of the title, and to give their opinions on
the purpose of titles in general.
ACTIVITY 7 AFTER READING
Open answers. Encourage students to point out
which titles are relevant or not relevant, which are
informative, which ambiguous, and so on. Students
could also be asked for their own ideas of suitable
titles.
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