Question

Frankenstein Chapter 2, Excerpt

By Mary Shelley
Victor Frankenstein recounts the influences that lead to his great experiment:

When I was thirteen years of age we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon; the inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day confined to the inn. In this house I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened it with apathy; the theory which he attempts to demonstrate and the wonderful facts which he relates soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm. A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind, and bounding with joy, I communicated my discovery to my father. My father looked carelessly at the title page of my book and said, "Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash."

If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded and that a modern system of science had been introduced which possessed much greater powers than the ancient, because the powers of the latter were chimerical, while those of the former were real and practical, under such circumstances I should certainly have thrown Agrippa aside and have contented my imagination, warmed as it was, by returning with greater ardour to my former studies. It is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin. But the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no means assured me that he was acquainted with its contents, and I continued to read with the greatest avidity. When I returned home my first care was to procure the whole works of this author, and afterwards of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. I read and studied the wild fancies of these writers with delight; they appeared to me treasures known to few besides myself. I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature. In spite of the intense labour and wonderful discoveries of modern philosophers, I always came from my studies discontented and unsatisfied. Sir Isaac Newton is said to have avowed that he felt like a child picking up shells beside the great and unexplored ocean of truth. Those of his successors in each branch of natural philosophy with whom I was acquainted appeared even to my boy's apprehensions as tyros engaged in the same pursuit.

Under the guidance of my new preceptors I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life; but the latter soon obtained my undivided attention. Wealth was an inferior object, but what glory would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!

Read this line from the text:

Wealth was an inferior object, but what glory would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!

Which words from this text help develop the theme of pride? (5 points)

What glory would attend the discovery
Human frame
To any but a violent death
Render man invulnerable

Answer 1

The phrases 'What glory would attend the discovery' and 'Render man invulnerable' in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein emphasize Victor's pride, capturing his ambition for glory over wealth and his wish to defy natural mortality.

Step-by-step explanation:

The words in the text from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein that help develop the theme of pride are "What glory would attend the discovery" and "Render man invulnerable." These phrases reflect Victor Frankenstein's tremendous pride and ambition. He is not primarily motivated by wealth but by the immense glory he anticipates receiving from making a significant scientific breakthrough, one that could potentially make humans immune to natural causes of death. This high regard for personal glory and the desire to conquer nature's limitations are central to the novel's exploration of excessive pride.

Answer 2

The correct answer is A. What glory would attend the discovery. Victor begins his sentence very symptomatically: he disregards wealth but embraces the thought of glory, putting it before the noble tasks of exterminating illness and death. This is his ultimate sin; this is why Shelley calls him "The Modern Prometheus" in the novel's title. His mission's objective is to find a cure for human misery caused by mortality; but its subject is Victor Frankenstein himself.