¶ … monster recalls his "birth," and tells Victor about how he learned to survive out in the world. His recollections are touched with innocence but also with something of that which is fallen in human nature. As he meets people, he finds that they all run away from him because of his ugliness. He finds a shack and spies on its occupants.
The occupants of this shack are not very happy: they are a young man and woman and an elderly man. They are poor like the monster, who is contributing to their problems by taking their food. The monster has a conscience, feels sorry for making their condition worse, and tries to improve it by bringing them firewood. From them he learns how to speak by mimicking the sounds they make. He also admires their grace and form while being shocked at the sight of his own misshapen nature.
When Safie arrives at the cottage, the young man begins to teach her the native language, which the monster learns as well, from his secret hideaway. He learns the history of civilizations by listening to the young man -- but this knowledge only adds to his loneliness and isolation. The monster also learns the history of the occupants -- how Safie was a Turk who was raised a Christian by her mother and how her father was imprisoned and how the young man Felix came to see him and that is how he met Safie. Felix is obviously in love with Safie, for her arrival has uplifted the mood of the cottage.
The monster also discovers books in the woods and identifies with Milton's Paradise Lost. He also finds his creator's journal and reads about his own origins and his creator's disgust at the monster's "birth." The monster tries to befriend the old blind man in the cottage but Felix comes in and drives the...
Pick 2-3 quotes:
In the last paragraph of chapter 15: "Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung, in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick." The monster has already said he identified with Paradise Lost and here Felix is acting like Milton's Son of God, throwing Lucifer out of Paradise.
From the middle of chapter 15: "I remembered Adam's supplication to his Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him." The monster is assuming the role of the fallen from Milton's Paradise Lost, and his creator Victor Frankenstein is like Milton's scornful God.
3a. Identify confusing points about the reading:
The part where Felix beats the monster at the end of chapter 15: clearly the monster is kneeling before blind man and not showing signs of menace. Why should Felix become so violent -- just because the monster is deformed? This seems rather unbelievable, for Felix appears to be more cultured and sensitive than that. Therefore, this section is a little confusing.
3b. Identify things that may have deeper meaning:
The reading of Paradise Lost by the monster: the monster identifies with the book in which Satan is the hero and the Creator the anti-hero. The relationship between the monster and Frankenstein is a parallel that reflects one of the theme's of Milton's poem.
4. Devise 3 thought-provoking, higher-level questions:
1) How does an understanding of Paradise Lost help to deepen one's understanding of Frankenstein? 2) Why does the monster feel the need for human connection?…
