501 Critical Reading Questions

a. The context reveals that Frankenstein was prepared for a multi-
tude of reverses or setbacks that would hinder his operations.
292.
e. Frankenstein describes himself as pursuing his undertaking with
unremitting ardour and that his cheek had grown pale with study, and
[his] person had become emaciated with confinement (lines 45–47). He
also says that a resistless, and almost frantic, impulse urged me for-
ward; I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit
(lines 56–58). These are the marks of a man obsessed.
293.
b. Moreau states in lines 22–24 that this extraordinary branch of knowl-
edge has never been sought as an end, [ . . . ] until I took it up!, and in
lines 28–30, he states that he was the first man to take up this ques-
tion armed with antiseptic surgery, and with a really scientific knowledge
501
Critical Reading Questions
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of the laws of growth. This, and the detail with which he explains
the background of his investigations, reveal that he is a calculating
and systematic scientist. (Although he confesses that he chose the
human form by chance (line 45), it is likely that Moreau did not just
happen upon this choice but that he found the human form, as he
later states, more appealing to the artistic turn of mind [ . . . ] than
any animal shape (lines 48–49).
294.
d. Right after he says these things, the narrator says these animals to
clarify that he is referring to the creatures that Moreau created.
An additional context clue is provided by Moreau’s response, in
which he explains how animals may be educated so that they 
may talk.
295.
b. The narrator asks Moreau to justify all this pain (line 54), implying
that he has inflicted great pain on the animals he has used in his
experiments.
296.
c. Both men make remarkable discoveries in their fields; in the other
aspects the men are different. Dr. Moreau uses live animals to
change their form, and there is no evidence in the passage that he
wants his creatures to worship him or that he has kept his experi-
ment a secret (though these facts are evident in other passages in
the book). Passage 2 also suggests that Moreau did not have a spe-
cific application or justification for his work; he responds to the
narrator’s request for a justification by philosophizing about pain.
297.
a. Frankenstein confesses that he was horrified by the torture of
living animals that that he trembled just remembering the pain
he inflicted (lines 52–55). He also characterizes himself as having
lost all soul or sensation (line 57) in his quest. In addition, he is
telling this tale as a warning. Thus it is likely that he would be
most offended by Moreau’s indifference to the suffering of other
creatures.
298.
b. In lines 29–35, Frankenstein cites specific goals for his pursuit of
knowledge: he wanted to pour a torrent of light into our dark world
by making important new discoveries; he wanted to create a new
species that would bless [him] as its creator and source; and he wanted
to renew life. Moreau, on the other hand, does not offer any appli-
cation or justification; he seems motivated only by the acquisition
of knowledge. He states that he has devoted his life to the study of
the plasticity of living forms (lines 2–3) and seems more interested in
what science has to teach (lines 65–66) than in what can be done with
that knowledge. This is reinforced by the fact that he does not
offer a justification for his experiments.
1 5 4
501