E8

1. Study Questions on Shelley’s “A Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45123

1). What is the “unseen Power” mentioned in l.1? How does the remainder of the first stanza try to explain this power?

2). What is the difference between the “ghosts” (l.49) and the “poisonous names”(l.53) that the speaker says he once sought, and the “Loveliness”(l.71) to which he now says he will “dedicate my powers”(l.61)?

3). The title of the poem is “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty.” What do you think is meant by “intellectual beauty”? Why would Shelley write a “hymn” to this sort of beauty?

2. Study Questions on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1)

http://www.planetebook.com/ebooks/Frankenstein.pdf

[Note: To answer the questions about Marilyn Butler, you need to read both the introduction and the appendixes.]

1). Why does Marilyn Butler think that the 1818 edition of Frankenstein is superior to the 1831 edition?

2). What does Butler argue is the significance of science in the 1818 edition of Frankenstein?

3). Why does Frankenstein want to create life?

3. Study Questions on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (2)

http://www.planetebook.com/ebooks/Frankenstein.pdf

1). In addition to learning language, what does the creature that Frankenstein has created learn in the time that he spends observing DeLacey, Felix, Agatha, and Safie? Why does what he has learned lead him to believe that he can interact with them?

2). Why, specifically, does the creature not kill Frankenstein?

3). Does the novel seem to you to want us to sympathize with the creature? Why or why not?