1. Mary Shelley’s The Power of Reasoning: The Monster The Power of Reasoning: Victor Chapter Summaries Chapters 17-20

2. Mary Shelley’s Chapter Summaries Chapters 17-20 Chapter 17 Creature reasons with Victor to create companion: create life or choose death Creature and companion would disappear and not bother humans again Creature provides additional reasons to coerce Victor to create a female companion Victor returns home Chapter 18 Victor stalls in creating companion Victor looking/feeling healthier; family notices Father wants Victor and Elizabeth to get married. Victor hesitates because it makes him think of creature Victor requests to leave to tour England for two years with Henry Clerval Tour full of Romantic references. Inclusion of Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” Chapter 19 Victor and Clerval tour, but are largely separated Victor leaves Clerval for awhile so that he can complete a task Victor heads to Scottish Orkney Islands to create a lab Foreshadows: Fears meeting persecutor Labours away creating the companion Chapter 20 Catches creature watching him through window Victor vows to stop creating. Creature calls him “slave” Creature curses him, promises revenge Creature threatens, “I will be with you on your wedding night” Clerval sends message for Victor to rejoin him Victor disposes companion in ocean Victor lands in a small Irish town and is accused of murder

3. Mary Shelley’s The Monster – Champion of Reasoning Chapters 17-20 The use of logic and reasoning in this section is almost the opposite of the focus on emotions and nature seen throughout the novel. The Creature spends much of Chapters 11-16 eliciting sympathy from the readers. Have we forgotten what the monster did? Did he convince readers to feel sympathy? Even Victor takes some pity on the monster’s plight and agrees with his argument for a companion What tactics/arguments does the Creature use to convince Victor? “If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear” “we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another” We will go to South America Request is peaceful and human, so don’t be powerful and cruel

4. Mary Shelley’s Victor – Champion of Reasoning Chapters 17-20 Victor quickly has second thoughts about creating the Companion: First creature filled him with “the bitterest remorse” Second creature might be even worse than first and “delight in murder” Companion might not want to move to South America They might not even like one another They might reproduce and create a “race of devils” Upon seeing the Creature watching him, Victor makes the decision to stop his work and destroy what he has done so far – and break his promise… Juxtaposition of EMOTIONS against LOGIC