← Frankenstein

The Characters & Who Says This?

Time to properly meet everyone! Read on in your book now – start the reading timer below. Then match every character to the correct description, match the lines to the right person, read a short newspaper report, and discuss it with a partner.

Emergency card – open only if you could not read the book

Were you ill last lesson? Did you not manage to read? Or was the text too difficult to understand on your own? Use these character profiles instead – but try to read the real book as soon as you can.

Victor Frankenstein is a clever young man from a rich family in Geneva, Switzerland. As a student in Ingolstadt he becomes obsessed with one question: can a human being create life? He works alone, day and night, and finally builds a living creature out of dead body parts. But the moment it moves, he is filled with horror and runs away. For the rest of his life he is full of guilt and fear.

The Creature is made by Victor, but it has no name. It is very tall and strong, and people find its face horrible. Yet inside it is gentle and intelligent: it teaches itself to speak and to read. All it really wants is a friend. Because everyone runs away from it, it becomes more and more lonely – and finally dangerous.

Robert Walton is an explorer who sails towards the North Pole. He finds the sick Victor on the ice and writes the whole story down in letters to his sister. Elizabeth Lavenza grew up with Victor and becomes his fiancée. Henry Clerval is Victor's kind and loyal best friend. William is Victor's little brother, and Justine Moritz is a young servant in the family. Near a forest, the poor but friendly De Lacey family live in a small cottage – without knowing it, they become the creature's “teachers”.

Task 1: Match the characters

Your turn (writing)

Choose one character. Write 4–5 sentences about this person:

Task 2: Who says this?

Each line is said or thought by one character. Match every line to the right person and click Check.

Task 3: A newspaper report

Spoiler warning: only read this article once you have read at least up to page 56 in your book. If you have not read that far yet, stop here and keep reading first – otherwise this task will spoil what happens next!

Read this short report from a (made-up) newspaper. You can also listen to it.

THE GENEVA TIMES
Geneva · early 19th century

Young boy found dead near the lake

By our local reporter

A great shock has hit one of our best-known families. Yesterday morning, young William Frankenstein was found dead near Lake Geneva. The little boy had been strangled during the night. The whole town is in tears.

The family servant, a young woman named Justine Moritz, has been arrested. A small picture that belonged to the boy was found in her pocket. Justine says she is innocent, but few people believe her. The boy's older brother, Victor Frankenstein, has returned home and looks pale and full of fear. He seems to know more than he says — but he stays silent.

Task 4: Talk & write (partner work)

Work with a partner. Talk about these questions, then write down your ideas:

Task 5: Grammar review – Word families

Many words about the story belong to a "family" with the same root but different endings. Fill in the correct word form.

Tip: Word families

Words with the same root can be different word classes: a noun, a verb, an adjective … e.g. science → scientist → scientific. Read the sentence carefully to see which word class fits the gap.

Still unsure? Go back to Word Families in our Klasse 9 folder and practise it again.