Frankenstein Study Questions - Bibb County Schools

VOCABULARY – INTRODUCTION, PREFACE, LETTERS
1. Dilate – Expand
“…how I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?”
2. Odious - hateful
His success would terrify the artist; he would rush away from his odious handwork, horror-stricken.
3. Progeny – [proj-uh-nee] children, offspring
And now, once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper.
4. Expedient –adj. suitable, practical; noun. a means to an end; resource
It was commenced partly as a source of amusement and partly as an expedient for exercising any untried
resources of mind.
5. Capacious –[kuh-pey-shuhs] spacious, roomy; capable of holding much
I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as a capacious mind, whose
tastes are like my own, to approve or amend my plans.
6. Ardent – passionate, enthusiastic
I am too ardent in execution, and too impatient of difficulties.
7. Emaciated – thin, wasted
His limbs were nearly frozen, and his body dreadfully emaciated by fatigue and suffering.
8. Wretched – miserable
I never saw a man in so wretched a condition.
9. Paroxysm – [păr ək sǐze əm] spasm, convulsion; any sudden, violent outburst; a fit of
violent action or emotion
Such words, you may imagine, strongly excited my curiosity; but the paroxysm of grief that had seized the
stranger overcame his weakened powers…
10. Harrowing – distressing, agonizing
Strange and harrowing must be his story.
VOCABULARY CHAPTERS 1 - 5
1. Oblivion - state of being forgotten
This man, whose name was Beaufort, was of a proud and unbending disposition, and could not bear to live
in poverty and oblivion in the same country where he had formerly been distinguished for his rank and
magnificence,.
2. Rankling – irritating; to continue to cause keen irritation or bitter resentment within the
mind; fester; be painful.
…his grief only became more deep and rankling when he had leisure for reflection, and at length
it took so fast hold of his mind that at the end of three months he lay on a bed of sickness,
incapable of an exertion.
3. Penury – [pen-yuh-ree] extreme poverty
During one of their walks a poor cot in the folding of a vale attracted their notice as being singularly
disconsolate, while the number of half-clothed children gathered about it spoke of penury in its worst
shape.