UNIT TEST STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS 

Frankenstein, 

by Mary Shelley 

English III-1, Mrs. Edmonds and Mr. Oakley 

People (both fictional and real-life) you should know from 

Frankenstein

: 



Victor Frankenstein: creator of the creature and protagonist of the story 



Henry Clerval: Frankenstein's best friend who is murdered by the creature 



Elizabeth Lavenza: lived with Frankenstein family; married Victor 



Robert Walton: explorer who met Frankenstein on the Arctic ice 



Margaret Saville: recipient of a series of letters from her brother, Robert Walton 



Justine Moritz: wrongly executed for the murder of young William Frankenstein 



Percy Shelley: famous real-life British poet and 

Frankenstein

 author’s husband 



Felix De Lacey: unknowingly taught the creature to read and write 



Alphonse Frankenstein: died of grief in his son's arms after learning that Elizabeth was dead 



Caroline Beaufort: Frankenstein family matriarch; Victor Frankenstein’s mother 



Mary Shelley: real-life author of the novel 

Frankenstein

; she wrote the story while on vacation with 

Percy Shelley (her husband) and Lord Byron (her friend) while on vacation in Switzerland; both Percy 
Shelley and Lord Byron became world-famous British poets. 



William Frankenstein: a young boy who was the creature's first victim 

For the test, be prepared to write an essay to a question similar to the prompt below. We will discuss 
possible answers in class. 

Describe the original personality of Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s creature, and the changes that occurred to 

the creature’s personality over the course of the novel. 

In coming up with an answer, you might want to address the following questions: What was the creature 

like when he was first “born”? How did he change and why did he change? What was the creature like at the 
end of the novel? Be sure to mention the name of the novel and the name of the author somewhere in your 
answer. Also, you should give an example of an incident from the novel as an example that backs up your 
answer. 
 
 

While reading and studying 

Frankenstein

 over the last few weeks, each student filled out answers to a 

Study Guide. Use the Study Guide to study for the test. If you lost your Study Guide, it appears below, 
complete with the answers to all of the questions: 

Introduction, Preface, Letters 

1. Why did Mary Shelley write Frankenstein? 
She wrote it as a response to a challenge to a contest by Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley, to think of 
a horror story. Whoever wrote the best story would be declared the winner. 
 
2. What discussions influenced the development of her idea? 
She was listening to her husband, Shelley, and Lord Byron talk about the nature of life, and the 
possibility of creating a creature. 
 
3. In the preface, what does the author say she is trying to preserve? 
She is trying to “preserve the truth of the elementary principles of human nature.”