Name: Date: Class #:
Writing Workshop: Frankenstein Promethean Traits Literary Analysis
LITERARY ANALYSIS RULES
- Must be written in ______tense.
- Must be written in ______person.
- May NOT use: I, me, we, us, you, your, you’re
PRACTICE WRITING PROMPT: In a well-developed extended response, using specific textual evidence, explain and analyze why Robert Walton reveals his Promethean ambitions to Victor Frankenstein.
SELECTING & ABRIDGING EVIDENCE
PASSAGE #1: “But I have one want which I have never yet been able to satisfy; and the absence of the object of which I now feel as a most severe evil. I have no friend, Margaret: when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate my joy; if I am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavour to sustain me in dejection. I shall commit my thoughts to paper, it is true; but that is a poor medium for the communication of feeling. I desire the company of a man who could sympathise with me; whose eyes would reply to mine.”
PASSAGE #2: “My affection for my guest increases every day. He excites at once my admiration and my pity to an astonishing degree. How can I see so noble a creature destroyed by misery, without feeling the most poignant grief? He is so gentle, yet so wise; his mind is so cultivated, and when he speaks, although his words are culled with the choicest art, yet they flow with rapidity and unparalleled eloquence.”
PASSAGE #3: “I was easily led by the sympathy which he evinced, to use the language of my heart, to give utterance to the burning ardour of my soul; and to say, with all the fevour that warmed me, how gladly I would sacrifice my fortune, my existence, my every hope, to the furtherance of my enterprise. One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race.”
PASSAGE #4: “Sometimes I have endeavored to discover what quality it is which he possesses, that elevates him so immeasurably above any other person I ever knew. I believe it to be an intuitive discernment; a quick but never-failing power of judgment; a penetration into the causes of things, unequalled for clearness and precision; add to this a facility of expression, and a voice whose varied intonations are soul-subduing music.”
Sample Extended Response
Just as Prometheus suffered isolation and punishment for his actions, any follower of the “thief of fire” is also destined for a life of solitary despair. After pursuing his own promethean quest for years, Robert Walton struggles with the solitary confinement of his mind, body, and soul. His promethean ambitions have isolated him. He is lonely and desperately desires a friend who will understand and appreciate his journey; he believes he has found that friend in Victor Frankenstein.
Although Robert Walton is completely committed to his ambitions, he has come to feel that the quest alone is not enough, and he longs for a friend and companion. Walton confesses in a letter written to his sister that his “one want” is to “have [a] friend” who will “sympathize” with him (19). As a Promethean, Walton believes that the only friend who can ever fully understand his heart is one who shares his passions and thirst for knowledge of the secrets of the universe. The journey he is on is a solitary one, and he is desperate to be understood by a friend who can see into his heart and share the journey, the joys, and the sorrows with him. As Walton continues his letter, he indicates that although he is surrounded by shipmates, he does not believe that he will ever find such a friend “among merchants and seamen” (20). The sailors on board his ship simply do not meet his intellectual or cultural standards. They are not fellow prometheans, and he does not believe any of them possess the appropriate mind or ambitions to understand his quest.
WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
Using ONLY the given evidence above, COMPLETE THE EXTENDED RESPONSE
WRITE: 2nd Body Paragraph AND Conclusion Paragraph
Remember: Topic Sentence (Claim Supporting Thesis); Context, Integrated Evidence; Analysis
(attach additional sheets if needed)