Question

What viewpoint on men and women does Victor's description of Elizabeth reflect in the passage from Frankenstein?

Answer 1

B. Women are less interested in concrete ideas than men are.

Evidence: "I delighted in investigating the facts relative to the actual world; she busied herself in following the aerial creations of the poets."

Answer 2

The correct answer is: B.Women are less interested in concrete ideas than men are.

Indeed, Elizabeth Frankenstein, née Lavenza represents the Romantic part of the couple. She is more interested in the contemplation of nature and focuses on the Sublime and on the nature of love. Victor Frankenstein represents the more rational, Classicist part of the couple. He can perceive the beauty and the grandeur of nature but wished to understand and master its innermost causes. The following excerpt proves such assessment:

“She busied herself with following the aerial creations of the poets; and in the majestic and wondrous scenes which surrounded our Swiss home —the sublime shapes of the mountains, the changes of the seasons, tempest and calm, the silence of winter, and the life and turbulence of our Alpine summers—she found ample scope for admiration and delight. While my companion contemplated with a serious and satisfied spirit the magnificent appearances of things, I delighted in investigating their causes. The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine. Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember.”