Vocabulary - Frankenstein Chapters 6-9
Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Contextual Clues
Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence. Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think the underlined words mean in the space provided.

  1. He looks upon study as an odious fetter; his time is spent in the open air, climbing the hills or rowing on the lake.
  2. The blue lake, the snow-clad mountains, they never change; and I think our placid home, and our contented hears are regulated by the same immutable laws.
  3. The poor woman was very vacillating in her repentance.
  4. We passed a fortnight in these perambulations: my health and spirits had long been restored, and they gained additional strength from the salubrious air I breathed, the natural incidents of our progress, and the conversation of my friend.
  5. Alas! I had turned loose into the world a depraved wretch, whose delight was in carnage and misery; had he not murdered my bother?
  6. Justine also was a girl of merit, and possessed qualities which promised to render her life happy: now all was to be obliterated in an ignominious grave; and I the cause! 7. ...but fear, and hatred of the crime of which they supposed her guilty, rendered them timorous, and unwilling to come forward.
  7. He threatened excommunication and hell fire in my last moments, if I continued obdurate.
  8. Dear lady, I had none to support me; all looked on me as a wretch doomed to ignominy and perdition.
  9. ...happy beyond his hopes, if this inexorable fate be satisfied, and if the destruction pause before the peace of the grave have succeeded to your sad torments.


Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.

__ 1. fetter A. destruction of life
___ 2. immutable B. relentless, unyielding
___ 3. vacillating C. shackle
___ 4. salubrious D. disgraceful
___ 5. carnage E. damnation, complete ruin
___ 6. ignominious F. unchanging
___7. timorous G. fearful
___8. obdurate H. fluctuating, wavering
___9. perdition I. stubborn
___10. inexorable J. healthful