Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Summary)

 

Frankenstein

Summary

Frankenstein begins with a series of four letters from Robert Walton to his sister, Margaret Saville. The first letter is written on December 11 from St. Petersburg, Russia, sometime in the eighteenth century. Walton is about to set out on a journey at sea to reach the North Pole, which he considers a region of warmth, "eternal light," and unparalleled beauty.

Walton's purpose in venturing to the North Pole is twofold: to discover a northern passage to the countries on the other side of the world; and to determine the origin of the North Pole's magnetism. Walton says he once hoped to become a famous poet, but failed. Yet he has kept his childhood dream of reaching the North Pole. He adds that he could have lived his life in wealth and ease, but did not. For this reason, he feels that he deserves to "accomplish some great purpose."

Walton plans to rent a ship, hire a crew, and depart from northern Russia in June, unsure of when or if he will ever return.

In his second letter on March 28th of the following year, from Archangel, Russia, Walton describes himself as lonely. He worries that his refined upbringing has made him too sensitive for the "brutality" of life at sea.

Walton writes that his resolution to carry out his journey is "fixed as fate." He confesses his "romantic ... love for the marvellous" and his passion for the dangers of the sea, which he attributes to his fondness for Coleridge's poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."

Written on July 7th, this short letter describes Walton's journey so far as a "triumph." His men remain resolved and loyal, and the weather has been fine, though sheets of ice in the ocean suggest worse conditions may soon threaten. Walton closes his letter with the rhetorical question, "What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?"

In the first entry of this three-part letter, Walton says his crew has observed a huge "savage" figure in a dogsled speeding across the ice. The next morning his crew members discover another man, this one normal sized and European, within reach of the ship.

The man comes aboard. Walton says he showed a "benevolence and sweetness" unequalled by anyone else he had ever met. As the days pass and the stranger recovers his strength, Walton comes to love him as a brother and considers him the friend he never thought he would meet on his voyage.

In the second part of the letter, Walton tells the stranger that he is on a quest for knowledge, which upsets the stranger. The stranger tells Walton that he has lost everything and is at the end of his life, yet Walton is more interested in the stranger's sensitivity to nature.

In the third part of the letter, the stranger says he's decided to tell his story to either help Walton in his quest for knowledge, or convince him to give it up. He hopes that Walton might "deduce an apt moral" from hearing his tale.

Walton tells the stranger that his destiny has already been determined. Walton then promises his sister that he will take down the stranger's story in a narrative. His "notes" frame the book's main narrative, which begins in Chapter

The stranger, Victor Frankenstein, says he was born in Naples and grew up in Geneva, Switzerland. His father, Alphonse, and his mother, Caroline, first became close when Alphonse's friend and Caroline's father, Beaufort, died. Alphonse became Caroline's protector, and eventually married her.

When he was five, his mother discovered a beautiful blond orphan girl named Elizabeth Lavenza in an Italian village and adopted her.

Victor, his parents, and all the Frankensteins adored Elizabeth. She became to him a "more than sister." The two children referred to each other as cousins, rather than brother and sister.

Victor describes his perfect childhood. He and Elizabeth got along perfectly, though she favored poetry while he longed to unravel the "physical secrets" of life, including the "hidden laws of nature."

In addition to Elizabeth, Victor shares a close friendship with Henry Clerval, his well-read schoolmate. Like Victor, Clerval possesses a "soaring ambition" to leave his mark on human history.

As he grows up, Victor becomes fascinated with "natural philosophy," and reads widely among the thinkers in this field who want to penetrate the "citadel of nature.".

One day, when Victor observes lightning strike a tree, he realizes that the laws of science are beyond human understanding and decides to focus on studies based in fact, like mathematics, rather than natural philosophy. Yet he notes that he eventually returned to it, leading to his "utter and terrible destruction."

Just before Victor turns seventeen, Elizabeth catches scarlet fever and passes it on to Victor's mother, who dies. Her dying wish is for Victor and Elizabeth to marry. Still in grief, Victor says goodbye to Clerval, Elizabeth, and his father and leaves to study at Ingolstadt, a university in Germany.

He meets with his professor of natural philosophy, M. Krempe, who tells Victor that his previous studies have all been a waste of time. Yet Victor then attends a class with M. Waldman, a chemistry professor, whose lecture on the power and recent successes of science inspire Victor to dedicate himself to revealing "to the world the deepest mysteries of creation." The next day Victor visits Waldman, who supports his plan.

Victor becomes so caught up in natural philosophy that he ignores everything else, including his family. He progresses rapidly, and suddenly after two years of work he discovers the secret to creating life.

Victor decides to build a race of beings, starting with one creature. He spends months alone in his apartment building a body to reanimate, spurred on by the lure of fame and glory, imagining a "new species" that will bless him as its creator.

After months of effort, Victor is successful in bringing his creature to life. But once alive, the creature's appearance horrifies him—he thinks of it as a monster.

Victor runs from the room and tries to sleep, but nightmares of death and tombs wake him, and he opens his eyes to see the monster by his bed, reaching out and grinning. He runs, and spends the night outside.

Still avoiding his apartment, Victor wanders Ingolstadt, and runs into Henry Clerval, who has come to university to embark on "a voyage of discovery to the land of knowledge."

Victor checks to see if the monster is still in his apartment, and is overjoyed to find that it isn't. He invites Clerval up, but once there falls ill with a "nervous fever," which lasts for months. Clerval nurses him, not revealing the illness to anyone. When Victor recovers, Clerval asks Victor to send a letter to his father and family, and gives him a letter from Elizabeth.

In her letter, Elizabeth updates Victor on his brothers, and says that Justine Moritz, a former servant of the Frankensteins, has come to live with them after the death of her mother.

Victor introduces Clerval to his professors, but though they praise him Victor finds anything connected with natural philosophy causes him distress. So he gives up such studies for a while, and studies Middle Eastern language with Clerval.

Near the end of term, as Victor and Clerval wait to travel back to Geneva, they take a tour around Germany which rekindles Victor's love of nature and raises his spirits.

On returning from the tour, Victor receives a letter from his father saying that his youngest brother, William, has been murdered. Shocked and upset, Victor and Clerval rush to Geneva. But the town gate is locked when they arrive. Victor visits the spot where his brother died. On the way he sees lightning playing over the peaks of the mountain Mont Blanc.

Near where his brother died, Victor sees a figure resembling the monster. He realizes that the monster killed William, which means that he, Victor, is really responsible since he created the monster.

When Victor arrives home the next day, his brother Ernest tearfully informs him that Justine has been accused of William's murder: in her pocket the police found a portrait of Victor's mother that William had been wearing.

Victor announces to his family that Justine is certainly not guilty, but says no more since he fears anyone hearing his story would think him insane. But Victor is confident that Justine could not be convicted for a crime she did not commit by circumstantial evidence.

Victor wishes he could confess in Justine's place, but his absence at the time of the murder would make his confession sound like nonsense.

At the trial, Justine maintains she is innocent, but cannot explain how William's portrait of his mother wound up in her pocket. She is sentenced to death.

Victor speaks with a member of the court, who says that Justine has already confessed to the crime. Victor and Elizabeth visit Justine in prison, and she explains that she was pressured into confessing by her jailors. She succumbed, and confessed a lie. Justine says she's ready to die and leave behind the "sad and bitter world."

The next day Justine is executed. Victor feels guilt overwhelm him for his secret role in William and Justine's deaths.

Victor despairs that his good intentions have resulted in such horror. Soon the Frankensteins go to their vacation home in Belrive to escape the bad memories of what's happened. Yet Victor still has thoughts of suicide and begins to desire revenge against the monster.

One day Elizabeth tells Victor that she no longer sees the world the same way after witnessing the execution of an innocent.

A while later Victor decides to travel to Chamonix, France, hoping the trip will provide relief from his "ephemeral, because human, sorrows." Along the way he gazes at waterfalls and the towering Mont Blanc. At times the sights remind him of happier times, but never for long.

At Chamonix, Victor continues to feel despair. He again tries to escape it through nature: he climbs to the peak of a mountain called Montanvert. But just as the view begins to lift his spirits, Victor sees the monster. He curses it and wishes for its destruction.

But with great eloquence the monster claims to be Victor's offspring. "I ought to be thy Adam," it says.

The monster continues that it was once benevolent, and turned to violence only after Victor, its creator, abandoned it. It begs Victor to listen to its story. Victor, for the first time thinking about his responsibilities as a creator, follows the monster to a cave in the glacier, and sits down to listen.

The monster describes its early days after being created: running from Victor's apartment, seeing light and dark and feeling hunger and cold, and discovering fire and its ability to both cook and burn.

Wherever the monster goes its appearance terrifies humans, so it decides to avoid them. Eventually it finds a place to hide in the darkness near the side of a cottage. Inside it observes a man, woman, and an old man, and it watches them at their daily tasks.

The monster wonders why the family seems unhappy and realizes it is because the old man is blind and the family is poor and hungry. To make up for adding to their misery by eating their food, it gathers wood for them and leaves it outside their cottage at night. It also realizes they communicate through sound, and sets about learning their language. It learns that the young man is named Felix, and the girl, Agatha.

One day the monster sees itself in a pool of water. He realizes finally why people have screamed and run when they see him. Yet the monster becomes convinced that with gentle words and actions he could get the family to see past his awful appearance. Spring comes, lifting everyone's spirits. The monster looks to the future with hope.

When a dark and beautiful "Arabian" woman named Safie arrives at the cottage, the family's mood, and Felix's in particular, brightens. Safie does not speak the family's language, and Felix teaches her from a history book. As she learns, so does the monster, which is disgusted that a race as noble as mankind is also capable of such evil.

As he learns about society and humans, the monster realizes that it has no society of its own. It is a monster, doomed to be always without family or people. It wishes it had never gotten this knowledge about society, which makes it so miserable.

The monster figures out the history of the family, the De Laceys. Safie's father was a wealthy "Turk" living in Paris, who was wrongly accused of a crime. Felix offered to help the Turk escape from prison, and meanwhile fell in love with Safie. The Turk offered Felix his daughter's hand in marriage in exchange for helping the two escape. Felix, Safie, and her father escaped and made it to Italy, but then Felix's role in the conspiracy was discovered, and as a result the De Laceys lost their wealth and were exiled by the government. Felix returned to help his family, assuming that the Turk would uphold his end of the bargain, but the "treacherous Turk" decided he didn't want his daughter to marry a Christian. Safie's "Christian Arab" mother had taught her to be independent and intellectually curious, however—traits not encouraged among women in her father's Islamic society—so when Safie's father tried to force her to return to Turkey with him, she escaped and came to find Felix.

The monster next tells how it found three books in the woods, including John Milton's Paradise Lost (an epic poem about humankind's loss of innocence in the Garden of Eden). The monster at times sees itself as similar to Adam. Yet at others he sees himself as more like Satan, because he does not have the love of his creator.

The monster adds that when it fled from Victor's apartment it accidentally took some of his journal entries, which turned out to describe its creation. It curses Victor for having created something so ugly.

The monster decides to reveal himself in the hope that men will be able to see past his ugliness. One day when Felix, Agatha, and Safie are out for a walk, he enters the cottage and introduces himself to De Lacey, sensing that the blind man will not be prejudiced against him. The conversation starts well, but just then the family returns. Felix attacks the monster, Safie runs in terror, and Agatha faints. The monster flees.

The family's rejection plunges the monster into a fit of rage. But the beauty of the next day calms him. He decides to approach De Lacey again to try to make amends.

But by the time the monster reaches the cottage, the De Laceys have moved out. He sees Felix terminating his lease with the landlord, and never sees any of them again. His last link with society destroyed, the monster gives in to rage and a desire for revenge. He burns down the cottage and heads for Geneva and Victor.

At one point along the way the monster saves a beautiful little girl from drowning in a stream, only to be shot by her guardian. It takes weeks for him to heal, and his suffering only feeds his anger and desire for revenge.

After a few weeks, the monster makes it to Geneva. There he encounters a young boy. Thinking the boy would be too young to be horrified by his appearance, and thus could be a companion for him, the monster approaches him. But the boy is terrified, and shouts that his father, a Frankenstein, will punish the monster. The monster becomes enraged at hearing the name Frankenstein, and strangles the boy. The boy dies.

The monster then finds a barn in which to spend the night, but finds a beautiful sleeping girl inside. Enraged that he is forever cut off from the delight of female beauty, the monster places a picture the boy wore and plants it in the girl's pocket.

The chapter ends with the monster's demand that Victor create a female counterpart for him.

The narrative returns to Victor's voice. Fearing that two monsters will just cause more murder and destruction, Victor refuses to agree to the monster's demand to create a female.

The monster argues that its violence stems from its misery, and that Victor, as its creator, is responsible for that misery. The monster adds that if Victor creates a companion for it, the pair will flee to South America and avoid human contact forever. Victor feels compassion at the monster's words, but feels hatred whenever he looks at it. Still, he agrees to the bargain. The monster tells him it will monitor his progress, and departs.

Almost immediately, Victor begins to question the wisdom of creating a companion for the monster and delays. He also realizes that to complete the project he'll have to do some research in England.

Alphonse senses Victor's distress, and thinks it might stem from some reluctance on Victor's part to marry Elizabeth. Victor assures his father he'd like nothing more than to marry Elizabeth. Alphonse suggests they marry immediately as a cure for the family's recent sorrow. But Victor does not want to marry with his bargain with the monster hanging over his head, and uses the trip he has to take to England as an excuse to put the wedding off.

Alphonse and Victor agree that he will go to England for a time not to exceed a year, and that Clerval, looking to pursue his studies after having to spend some time working for his father, will accompany him. Yet Victor continues to feel like a "wretch."

Victor and Clerval arrive in London in October. Victor continues to despair, avoiding people unless they have information that can help him create a second monster. Clerval, in contrast, is how Victor used to be: excited by learning and wanting to meet and talk to everyone.

Victor and Clerval travel to Scotland. There, Victor leaves Clerval with a friend and travels on alone. He goes to a remote island in the Orkney's, sets up a lab, and works in solitude on his secret project.

One night in his lab, Victor worries that the new creature he's creating might refuse to live away from humans, or that the two monsters might produce a "race of devils." Just then he looks up and sees the monster "grinning" at the window. Overwhelmed by loathing, Victor destroys his work. Outside, the monster howls in agony, and disappears.

Hours later, the monster returns to Victor's lab. It now refers to Victor only as "Man" and vows revenge. It promises: "I shall be with you on your wedding night." Victor thinks the monster means to kill him on that night, and fears for Elizabeth left alone as a widow.

A letter soon arrives from Clerval suggesting they resume their travels. Victor gathers up his laboratory materials and rows out into the ocean to dump them. Victor is so happy he takes a nap in his boat. But he wakes into rough weather and can't get back to shore. Just as he begins to panic, the winds ease.

When Victor lands a group of angry townspeople gathers around his boat. He's a suspect in a murder that occurred the previous night, and sent to meet with Mr. Kirwin, a local magistrate.

At Mr. Kirwin's office, Victor learns that a man in his mid-twenties was found dead on the shore with black marks on his neck. And various witnesses testify that a boat much like Victor's was seen at sea. Victor is taken to see the body. It is Clerval. Victor falls into convulsions, and remains bedridden and delusional for two months.

When Victor regains awareness he is still in prison. Mr. Kirwin treats him kindly, advising him that he'll likely be freed. He also tells Victor that his father has come to see him.

Two weeks later Victor is released because the court has nothing but circumstantial evidence against him. Despairing and determined to protect his family from the monster, Victor returns with his father to Geneva.

En route to Geneva, they stop in Paris so Victor can regain his strength. His father tries to help by getting him to engage with society, but Victor feels he has no right to. Victor even tells his father he murdered Justine, William, and Clerval. His father considers him deranged, and Victor says no more.

While in Paris, Victor receives a letter from Elizabeth. She expresses her desire to marry Victor, but worries he may have taken another lover during his long absence. Victor remembers the monster's vow to "be with him" on his wedding night, and decides that whether he kills it or it kills him, at least he will be free. Victor writes back that he wants to marry immediately, but adds that he has a terrible secret he will tell her the day after they are married.

A week later Victor and his father arrive in Geneva. The wedding takes place ten days later. Yet as Victor and Elizabeth sail to a cottage by Lake Como in Italy for their honeymoon, Victor's fear of facing the monster dissolves his happiness. Elizabeth tries to cheer him by pointing out the beauty in nature. It doesn't work.

A storm rolls in after they arrive at the cottage. Victor, armed with a pistol and terrified that the monster will attack at any moment, sends Elizabeth to bed for her own safety. But as he searches the house, he hears a scream. Elizabeth has been murdered. While huddled over her lifeless body, Victor sees the monster at the window. He fires at it, but misses.

Victor rushes back to Geneva. The news of Elizabeth's death overwhelms his father Alphonse, who dies a few days later.

Victor goes mad for several months and is kept in a cell. When he regains his senses he tells his entire story to a local magistrate, hoping to enact justice on the monster. The magistrate listens but doesn't entirely believe Victor and, anyway, considers tracking down the monster impossible. Victor resolves to seek his revenge on his own.

Victor curses the magistrate and all of humanity. "Man," he cries, "how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!"

Victor decides to leave Geneva forever. While visiting the graves of his family he swears revenge, and then he hears the monster's laughter, and its voice calling Victor a "miserable wretch." Victor pursues the monster, but it escapes into the darkness.

For months, Victor tracks the monster northward into the frigid Arctic regions, led by clues and taunting notes the monster leaves behind. Victor chases the monster onto the frozen ocean with sleds and dogs, and comes within a mile of the monster's own sled, but then the ice breaks up beneath Victor's sled.

This is the point at which Walton's ship rescued Victor. The narrative returns to the present. Victor, knowing he's dying, begs Walton to take vengeance on the monster if he should happen to see it.

The novel returns to the frame of Walton's letters to his sister, Margaret Saville. In a letter on August 26, Walton says that he believes Victor's story and recalls how Victor described himself as the victim of "lofty ambition," which brought him to despair. Walton laments that he did not know Victor when they could have been friends. As Walton writes, "I have sought one who would sympathize with and love me." Yet while Victor responded kindly to his offers of friendship, he remained fixated on his only remaining destiny: to destroy the monster.

In a letter on September 2, Walton tells Margaret that his ship and crew are in grave danger: the ship is now surrounded entirely by ice. He blames himself for their fate and says they may all die as a result of his "mad schemes." He fears a mutiny.

In a letter on September 5, Walton says that his crew have demanded that he turn the ship around and head for home as soon as the ice frees them. Victor speaks up in his defense, telling the rebellious crew members they should "be men," for they had set out to be the "benefactors of [their] species." The speech changes the crew's mind, but Walton fears only temporarily. He says he'd rather die than return in shame with his "purpose unfulfilled."

In a letter on September 7, Walton says he has agreed to the crew's demand to turn back. He considers what has happened an injustice.

In his final letter on September 12th, Walton says that he has turned back, his hopes of "glory" and "utility" crushed. In addition, Victor has died. Victor had objected to Walton's decision to turn back his ship and said that his own "purpose" remained firm. Victor then tried to rise and return to the ice, but could not. He reaffirmed his certainty that he acted well in trying to defend his fellow man against the monster, his creation. He then died quietly, eager to rejoin the relatives he had lost in life.

Walton interrupts his letter upon hearing a disturbance in the cabin where Victor's body lies. He returns to tell Margaret that he has just seen the monster crying over Victor's corpse. To Walton's shock, the monster says he suffered remorse and pity for Victor all along. Walton calls the monster a "wretch." The monster is unsurprised, having been rejected by people from the start. It says that it abhorred itself even as it was doing evil, and describes itself as a "fallen angel," yet it also wonders why only it, and not Felix, or the man who shot it, or Frankenstein, is considered a "criminal." The monster then promises to end its own life, springs from the cabin back onto the ice, and disappears.