Mary Shelleys Frankenstein

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The book opens with a scene of a ship in the Arctic Ocean. The ship is

stuck in the ice and unable to move. Robert Walton, the ship's captain, is

writing letters to his sister back home. The letters tell of his explorations

and the events that occur on the ship. Walton's crew pulls abord a lifeless

body and revive the man back to life. This man is Victor Frankenstein. Walton

and Frankenstein talk about why Victor is in the Arctic and Victor explains the

horrible and tragic story of the past few years of his life.

Victor was born to a very wealthy and popular family. While he was

still young his parents adopted a young girl with whom Victor would grow up with

and eventually fall in love with her. Victor goes through medical school and

becomes very good friends a classmate, Henry Clerval. Even though Victors young

life seams perfect it is all about to change.

Victor's mother died when he was still young and her death would change him

for the rest of his life. After Victor's mother's death Victor swore he would

conquer the mortality of humans. Victor, once he was out of medical school, he

began to work on his theory of conquering death. He collected numerous body

parts and put them together and used a special technique to bring the corpse to

life. At first Victor thought he had failed, but the creature sat up and was

alive. Victor was horrified by his own creation and fled his laboratory. The

monster then disappeared into the city.

Two years pasted and the monster wasn't heard from, until something

terrible happened. Victor's younger brother William was strangled to death. It

was believed that William's nanny and close friend of the family, Justine, had

murdered him. A lynch mob gathered and drug her off and hanged her. Later on

Victor saw his creature and realized that the monster murdered his brother not

Justine. Victor still in shock after his brother's death went to the mountains.

The monster followed him there. When Victor stopped the monster confronted him.

The monster explained to Victor how he survived while in hiding. He told Victor

of the family he watched through a crack in the wall of the abandoned shack he

stayed in and how he learned to read, write, and talk from these people.

After a long and detailed conversation the monster told Victor of his

deal. The monster wanted Victor to create another being similar to himself.

The monster realized that he was hideous and that no normal human could or would