Frankenstein Chapter 1 Summary

543 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Fate in literature

1. The story begins with an explorer called Robert Walton in a ship. Robert Walton sees a man lying on an ice flow. When he enters the ship, he says that his name is Victor Frankenstein, and starts telling his story. He grew up in Switzerland, and went to university to study science. After two years in college Victor learns how revive a dead corpse back to life. After creating this monster, he left him. After a couple of months, Victor then receives a letter that says that his youngest brother was strangled and killed. He knows who killed, but knew no one will believe him if he said that his monster killed his brother. The monster starts getting hatred and oppression from humans. The monster then asks Victor to make him a mate, and Victor agrees but doesn’t do as he promised. The monster wanted revenge and went searching after …show more content…

The main conflict is all the destruction caused by Victor Frankenstein and his monster. Throughout the story Victor feels guilty when someone dies, because of him creating this monster.
3. Victor Frankenstein is an intelligent scientist, who always adored science since his childhood. He is a dynamic character, because he clearly changes throughout the story from being smart and ambitious student to a depressed and guilty person for creating a monster. Victor Frankenstein is obviously a round, because he is a complex person, whose motivations are unclear.
4. The setting when Victor Frankenstein meets the monster:
• “a mist covered both that and the surrounding mountains.”
• The surface is uneven, rising like the waves of a troubled sea.”
• “The opposite mountain is a bare perpendicular rock.”
5. In the scene when Victor Frankenstein is reviving the dead corpse, the mood is suspenseful and horrifying. The reader doesn’t know what will happen, especially when Frankenstein is nervous and says “With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony”
6. The premise of the story to use science and knowledge for a good cause, not cause harm.
7.

Show More
Related

  • Knowledge Can Lead To Destructions Journey In Frankenstein, By Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1015 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the world today there is a drive to evolve and improve life through science and its findings. When looking at the good of a society, the people have to decide when the line between right and wrong is drawn. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, she proves that the possession of knowledge can lead to destructive forces through Victor Frankenstein’s monster’s journey. The events that lead to Victor’s monster’s destructive path is when he comes into contact with the cottagers, he murders Victor’s brother, and runs away after destroying Victor’s life.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein: Mary Shelley's Ability to Create Sympathy for the Monster

    1840 Words  | 4 Pages

    We are shown that this ‘monster’ is a ‘creature’ and more of a human than we think. It is in the complex structure of the novel that Mary Shelley creates sympathy. We shift from Robert Walton to Victor Frankenstein to the monster and finally back to Walton. With each shift of perspective, the reader gains new information about both the facts of the story and the reliability of the narrator. Each perspective adds pieces of information that only they knows: Walton explains the circumstances of Victor’s last days, Victor explains his creation of the monster, the monster explains his turn to evil.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Social Contract Theory In Frankenstein

    1123 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mary Shelley’s nineteenth century classic “Frankenstein” Explores the troubles that came to the monster because of his differences, how he overcomes them, what makes the monster relatable, Victor’s individual tragic flaw, and the tragedy of this book.

    Read More

  • Human Relationships-Frankenstein

    1907 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...e seeking help and strength to take care of problems in their lives. Victor Frankenstein is a man with a loving and caring family. Family and friends are an important part of his life. He has his whole life in front of him, when creates his monster. He creates the monster in the likeness of man with same need of love and affection as man. Although, this is his creation, he lets the monster down and does not care for him. The monster begins to feel neglected and lonely and wants desperately to have a human relationship. The monster turns angry and revengeful because he is so sad and abandoned. He wants Victor to feel the way that he does, all alone. The monster succeeds and Victor ends up losing all the important in his life and his own life. In the end, the monster dies and the need for human relationship becomes the destruction for both the monster and Victor.

    Read More

  • Victor Frankenstein Sociopath Analysis

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, as the name implies, centers on the character of Victor Frankenstein. Over the course of the novel, the point of view switches across a cast of several characters, all of which have interacted with Victor, some more than others. Victor’s pursuit to find the source of life, and the events thereafter, show him making countless questionable decisions, hurting the people close to him, and getting away wit hit all because of the society he lives in. These points unequivocally prove that Victor Frankenstein is a sociopath.

    Read More

  • Sympathy in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    2939 Words  | 6 Pages

    The novel is told from the viewpoint of various narrators, a technique explored by Emily Brontë in Wuthering Heights, which was popular with writers in the nineteenth century. In Frankenstein, like in Wuthering Heights, the first narrator is an outsider - Robert Walton - but as the novel progresses the narrative moves in closer - to Victor, then to the monster. Each narrator contributes their own feelings and descriptions of both Victor and the mo... ... middle of paper ... ... r the period that Mary Shelley was writing in – challenging the social conventions of the time.

    Read More

  • The Destructive Power of Revenge: An Analysis

    1373 Words  | 3 Pages

    We are introduced to Victor who is found by Robert Walton, now when Victor begins to retell his tragic story he gives us a general view of who he is, where he was born, and what has happened in his life. We then progress through the story and arrive at the rising action which is when Victor returns back to school after his mother’s death and sisters recovery of scarlet fever. Victor sets out to create a living thing upon his return and this is when it all goes down hill, he successfully creates the monster but he is horrified at the site of the creature he then runs like fearful gazelle leaving the creature/monster to wander (very smart Victor). Skipping ahead the monsters causes quite a bit of trouble and strangles a lot of people, and this is all caused by him not being provided with a connection with anyone. Now before he really starts his strangulation spree he spies on a family (the Delacy’s) that teaches him unknowingly how to speak, read, and of general human connection and relationships. This moment of distant watching and learning has left him wanting things even more, he then reveals himself the Father who is blind and he is kind to the monster when the children arrive they terrified and reject the monster. Throughout the tale of the monster is reminded of his indifference by others resulting in him

    Read More

  • Narration in Frankenstein

    1209 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although “Frankenstein” is the story of Victor and his monster, Walton is the most reliable narrator throughout the novel. However, like most narrator’s, even his retelling of Victor’s story is skewed by prejudice and favoritism of the scientist’s point of view. Yet this could be attributed to the only view points he ever gets to truly hear are from Victor himself and not the monster that he only gets to meet after he comes to mourn his fallen master.

    Read More

  • Unknown In Frankenstein

    1484 Words  | 3 Pages

    He soon realizes the great mistake he has made when almost a year later, Creature kills Victor’s little brother, William. If Victor had gone home when his family begged him to, he would not have meddled with this dangerous subject and everyone he loved would still live. “His reasoning is overwhelmed by his fear, causing him to choose science over the safety of his friends and family” (Nguyen). Furthermore, he could have saved his family by simply telling them what he had done. Instead, he kept the monster a secret. “His failure to reveal his a secret of the monster leads to the destruction of those he loved. The loss of his family and friends detaches him from the rest of the world, and he remains in his secrecy out of guilt and shame” (Nguyen). Victor became the reason for the downfall of his family, as well as himself. He could have ended the monster from the moment he saw it and gone home to live a normal happy life, but instead he ignored it and let it learn on its own. He remained an accessory to the murders for never warning anyone about the demon he

    Read More

  • Essay On Frankenstein Tragedy

    783 Words  | 2 Pages

    Victor Frankenstein serves as an instrument of suffering of others and contributes to the tragic vision as a whole in this novel. He hurts those surrounding him by his selfish character and his own creation plots against his master due to the lack of happiness and love. The audience should learn from Frankenstein’s tragic life and character to always remain humble. We should never try to take superiority that is not granted to us because like victor we shall suffer and perish. He had the opportunity to make a difference in his life and take responsibility as a creator but his selfishness caused him to die alone just like what he had feared.

    Read More

  • Monstrosity in Frankenstein

    1001 Words  | 3 Pages

    The monster of the novel is often misattributed with the name, “Frankenstein.” However, Victor Frankenstein can ultimately be considered the true monster of this tale. His obsession would lead to the corruption of his soul and the creation of two monsters—one himself, and the other, the creature. In attempting to take on the role of God, nature would become a monster to Victor and destroy his life. These elements of monstrosity in Frankenstein drive the meaning of its story.

    Read More

  • Sympathy for the Monster in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

    411 Words  | 1 Pages

    When victor brings the monster to life he soon realises that he has made a big mistake because he says ‘What have I done?’ this tells us that Victor has pride in his work at first but then it quickly turns to disbelief then he becomes terrified he leaves the monster and goes to his home in Geneva. The monster soon realises that he has been abandoned (I think that Mary has put in her novel him getting abandoned because her father abandoned her because he didn’t like the person who she was going to get married to) so he sets of to see what the world has to offer. As the monster comes across a village that has just been outrun with a deadly disease called colleria so when the villages see him they think that he brought it in and they beat. He turns to find Victor and make him pay for bring him back ugly. The monster finds a place to hide from all the people and he helps out a family by helping them with their farm work and he learns to read and write. In the family there is a blind man the monster is very protective over the blind man and the man come for the tax on the house where they live and he beats the blind man up but then the monster beats up the tax man and the little girl with the blind man screams and the mum and dad hears meanwhile the blind man and the monster

    Read More

  • Passion And Responsibility In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley highlights on the experiences her characters undergo through the internal war of passion and responsibility. Victor Frankenstein lets his eagerness of knowledge and creating life get so out of hand that he fails to realize what the outcome of such a creature would affect humankind. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, highlights on how Frankenstein’s passion of knowledge is what ultimately causes the decline of his health and the death of him and his loved ones.

    Read More

  • Revenge Is Not The Solution In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    883 Words  | 2 Pages

    He had asked Victor to create him another monster as a companion and if he doesn’t keep his promise, then he will be miserable. When Victor goes to England with the intention of creating this promised monster, his friend Henry follows him. After several months, Victor destroys the half created creature and this upsets the monster very much so because he wants this companion. When he kills Henry, the monster distinctly planned it so that Victor would be blamed for the murder. Through all this confusion on who killed Henry, Victor knew all along that the monster did it. At this point, Victor knew that he must return to Geneva to protect his family whom he loved very much (Shelley 181). Since this monster killed Henry, Victor knew that his family was now is in danger. The monster is very happy that Victor is having to suffer because, Victor is now feeling the loneliness that he feels all the time. Though the monster’s character is not evil, the pain he feels is what he wants his creator to feel. His revenge only increases throughout the book because he is only longing for a fellow companion that Victor can only give him, but yet he is choosing not to create it. The anger that is within the monster is only growing and this is increasing the possibilities of him hurting more

    Read More

  • The Character of the Monster in Frankenstein

    1842 Words  | 4 Pages

    Explore the ways Mary Shelley presents the character of the monster in Frankenstein We are prepared for the arrival of the monster in many different ways, before he is created we know the monster is going to be a repulsive figure of a human being, but the reader is still intrigued into reading further, and because of Shelley's descriptive language we already feel disgust towards victors creation, and in doing so, we our-selves become just as callous as those people in the book that neglect Frankenstein's monster. Also because the monster was created by Victor using parts dug up from graves and morgues, and we associate graveyards with horror and death, there is immediately something sinister about the monster and to a point, Victor. The reader can already see the problems with creating artificial life in this way, and in the beginning of the novel, the reader is almost willing victor not to pursue his quest for knowledge, but victor is blinded by his own arrogance to stop and think carefully about what he is about to do. This is when Victor the man becomes separated from Frankenstein the scientist. "I saw how the fine form of man was degraded and wasted" Victor despises death, and his mind is occupied incessantly with it, and after the demise of his mother, victor cannot escape it, and subconsciously he dedicates his life towards combating the process.

    Read More

More about Frankenstein Chapter 1 Summary

Open Document