Plot summary: Frankenstein begins with four letters that are addressed by Robert Walton to his sister Margaret Saville. Walton is an Englishmen on a voyage to the North Pole. His first letter is dated December 11th in St. Petersburg; he tells his sister about the trip and how great it feels to be going to undiscovered territory. Walton tells his sister the irony of living a nautical life because this was denied by his father before he died. He explains that he wanted to be a writer, but he failed, causing him to venture to the North Sea. He informs Margaret that he should be arriving to the North Pole by June. Walton’s second letter is dated March 28th in Archangel. We learn that he is twenty-eight, has been reading voyage books since he was …show more content…
fourteen and speaks many languages. Walton continuously talks about his lack of friends and how he knows that he will never find a friend of his caliber.
He feels that his shipmates are simple-minded, which is the reason as to why he is friendless and lonely. He tells Margaret that he is waiting on spring to arrive because it is the safest time to travel. Walton’s third letter is brief with no location, but is dated July 7th. He informs his sister that his voyage is advancing well and that though he may not come back to his native soon he is still in high spirits. He tells her that he will not put himself in danger and ends the letter telling Margaret that he loves her. In the final letter Walton gives no location, but the letter is dated August 5th. In this letter he explains of the strange encounter he and his shipmates undergo while surrounded by ice. As they are stuck they see a sledge being pulled by dogs passing by them. In the sledge they saw the figure of a gigantic man. Seeing this caused them to believe that they were not hundreds of miles away from land. The next morning they encountered a man who had drifted towards them in the night. The man was fragile and suffering. They later found out he was European and was different than savage man they had seen last …show more content…
night. He came aboard the ship and would only talk to Walton. The man told Walton that he was out last night to catch someone who fled from him. Walton informed him that they had seen him the night before. The man called the person he was looking for a daemon. Walton begins to see the man as the friend he was looking for. On August 13th Walton describes the man as gentle and educated. He expresses that the man is now in better health. The man was unhappy, but wanted to help Walton reach his success after telling him a story of experience. The man tells Walton that he is miserable and cannot get a new life. On August 19th Walton continues the story that the man tells him. The stranger tells him this story because he saw how badly Walton is seeking knowledge and did not want Walton parallel him. The first chapter begins with a change of narration to the stranger, who Robert Walton learn is Victor Frankenstein. He starts to explain his childhood, family background and his parents Alphonse and Caroline. Alphonse and Caroline married after Alphonse’s best friend, who’s also Caroline’s father, Beaufort died. They continued to travel through Europe and Victor, their eldest child, was born. Years later they adopt Elizabeth Lavenza, an orphan, and bring her to Geneva. He and Elizabeth grow up to be best friends. His friendship with Henry Clerval flourishes as well. As a teenager Victor becomes extremely fascinated with philosophy and studies outdated philosophers. As the Frankenstein’s move to their home in Belrive, Victor meets a philosopher who teaches him about electricity. At the age of seventeen he moved away to attend the University of Ingolstadt. Before he left his mother caught scarlet fever, which she received while nursing Caroline and died. Once he arrives to Ingolstadt he meets with his professors, M. Krempe and Waldman. Krempe informs Victor that everything he has been studying is old and of no use. Victor tells Waldman his plans and Waldman encourages him to continue. Victor starts to become more fascinated with the building of the human body and how it decays. He finally masters the build of the body and decides to create life. He works in his laboratory, creating a creature made of human and animal parts. During this time he neglects his family, studies and social life. On one rainy night in November, Victor’s creature awakes and the sight of the Creature scares Victor. During the night Victor has nightmares about the corpse of Elizabeth. When he awakes he finds the monster looming over his bedside smiling grotesquely and runs away. He roams around the city, afraid to go back to his home, and runs into his old friend Henry Clerval. Seeing Clerval gave him a breath of fresh air and he decided to bring Clerval back to his apartment. When they return to the apartment, Victor feels more relief when he sees that the monster has left. He then falls ill. Clerval nurses him back to health and writes to Victor’s family. Victor receives a letter from Elizabeth expressing her concern for Victor’s well-being and informs him that Justine Moritz has come to their home in Geneva. Meanwhile, the sight of any chemical instruments causes Victor’s symptoms to deter. He decides to leave and go back to Geneva. Victor receives a letter from his father telling him that William, his brother, was murdered. When he reaches Geneva, the gates have shut and he cannot enter. He goes to where his brother’s body was found and sees the Creature. He believes that the Creature is responsible for William’s death. The next day he learns that Justine has been accused for William’s death, because Caroline’s picture was found in her pocket. Victor knows that Justine is innocent but decides not to tell anyone. Justine is soon executed and Victor is filled with the guilt of her and William’s death. Victor’s father, Alphonse, tries to ease his son’s sorrow by taking them to Belvire where Victor travels to the valley of Chamounix to calm himself. One day as Victor roamed the summit of Montanvert, he came in contact with the Creature. Victor yells at the Creature for him to leave him alone. The Creature is able to pursue Victor to talk and listen to him narrate what has occurred in his life. Sitting by a fire in the Creature’s hut, the Creature tells Victor how he learned the difference between cold and hot, day and night, and hunger and thirst. He finds a fire one day in the woods and learns how to keep it lit. After the fire burns out, he decides to go look for food and runs into a village. Everyone is afraid of him and this is when he realizes that he is different from everyone else. He finds a cottage with a hovel close to it. The next morning the Creature notices that he can see into the cottage, accompanied by an old man, young man and woman. While observing his neighbors he learns that they are poor, which he is helping by stealing their food. The Creature acquires basic knowledge through Agatha and Felix. As winter unthaws, a woman arrives to the cottage to see Felix and he becomes filled with joy. The woman’s name is Safie, and she does not speak the same language. As Safie learns the language, so does the Creature. The Creature now has the understanding that he has no property, has no friends and possesses no money. The knowledge he gained caused him more pain and sorrow. The Creature learns the background of the cottagers and learns that DeLacey, the old man, was once a wealthy man in Paris. Safie’s father was a Turk and was falsely accused and sentenced to death. When Felix went to visit the Turk he met his daughter and fell in love with her instantly. One day, the Creature comes across three books: Paradise Lost, Plutarch’s Lives and Sorrows of Werter. Each book allows him to seek different emotions. After reading these books he became brave, and thought that it was time that he approached the DeLacey family. The Creature believed they would understand him and overlook his appearance. He decided to go the cottage when no one but DeLacey was home. He knocked and the old man told him he could enter. DeLacey informs the Creature that his children are not home and that he is blind. Just as he becomes in the old man good graces, his children enter and Felix beats him until he leaves. Later that night, he entered the woods on a mission to seek revenge against all humans, most importantly Victor Frankenstein. As he heads to Geneva, he finds a young girl who is drowning. After he rescued the little girl, he is shot by the man with her, thinking that the Creature was trying to harm her. The Creature then ran into William Frankenstein, Victor’s little brother.
The Creature becomes enraged and strangles the little boy to death. The Creature takes the picture that the boy has and places it in Justine Mortiz’s. The Creature then asks Victor to create a companion. Victor disagrees until the Creature makes an argument telling Victor it is his duty. Weeks passed, and Victor could not bring himself to create the female monster. He thought that it was a repugnance to his beliefs. His father notices that his spirits is still down and suggests that he and Elizabeth get married quickly. He takes a tour to London with Henry Clerval. While they travel through England and Scotland, Victor grows impatient to free himself from the Creature. Victor leaves Henry with a friend and travels to Orkneys to finish his work. One night while working on the female companion, Victor starts to ponder on how the female creature would think. He starts to contemplate whether or not he should continue this project. The following night Victor receives a letter from Henry that he is ready to finish traveling. Later that evening Victor takes the remains of the monster and dumps her into the
ocean. When Victor awakes from collecting his thoughts, his boat is stuck, but it soon ends and he reaches the shore. Once he is there he is greeted rudely and the townsmen tell him that he is under suspicion for a murder last night. They take Victor to the town magistrate, Mr. Kirwin, who shows him the body of the victim, Henry Clerval. After seeing this Victor falls ill for two months. Victor receives a visit from his father, who stays until the hearing, where Victor is proven innocent. His father then takes him back to Geneva. After they arrive home, Elizabeth is still worried, but Victor reassures her that all is well and he has a big secret to tell her after they have married. As the wedding day approaches Victor becomes more distraught and worried about Elizabeth. The day finally comes and they go off to a cottage. That night Victor can think of nothing but the arrival of the Creature. He tells Elizabeth to go to bed and begins searching the house for the Creature, but then hears the screams of Elizabeth. The shock of the tragic events caused his father die as well. Stressed and overwhelmed with the knowledge of the Creature, he tries telling a magistrate in Geneva, but he does not believe him. Victor now devotes the rest of his life to destroy the Creature. Victor decides to leave Geneva and follow the clues that the Creature has left behind. The taunts angered Victor as he makes his way to the North Pole. Here he meets Walton and tells his story. Walton then becomes the narrator sister. Just before Walton’s boat could be set for sail, Walton hears a noise coming from the room Victor is in. He goes in to find the Creature weeping over his dead creator’s body. Walton sits back and listens to the Creatures’ sufferings. The Creature tells Walton that he is sorry and ready to die. The Creature then wanders into the darkness.
Victor animated the creature from dead body parts, effecting his creature’s appearance when he came alive. He couldn’t even look at his creation, and thought that it was malodorous, without thinking how unwanted and helpless the creature feels. With little hope for the creature because of his unappealing appearance, Victor does not bothering to wait and see if he has a good interior or not. As a result of Victor not taking responsibility, the monster decides to take revenge. The monster is repeatedly denied love and deals with the loneliness the only way that he can, revenge, killing Victor’s loved ones making him lonely just like
After Walton and his crew get stuck in some ice, they notice a gigantic man in the distance. Just a couple hours later, Victor Frankenstein washes up to their boat on a sheet of ice. Walton welcomes him onto his ship, and Victor tells the story of this thing in the distance, which is his creation. In the first four chapters, Victor talks about his family and how they came to be. He also talks about his education, and what made him create this monster. Walton and Frankenstein are similar because they both switched what they wanted to do before pursing their current occupation. “I imagined that I also might obtain a niche in the temple where the names of Homer and Shakespeare are consecrated. You are well acquainted with my failure and how heavily I bore the disappointment”(Shelley 2). This shows how much Robert Walton desired to be a poet and also how distraught he was after his failure. Walton also reveals how he was not well educated, even though he loved reading. So after he failed at trying to become educated, and becoming a poet, he inherited his cousins fortune, and became a sea captain. Like Walton, Frankenstein did not do
The monster tells Frankenstein of the wretchedness of the world and how it was not meant for a being such as himself. At the end of his insightful tale the creature demands a companion of the same hideous features but of the opposite gender to become his. Victor only has the choice to make the monster or suffer a lifetime of horror his creation would bring upon him. Which the creator ultimately agrees to make the female monster to save the lives of his family but gains a conscious that fills with guilt of all the destruction he has created and creating. When the monster comes to collect the female he tears her apart and the monster vows to destroy all Victor holds dear. The monster’s emotional sense is consumed with rage against Victor, murdering Frankenstein’s best friend. Though when the monster’s framing ways do not work to lead to Victor being executed, he then murders Frankenstein’s wife on their wedding night. This tragedy is the last for Victor’s father who becomes ill with grief and quickly passes within a few days, leaving Victor with nothing but his own regret. Shelley doesn’t give the audience the monsters side of the story but hints that the remainder of his journey consisted of being a shadow to that of his creator. It is at the graves of the Frankenstein family when the creature makes an appearance in the solemn and
As in many other stories, Robert Walton performs a primary role, the narrator. As a polar exploring narrator, first of all, Robert Walton holds a third person view when recounting Frankenstein’s tale, which gives a more objective and reliable feeling to the readers. Secondly, Walton’s narration not only gives a just account for the narrative of Frankenstein, but also sets the scene for Victor’s own story and life to begin, to break, and to end. The novel starts right with the letter from Robert to his sister, so readers are brought right into the plot. At the same time, because it introduces the background of meeting Frankenstein, the story has a sense of reality. Then within the time Victor explains his adventure, Robert functions as a joint for different events and breaks of Victor. When approaching the experience of learning about the death of Henry, Victor once said, “I must pause here, for it requires all my fortitude to recall the memory of the frightful events which I am about to relate, in proper detail, to my recollection” (158). Even though Walton is not directly introduced into the conversation, audience can feel that the reference to Walton pulls th...
The Creature has scared the De Laceys when seeking for help, and they decide to leave their cottage. He reflects on this news in his hovel “in a state of utter and stupid despair He, mad with their decision, burns down their cottage. He knows that they left because of his appearance and most likely them knowing he has been watching them for time. After leaving his hovel at De Laceys place, he travels to Geneva and sees a boy outside his hiding place.The Creature decides that this boy isn't old enough to realize ugliness and picks him up. The boy struggles and exclaims that his ‘dad’, M. Frankenstein, will save him. The Creature is enraged at this child, “‘Frankenstein! You belong then to my enemy - to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim.’ The child [William] still struggled and loaded me with epithets which carried despair to my heart; I grasped his throat to silence him, and in a moment he lay dead at my feet” (131). After Victor and Elizabeth’s wedding, Victor tells Elizabeth to retire so he can go find the creature because he thinks the creature is after him. Soon after, Victor hears a shrill scream, and runs back to Elizabeth and finds “the murderous mark of the fiend’s grasp was on her [Elizabeth] neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from her lips … A grin was on the face of the monster; he seemed to jeer, as with
Walton's letters play an important role for the reader may find many foreshadowed themes. As the novel progresses, the reader will realize how Walton and Victor Frankenstein share similar views on their life's roles. Both men are driven by an excessive ambition, as they desire to accomplish great things for the humankind. Walton is an explorer who wants to discover a new passage to the Pacific and therefore conjures "inestimable benefit on all mankind to the last generation" (16). Victor's purpose is to "pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation" (49). These explorers will demonstrate that such pursuit can prove to be very dangerous in quest for knowledge. Walton's ship becomes stuck in the ice and Victor's creation finally kills everyone dear to him. However, this parallel is not the only one: we can easily compare Walton's search for a friend ("I have no friend, Margaret" (19)) with the monster's request for a female because he feels alone ("I desired love and fellowship" (224)). This similarity between man and monster suggests that the monster perhaps is more similar to men than what we may perceive. If it is assumed that Shelley also shared this view when she wrote the novel, maybe she meant that the real monster manifests itself differently tha...
In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley tells us a story about a man called Victor Frankenstein who creates a Creature which he later decides he does not like. The novel Frankenstein is written in an Epistolary form - a story which is written in a letter form - and the letters are written from an English explorer, Robert Walton, to his sister Margaret Saville. Robert is on an expedition to the North Pole, whilst on the expedition; Robert is completely surrounded by ice and finds a man who is in very poor shape and taken on board: Victor Frankenstein. As soon as Victor’s health improves, he tells Robert his story of his life. Victor describes how he discovers the secret of bringing to life lifeless matter and, by assembling different body parts, creates a monster who guaranteed revenge on his creator after being unwanted from humanity.
Letters Frankenstein This passage is out of letter three, paragraph three. I chose this paragraph because it sounded interesting and it plays a very important part in this novel. Mary Shelley wrote this novel during the Industrial Revolution. The characters in this passage approached the North Pole, challenging the Northern Sea in July.
Victor, out of horror of what he had created leaves the monster in isolation. The monster describes what it was like, “It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half frightened, as it were instinctively, finding myself so desolate… I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept,” (Shelley 87). At this point the monster is just an innocent child, who in his first hours has faced abandonment and such strong emotions. However, he is pure, like most babies. While he looks like a monstrosity he shows himself to be anything but. His first encounters with humans are all very negative. A man runs away screaming just at the sight of him. Villagers pelted him with rocks and chased him away. This makes him very fearful of humans. However, when he comes across the De Lacey family in their little cottage he sees how peaceful they are and he regains some hope. “What chiefly struck me was the gentle manners of these people; and I longed to join them, but dared not. I remembered too well the treatment I had suffered the night before from the barbarous villagers, and resolved, whatever course of conduct I might hereafter think it right to pursue, that for the present I would remain quietly in my hovel, watching, and endeavoring to discover the motives which influenced their actions,” (Shelley 93). He is curious little
Robert Walton was on an expedition when he discovered Victor Frankenstein. Walton helped Frankenstein regain his health and listened to his bizarre story about the monster. Frankenstein started his story with his early life in Geneva. He told Walton all about his family, his love Elizabeth Lavenza, and his friend Henry Clerval. The story started with his happy childhood but gets darker as it progressed. Frankenstein’s ambitions took over him when he started the University of Ingolstadt. He spent months trying to find old body parts to finish his creation. His creation finally came to life, and he is terrified of his creation. He does not understand how he could have created something so hideous. The monster was left alone because
The story starts in 1770 when Victor is born and ends in 1799 when he dies on his boat in the north pole. The novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, is told almost entirely through flashback. All of the story Frankenstein tells to Walton is told looking back. For instance, towards the beginning of Frankenstein's flash back, he says""I, their oldest child, was born at Naples, and as an infant accompanied them in their rambles" (16). Frankenstein tells his story at the very beginning, his own birth. Frankenstein sometimes goes into a bit too much depth, but he makes up for it in his extreme detail. The way the story is told as a flashback, makes the story a first hand story. Frankenstein is directly relating his experiences with Walton. The way
Walton’s letters at the beginning of the story serve many purposes. By having a character that introduces the story of Victor Frankenstein and his “monster”, Shelley keeps Frankenstein’s fate a secret. Otherwise, Frankenstein’s narration would be cut off and that would ruin an essence of the novel. In addition, Walton serves as a character that Frankenstein is similar and can relate to. This character parallelism provides a means of connection throughout the novel and pulls the book together.
As a result, the Creature becomes a wretched monster, who now has no sympathy for anyone or anything. The Creature becomes fixed on the idea of needing a companion, and due to this obsession, he turns Victor’s life upside down. The Creature is able to torment Victor by killing his family members, then quickly vanishing so Victor can not tell who or what he saw. The Creature and Victor finally meet again, and the Creature tells Victor of his stories and struggles. Throughout the novel, the Creature remains in the same state of being, he persistently harasses Victor and maintains a watchful eye on him.
Frankenstein exhibit a quest for knowledge in Shelley’s Frankenstein. The boat captain, Walton sets sail in his quest to explore and gain knowledge of an unknown region of the earth called the North Pole. Frankenstein is seen always purring over books in his quest for sublime knowledge. He becomes very obsessed with knowledge and scientific development of life after his mother’s death and thus, begins a journey to actualize this dream through carrying out experiments while attending medical school at Ingolstadt. Despite the difficulties and obstacles that keep rearing their ugly heads up, the captain by glacier, and Frankenstein by opposition and restriction from his professor, these two characters do not give up.
THrough his letters to his sister he explains his intentions to travel to the North Pole to see what no man has seen before. It takes him four months to gather the supplies needed such as a vessel to travel on and a strong and dependable crew. Late into Robert’s journey he writes about a stranger he picks up from the middle of the waters. “So strange an accident has happened to us that I cannot forbear recording it, although it is very probable that you will see me before these papers can come into your possession” (Shelley 8). The stranger was none other than Victor Frankenstein, and he begins to give an explanation to why he was in the middle of the ocean. Robert observes and takes notes of Victor’s horrific predicament. Upon hearing the terrible tale, Robert is left determining what to believe all while debating putting the lives of himself and his crew in danger. Robert is instructed by Viktor that it would be ignorant to continue on, therefore the expedition comes to an end. Victor dies, and Robert Walton is left on his own to make sense of all the events that occurred throughout this