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…
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…
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
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
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...
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.
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.
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
It was very strange to see another human/carriage on the ice. It was a shock to the crew to see a single man on a sled dragged by dogs through the Northern Sea. Comparing to a well equipped ship, the sled looked like a deadly ride. As mentioned earlier, you could only see the endless ice surrounding them and they couldn?t believe that a single man would travel far from the Big Land. However, the man on the sled was a gigantic stature and most likely he was a strong and brave man.
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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...
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.