Frankenstein

- Mary Shelley

• 1st science fiction novel

• Published: 1818, re. 1831
- 1st edition: issued anonymously, P.B Shelly contributed the Preface with
dedication to William Godwin
- 2nd edition: Mary got authorship (1823, published in France)
• Genre: Gothic, sci-fiction & Epistolary Novel
• Plot Device: Story within a story
• Full Title: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
• Begins with: Letters of Captain Robert Walton to his sister
• Sets in: Europe in 1790’s
• Victor was a pen name of Percy's, in the collection of poetry he wrote with his sister
Elizabeth, Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire.
• THE NOVEL CAME OUT OF A GHOST STORY COMPETITION (summer of 1816).
• Based on real scientific practice: Luigi Galvani’s Galvanism
• Popular Adaptation
- Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein (1823)
- Play in 3 acts by Richard Brinsley Peake
- first recorded theatrical adaptation of the novel
- Thomas Edition adapted the story for 15 min film in 1910

Allusions to Paradise Lost

• Epigraph of the novel
• 1st book Monster read is Paradise Lost in Volume 2 Chapter 7
Parallels between the characters:
• God
- Victor, like god he neglected his creation
• Satan
- Monster was created benevolent
- The creation defied his Master
• Adam
- Victor created life against natural order
- The creation (monster) was in complete solitude

Important Comments
• Walter Scott, whose novels were a great popular success, wrote a fairly laudatory
review praising the author’s “uncommon powers of poetic imagination.”
• "in doubt whether the head or the heart of the author be the most diseased." (John
Wilson Croker, in Quarterly Review)
• “a tissue of horrible and disgusting absurdity"(John Wilson Croker, in Quarterly
Review)
Detailed Summary
Preface
• an epigraph taken from John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, which recounts the
story of the creation of man and woman, the fall from the Garden of Eden, and the
earlier fall of Satan from heaven and his role in bringing about the fall of Adam and
Eve.
• The epigraph, quoting Adam, reads:
"Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay/To mould me man, Did I solicit
thee/From darkness to promote me?"
• Dedication to William Godwin
• An anonymous brief preface connects the novel to the research into the origin of
life by British physician Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) and German scientists
• has a sketchy account of the visit to Geneva and storytelling contest that caused
Mary Shelley to write the novel
• After a conversation about galvanism, Mary had a vivid dream of a scientist who
had brought a horrible "phantasm of a man" to life and quickly recoiled at this
"odious handy-work."
• Awakened by the nightmare, Mary began writing Frankenstein.
• Mary explains that she saw the tale as only a short story at first but that Percy
encouraged her to expand it and explore the matter further
• She closes the introduction by explaining that, while Percy encouraged her in many
ways, the novel and its execution are hers alone and owe nothing to him in detail.

Letters - 4
• The story of Frankenstein is narrated in a series of four letters written by Robert
Walton, a 28-year-old British explorer, to his sister, Margaret Saville, in England.
 Letter 1
• December 11th, 17
• Robert Walton, preparing to explore the North Pole.
• He outlines his plan to leave St. Petersburg, Russia for Archangel.
• he will hire a ship and crew and leave for the north in June.
 Letter 2
• March 28, from Archangel, Russia
• Walton finds a ship and gathers men to sail with him. While he is close to starting
out for his dream, he realizes that he is missing something.
• "I have no friend, Margaret: when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success,
there will be none to participate my joy; if I am assailed by disappointment, no one
will endeavour to sustain me in dejection."
 Letter 3
• July 7,
• Walton writes that the ship is well under way and is nearing the North Pole
• Walton sails out and feels optimistic about the success of his journey because all
incidents up to that point had been handled with relative ease.
 Letter 4
• August 5
• On July 31 his ship got stuck in the ice floes. That same day Walton and his crew
saw the strangest thing: a "gigantic" figure of a man traveling by dogsled on the ice
floes.
• The next morning, they found another man, this one of normal size, also on a
dogsled. (nearly dead
• A few days later, when the stranger had recovered sufficiently to speak, he told
Walton and Walton's lieutenant that he has been chasing someone also traveling
by dogsled
• August 13
• The stranger tells Walton, "But I—I have lost everything, and cannot begin life
anew."
• August 19
• Walton writes that the stranger promises to tell Walton his story "the next day”
• The stranger calls Walton "my friend."
• Walton plans to "record" the stranger's story

Monster Murder Chronology

William Frankenstein > Henry Clerval > Elizabeth Lavenza
Volume 1, Chapter 1
• The stranger, Victor Frankenstein, begins telling the story of his life.
• He was born and raised in a good family in Geneva, Switzerland.
• His father, Alphonse Frankenstein, a well-respected member of the local
government, married Caroline Beaufort, a much younger woman.
• While in Italy, Victor’s parents adopted a lovely little girl, Elizabeth Lavenza (when
Victor was four).
• When he was nine, Victor met Henry Clerval (interested in chivalry & romance), a
schoolmate.
• Victor had two brothers; Ernest is six years younger than Victor, and William was
an infant when Victor reached 15
• Victor started reading the works of Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus
Magnus when he was 13.
• Two years later, at 15, he saw an electrical storm, which develops his interest in
electricity.

Volume 1, Chapter 2
• When Victor was 17 years old, his parents decided that he should attend the
University of Ingolstadt in Germany.
• Before he could enroll, however, Elizabeth became ill with scarlet fever.
• While taking care of Elizabeth, Caroline contracted the disease and died.
• She also made Victor and Elizabeth promise to marry.
• Victor describes two of his professors, M. Krempe and M. Waldman. Krempe, who
teaches natural philosophy, had a "repulsive countenance" and was critical of the
time Victor wasted studying the alchemists.
• With Waldman as his mentor, Victor decided to study chemistry.

Volume 1, Chapter 3
• Victor was especially interested in studying the human body and the question of
from "whence ... did the principle of life proceed?"
• To that end, he dug up corpses from the cemetery and removed bodies from
morgues to experiment upon.
• He hoped that soon he would be able to bring dead bodies back to life. But Victor
realized that acquiring such knowledge is extremely dangerous.
• Victor says, he started to build a giant man-shaped creature, about eight feet tall,
from various scavenged body parts. (Creation of Monster)
• He was sure that this new species would celebrate him as its creator and look upon
him as a father; he set a long-term goal of "renew[ing] life" in the dead.

Volume 1, Chapter 4
• Victor relates to Walton his success
• He brought the Monster to life in November
• He intended to make a "beautiful" creature, but the Monster was "a catastrophe."
 • "But now that I had finished," he tells Walton, "the beauty of the dream vanished,
and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart."
• In a nightmare, he kissed Elizabeth, who then died and transformed into Victor's
dead mother.
• The next morning, Victor went into Ingolstadt and walked aimlessly through the
streets. He thought of lines from Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
• Henry Clerval, who had come to the university to study, found Victor and took him
back to his apartment.
• The Monster had fled
• Henry convinced Victor to write to his father, reassuring him that he is fine. Henry
also told Victor he had brought a letter from Elizabeth.

Volume 1, Chapter 5
• Victor relates that Henry gave him Elizabeth's letter, which was filled with family
news and events, including information about Justine Moritz (working as servent),
who had moved into the Frankenstein house when she was 12 because her mother
rejected her.
• Justine Moritz: behavior and appearance similar to Caroline Frankenstein (acc. To
Elizabeth)
• Victor remained in Ingolstadt that summer and then, because of poor weather,
stayed until the following May.
• Victor and Henry took a two-week vacation, a walking tour of Ingolstadt, and
delighted in the beauty of nature and the comfort it offers.

Volume 1, Chapter 6 (William was Killed)

• His happy mood abruptly ended back in Ingolstadt on receiving a letter from his
father, informing him of the tragic news that his brother William had been
strangled in a park.
• The police cannot find the locket that Elizabeth had given William. That locket
contained a miniature portrait of their mother, Caroline Frankenstein
• His father asked him to come home once
• Didn’t cried for 2 days (brought to tears by seeing the beauty of Mont Blanc.)
• On his journey, Victor realized that he had not been home for almost six years
• A flash of lightning revealed the figure to be the Monster, whom Victor had not
seen since bringing him to life two years before. Victor suspects the Monster has
murdered William.
• He cried with his brother Ernest, who explained that since the missing locket was
found in Justine's possession, she was assumed to be the murderer and was being
tried that day.
• Victor assured Ernest, their father, and Elizabeth that Justine was innocent, but he
cannot explain his reasons for asserting this because doing so would reveal his
creation of the Monster.

Volume 1, Chapter 7
• At the trial, Justine tells a credible story, and Elizabeth addresses the court with a
modest but compelling petition.
 • Victor, convinced that the judges have already condemned Justine and paralyzed
by his guilty conscience, leaves the court without saying a word.
• Justine is convicted and condemned. Before her execution, she sees Elizabeth and
Victor again and explains that she was forced to confess to the crime (her priest
threatened her with excommunication if she did not.)
• Victor felt "despair" and "agony" and calls himself the "true murderer." Victor was
devastated, as two members of his family will have now died because of the
monster he created.

Volume 2, Chapter 1-2

• Consumed with guilt, Victor finds refuge in solitude. Overwhelmed by despair, he
decides to travel to the Valley of Chamounix, where, as a boy, he enjoyed the
beauties of nature.
• At first, he is enchanted by the majestic landscape, but grief and fear eventually
return and torment him.
• The next morning, Victor climbs the summit of Montanvert and, at noon, reaches
its majestic top.
• Moved by the "solitary grandeur" of the scene, Victor quotes to Walton the last
eight lines of Percy's poem "Mutability."
• Suddenly, he notices in the distance a strange and vigorous figure advancing
toward him, and he recognizes the terrifying shape of his creature.
• The Monster quickly appears before him and convinces Victor to listen to his story.
• Victor realized that "for the first time, also, I felt what the duties of a creator
towards his creature were, and that I ought to render him happy before I
complained of his wickedness."
• They went to the Monster's hut so the Monster could tell his story

Volume 2, Chapter 3
• Confused and scared after Victor’s abandonment, the Monster begins to search for
food and shelter. He arrives at a village but is attacked by the villagers and chased
away.
• Frightened, he finds refuge in an abandoned hovel attached to a small cottage.
Soon, the Monster discovers a De Lacey family of three—an old man, a young man,
and a young woman.

Volume 2, Chapter 4
• It took the Monster a while to realize the cause of their sadness: they are very poor.
• Moved by their plight, the Monster stopped stealing their food and anonymously
gathered wood for them, relieving them of this burdensome chore.
• The Monster learned that language exists and then, slowly, learned to start to speak
French by listening to the family speak it.
• The Monster also caught his first glimpse of himself, reflected in a pool, and was
shocked at his grotesque appearance.
Volume 2, Chapter 5
• One day, the Monster saw a beautiful young lady arrive at the cottage, to Felix's
great delight.
• She is Safie, the woman Felix loves.
• Safie does not speak French, so Felix used a book called Ruins of Empires by the
Comte de Volney to teach her the language
• These thoughts prompted the Monster to look inward, and he realized that he had
nothing that would gain mankind's respect: "no money, no friends, no kind of
property."
• He also longed for "friends and relations," for another "being resembling" him, and
for interaction with others.

Volume 2, Chapter 6
• the Monster recounts the history of the De Lacey family
• Felix refused the merchant's offer of both money and marriage to Safie in return
for his rescue, although he hoped to marry Safie anyway.
• The Turkish merchant betrayed Felix by ordering Safie home to Turkey, but she
managed to escape to return to Felix, which explained her arrival at the cottage.

Volume 2, Chapter 7
• the Monster relates that one evening he found a suitcase of books (Milton’s
Paradise Lost, Plutarch's Lives of Illustrious Greeks and Romans, Goethe’s
Sorrows of Werter) that he read and thought about deeply.
• He was especially moved by Milton's Paradise Lost, which he read as accurate
history rather than a work of imagination.
• The De Laceys, whom the Monster had come to see as his own family, were happier
since Safie's arrival. The Monster again compares himself to Adam, but he has "no
Eve" and his creator has "abandoned" him.
• Agatha fainted, Safie fled, and Felix beat the Monster with a stick. The Monster ran
from the cottage.
• Paying close attention to Felix’s explanations, the Monster learns about complex
philosophical and social concepts, gender differences, motherhood, family
relations, and death.
• This newly acquired knowledge makes him reflect on his own condition, status,
and identity.

Volume 2, Chapter 8
• That night, in a fury, the Monster declared "everlasting war" against all humans,
especially Victor Frankenstein.
• That night, he burned the De Laceys' cottage to the ground and set off, hoping to
reach Geneva.
• He traveled a long time, developing a desire for "justice" from and then "revenge"
on his "heartless creator," finding pleasure only in nature.
• Along the way, the Monster saved a "young girl" from drowning, but her male
companion shot the Monster in the shoulder
 • He vowed revenge against humanity for the "outrages and anguish" they had
caused him.
• Explained the Murder of William
- Two months later, near Geneva, the Monster was awakened from a nap by a
beautiful child. Believing the child too young and innocent to fear him, the
Monster grabbed the boy.
- boy screamed, "Monster! Ugly wretch!" certain the Monster wished to eat him
or tear him to pieces.
- The boy proclaimed that his father, Mr. Frankenstein, will "punish" the
Monster.
- Hearing the child's identity, the Monster said, "You shall be my first victim,"
and strangled him.
- The Monster took the portrait the child was wearing. When he saw a young
woman (Justine), he decided to punish her in place of other people who have
rejected him and secretly placed the necklace on her.
- He was fully aware that the innocent young woman would be blamed for the
murder of the boy.
- The Monster relates that he then wandered for some time, hoping to see and
confront Victor.
- The chapter closes with his demand that Victor end his solitude by making him
a mate

Volume 2, Chapter 9
• The Monster has finished his story
• The Monster vowed to destroy Victor if his demand were not met.
• If Victor complies, however, the Monster promises to take his mate to the
uninhabited territory of South America and never come back
• The Monster argued with eloquence, and Victor finally agreed to his demand.
• Immediately, Victor and the Monster part ways; overnight, Victor slowly and
unhappily returned to Chamounix.

Volume 3, Chapter 1
• Not eager to begin his work, Victor relates, he procrastinated in Geneva and found
"returning tranquility" on the lake.
• Mr. Frankenstein pressed Victor to marry Elizabeth
• Reluctant to marry before he created the Monster's promised mate, Victor decided
to first go to England to do research, find some information he needs, and keep his
family safe by staying away.
• Worried about Victor's mental health, his father and Elizabeth arranged for Henry
Clerval to accompany Victor
• Victor set off in August, with the understanding that he and Elizabeth would marry
when he returned, although he told her the trip would take two years.
• Victor and Henry traveled though Germany and Holland on the Rhine before
arriving in London
 • In his account to Walton, Victor remembers his "beloved friend," praising Henry's
"imagination" and "sensibility," and quoting from two romantic poems: "The
Story of Rimini" by Leigh Hunt and "Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth.
• He expresses to Walton his sadness that Henry is now dead.

Volume 3, Chapter 2
• In Henry, Victor sees himself before he created the Monster, as Henry was still
eager to learn and experience new things
• At the end of March, Victor and Henry traveled through the English countryside to
Edinburgh, Scotland, responding to a friend's invitation.
• On his own, Victor set up a laboratory on a remote island in the Orkneys.
• The island was so isolated that it had only three huts; Victor took the one that was
empty.
• He set to work making the female monster, but every day, that work seemed to him
more and more terrible
• Henry, living elsewhere, had no idea what Victor was doing.

Volume 3, Chapter 3 (destroy Female Monster)

• He worried about the possible outcomes of making this new creation, fearing the
two creatures would mate and create a "race of devils" that would make human life
"full of terror."
• Victor saw a figure at the hut's window; the Monster had followed Victor and Henry
through their travels. In a fit of terror and fury, Victor ripped the female figure
apart.
• The upset Monster left, and threatens a terrible revenge on Victor’s wedding night.
• While throwing the remains of the unfinished creature into the sea, Victor falls
asleep.
• His boat comes to rest on the shore of a small harbor in Ireland. Here, he is arrested
under suspicion of.

Volume 3, Chapter 4
• Victor learned that the body of a handsome young man washed ashore. Initially,
the men assumed the victim had drowned, but they soon discovered that he had
been strangled.
• At the sight of Henry Clerval’s dead body, Victor becomes violently ill.
• He’s nursed in prison by a competent but hostile nurse.
• An unexpected visit by his father accelerates Victor’s recovery.
• Released for lack of evidence, Victor and his father sail back to Geneva.

Volume 3, Chapter 5
• During this trip, Victor told his father he was responsible for the deaths of William,
Justine, and Henry; his father viewed Victor as mad
• In Paris, Victor receives a disturbing letter from Elizabeth, expressing her fear that
the real cause of his suffering is that he loves another woman.
• Victor reassures her of his love and promises to reveal the reason for his agony on
their wedding day.
 • Soon after his arrival in Geneva, Victor and Elizabeth are married, and the couple
sails to Evian for their wedding night.

Volume 3, Chapter 6
• Despite Victor’s vigilance, the Monster enters their nuptial chamber and strangles
Elizabeth.
• While embracing her dead body, Victor sees the Monster through an open window
and shoots at him, but the Monster escapes.
• Victor returns to Geneva fearing that his father and brother have been murdered
also.
• They’re still alive but just a few days later Victor’s father dies in his arms. Having
lost everything, Victor vows to destroy the Monster.

Volume 3, Chapter 7
• Victor finishes his story.
• Walton continues to write Margaret about Victor’s last days, his death, and the
Monster’s unexpected arrival on the ship.
• Accused by Walton for his wicked revenge, the Monster responds that the real
murderer was Victor.
• He created and abandoned him and forced him to change from a compassionate
and virtuous being into a violent and bitter creature.
• Finishing his speech, the Monster vanishes into the darkness.
Quotes
• You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an
enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.

• "What may not be expected in a country of eternal light?"

Robert Walton, Letter 1

• "How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch
whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form?"
• "My country! My beloved country! who but a native can tell the delight I took in
again beholding thy streams, thy mountains, and, more than that, thy lovely lake!"
• "My abhorrence of this fiend cannot be conceived."
• "My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects. This being
you must create."
• "I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all
mankind?"
• He sprung from the cabin-window, as he said this, upon the ice-raft which lay close
to the vessel. He was soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness and
distance.