"I am by birth a Genevese, and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic." ― Chapter 1
Victor Frankenstein is the main protagonist, narrator and the titular character in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He is the son of Alphonse and Caroline Frankenstein, the brother of Ernest and William Frankenstein, and the cousin/husband of Elizabeth Lavenza.
While studying science, Victor attempts to make a new discovery by reanimating a vile creature from the dead. He regrets making his creation and is about to have his life ruined.
Description[]
Victor Frankenstein is a tragic character with goals and expectations. Having always been interested in alchemy and philosophy, he attended university, where he learned more about his subjects and looked up to his professors. But he soon regretted the subjects he enjoyed when he decided to make the monster.
He faces a dramatic change throughout the novel. In the beginning, he is learning the basics of science and the facts of life, and towards the end, he is overwhelmed by his monster and vows to reverse his choice. But his extreme ambition and the exhausting journey would become his downfall. Even if he declares vengeance against the Monster, he ends up being like his creation: isolated and losing innocence to the evil of nature.
Victor is compared to Prometheus, a Greek Titan who, according to mythology, created mankind by constructing them out of clay and had the Goddess Athena breathe life into them. Prometheus was sympathetic and caring, as he helped his creations learn survival aspects, such as harvesting, hunting, and building their homes. However, Prometheus stole the fire from the Gods as knowledge, and the Gods punished him for it. Victor may be like Prometheus, but his results and actions are more tragic. He discovers the facts of creating life itself, and rather than building one from scratch, he resurrected the dead. Like how the Gods punished Prometheus for stealing from them, Victor was punished by the monster (or possibly by God himself) for not caring or helping his mankind creation and losing all his loved ones closest to him.
Storyline[]
Family History/Early Years[]
Victor’s ancestors were government members, with his father Alphonse Frankenstein having an important political role and being a respected gentleman for his loyal dignity. He spent most of his younger years working in the community and had little time to settle down and start a family.[1]
Alphonse befriended a merchant named Beaufort, who fell into poverty from misfortunes. He attempted to overcome his struggles, and after paying his debts, he retreated to Lucerne, Switzerland, with his daughter Caroline, where he lived in misery.
Alphonse was close to Beaufort and was devastated by his impoverished lifestyle. He was determined to connect with his friend again and get him back into the business. Months later, Alphonse found Beaufort’s home in an impoverished street near the Reuss River, where he saw Beaufort had saved what little money he had left from his misfortunes. Alphonse would use the money to support himself. 3 months later, Beaufort fell ill, and Caroline attended to him and worked in the fields but could not earn enough money to overcome their troubles.
Several months passed, and Beaufort’s health deteriorated. Caroline spent all of her time nursing him and was unable to work. Within 10 months, Beaufort died in his daughter’s arms, and Caroline was left a penniless orphan. Alphonse found her grieving over her father’s coffin and offered to care for her. After Beaufort was laid to rest, Alphonse became Caroline’s personal guardian, and 2 years later, they were married.
Alphonse devoted himself to protecting his wife and caring for her after the traumatic events she had been through. He left his job with the government, and the couple settled in Italy. They travelled to Germany and France, and their first child, Victor, was born in Naples. From infancy, Victor accompanied his parents on their travels and, for several years, was their only child. They loved him with affection, and Caroline longed to have a daughter.
When Victor was 5 years old, his family made a short trip to Italy and visited the shores of Lake Como for a week. His parents would often visit the homes of the poor, and his mother sees this more as an act of passion. After what she had suffered in her youth, she hoped to help those less fortunate than her. During one of their walks, the Frankensteins came upon an impoverished house filled with half-clothed children that caught their attention. One day, while Alphonse was visiting Milan, Caroline took her son to the poor family’s house they saw the other day. A peasant and his wife are working hard to feed their five children, and one of them catches Caroline’s attention. Four children were dark-eyed and small, but the fifth child was a thin, fair girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a beautiful face. Despite wearing impoverished clothing, she was the most distinctive of the children. The peasant woman noticed Caroline’s attention on the girl and told her the child’s backstory, as she is not her child.
The girl was the daughter of a Milanese nobleman, and a German woman who died giving birth to her. Her parents were recently married when she was born, and her father was among many Milanese people who were unhappy with the rule of Austria in their province of Lombardy. He attempted to obtain freedom for his country. However, he had failed, and his fate was unknown; he was either dead or imprisoned in Austria. His property was confiscated, and his daughter became a penniless orphan. She was placed in the care of a poor Italian family, and her beauty was a shining light in their home.
Caroline persuaded the family to let her adopt the girl. Despite the family being fond of her and a blessing in their home, they knew it wouldn’t be fair to keep her in poverty when someone was eager to have her. After consulting the local priest, Caroline adopted the girl and brought her home. When Alphonse returns from Milan, he finds the two children playing together, and Caroline explains everything. The girl was named Elizabeth Lavenza, and everyone loved and adored her. The night before Elizabeth was brought home, Caroline was excited to bring her son a present. The next day, Elizabeth was presented to Victor, and they became close companions, often referring to each other as “cousin,” and he saw her as more than just his adoptive sister.
Victor and Elizabeth grew up together, and there wasn’t a difference between their age gaps.[2]They were very close as children, and Elizabeth spent most of her time pursuing the arts of poetry and surrounding herself with nature at their home, while Victor became curious about nature and the world.
7 years after Elizabeth was adopted, Victor's younger brother Ernest was born. The Frankensteins ended their years of travelling and settled in Geneva, Switzerland. Victor's parents had told him not to make too many friends, but when at school, he befriended Henry Clerval, the son of a Genevese merchant. Clerval was talented and enjoyed reading books about chivalry and romance, and he also wrote heroic songs and stories of adventures. He even tried to have Victor and his family participate in plays and masquerade parties.
Alphonse and Caroline were kind, loving parents, and Elizabeth brightened their home with her kindness and beauty. Victor is grateful for their affection but is determined to learn about science and philosophy, while Clerval is more interested in heroes and adventures. When Victor was 13 years old, he travelled to Thonon, and while staying in an inn, he read a book by occultist writer Cornelius Agrippa. Victor was fascinated by Agrippa's writings about philosophy, but Alphonse reminded his son not to waste his time reading about Agrippa. Despite Alphonse’s disapproval, Victor still reads Agrippa’s book. When he arrives home, he reads more of Agrippa’s works and other books written by other famous philosophers, such as Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. His research fascinates him, but he is still left unsatisfied. However, these philosophers’ books teach him more about science than school did. Throughout his teenage years, he has been interested in finding the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life, which leaves his family concerned about his strange interests.
When he was 15 years old, Victor and his family stayed at their vacation home in Belrive when a violent thunderstorm appeared from the Jura mountains. Victor curiously watches the storm from his house and witnesses a bolt of lightning strike an oak tree about 20 yards from his house and then catch on fire. When the flames were extinguished, there was only a stump left. But the next morning, Victor sees that the tree wasn’t splintered by the shock but was reduced to thin shreds of wood. After a local philosopher stays with the Frankensteins and explains electricity and galvanization, Victor realizes he hasn’t learned much from his research about alchemy and philosophy. Instead, he decides to learn about natural history but is unaware of what destiny has in store.
University of Ingolstadt[]
When Victor is 17 years old, his parents resolved to enroll him at the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria.[3] He has previously attended schools in Geneva, but Alphonse thinks it would be best for him to continue his education somewhere else. His departure is fixed early, but Elizabeth falls severely ill with scarlet fever before he can leave. The family tries to persuade Caroline not to attend to her, but when Elizabeth’s illness worsens, she stays by her side to nurse her. Elizabeth recovers, but Caroline contracts the illness a few days later. The doctors looking after her can do nothing for her, and on her deathbed, she summons Victor and Elizabeth to her bedside. She expresses her final wish for them to be married one day, asks Elizabeth to take her place to raise the younger children, and hopes to see them again in another life.
Caroline dies calmly, and the family is grief-stricken by her death. Victor is also devastated, and his departure for Ingolstadt has been rescheduled. He asks his father to grieve for a couple more weeks but finds it hard to depart from his family. Elizabeth takes on her new role as a caregiver to her younger siblings while still bringing happiness to the household with her kindness and love.
On the last night before Victor’s departure, Clerval visits him. He has been persuading his father to let him accompany Victor to Ingolstadt and even study alongside him. However, Clerval’s father is not keen on his son pursuing his ambitions, but Victor sees his friend will not give up easily. Victor stays up late with his family, having difficulty saying goodbye to them. When morning arrives, Victor gets into the coach that will take him to Ingolstadt. Alphonse, Elizabeth and Clerval bid him farewell before the coach departs.
Victor is now on his own, and when he’s at the university, he will protect himself and probably make new friends. However, he hopes to improve his knowledge as he longs to explore the outside world and meet new people. The journey to Ingolstadt is long and exhausting. Victor sees a church steeple in a town and looks forward to spending his leisure time alone in his apartment. At the university, he meets his professors for the first time. Mr. Krempe is his professor of natural philosophy and is a rough, ill-mannered man. He questions Victor about science over philosophy, and Victor talks about how he got his research from the alchemists. Mr. Krempe tells him he wastes time studying alchemy and must start his studies again. He even writes him a list of natural philosophy books he should read, and he will do some lectures next week, while his chemistry professor, Mr. Waldman, will lecture on chemistry later.
Despite Mr. Krempe’s disapproval, Victor still focuses his studies on alchemy but later does more research on natural philosophy. For the next few days, he becomes acquainted with the locals and residents at Ingolstadt. He attends Krempe’s lectures and hears a lot about Mr. Waldman, who is out of town at the moment. But when he enters another lecture hall, he sees Mr. Waldman arrive. He looks much older than Krempe but has a kind voice. He begins his lecture by talking about the history of chemistry and the discoverers who learned about them. After doing a couple of experiments, he explains that several philosophers and chemists in the past have made unexpected miracles that modern scientists cannot do today. Victor is so moved by Waldman’s explanation that he has an idea of making new discoveries in creation.
Victor can barely sleep that night, his mind filled with Waldman’s lecture about scientific miracles. When morning comes, he falls asleep. He decides to visit Waldman and tells him about his past alchemy studies, which delights Waldman. Waldman assures Victor that when a genius fails, he becomes successful because he has learned something new. Victor asks him for advice, and Waldman supports his interest in becoming a skilled scientist, and he should study all the branches of science and mathematics if he wishes to meet his goal. Waldman takes Victor into his laboratory, shows him his chemistry sets, instructs him what to do with him, and gives him some books he requests for his research before Victor leaves satisfied.
Victor spends all of his time researching natural philosophy and chemistry.[4]He attends the lectures of his professors, Krempe and Waldman. Victor doesn’t get along with Krempe, but he dotes on Waldman since he encourages him to follow his path of knowledge.
Two years have passed. Victor hasn’t visited his family in Geneva and focuses more on his studies. He makes new discoveries in chemistry, which gives him self-esteem. At one point, he even considers returning home to see his family until he comes across human anatomy and life after death. He studies how human bodies decay and visits burial vaults and morgues to study the corpses. After many days of research, he is convinced he has finally found the answer to restore the dead back to life.
He debates for a while on how he will do his experiment. He wonders if he should make a human being like himself but can’t accept the idea of trying to resurrect a dead person or animal to life. Either way, he thinks his encouragement would make him succeed. He plans on making his human creation, which would be about eight feet tall, and he begins his work once he has collected all the needed materials.
For many months, Victor works feverishly hard by collecting human body parts from cemeteries and morgues and building his creation alone inside his apartment. Summer passes, and Victor is so focused on his work that he ignores his family back home. He thinks about his father’s words of affection before his departure, and he won’t contact his family until he finishes his project. By autumn, the project is almost complete, but Victor starts feeling feverish and nervous, even shuddering whenever he sees nature.
Bringing the Monster to Life/Tragedies[]
One stormy night in November, Victor brings his creation to life.[5]It is one o’clock in the morning, with the rain pouring hard against the windows and the candlelight growing dimmer. At that moment, the Monster opened its eyes and started to breathe and move.
Victor is horrified by what he has created. The Monster has yellow skin, long black hair, pearly white teeth, shrivelled skin and black lips. Victor thought his creation would be beautiful but made a hideous creature instead. Not wanting to see the Monster any longer, he runs out of the laboratory and paces anxiously in his bedroom. He then goes to bed and hopes he will forget everything by sleeping. He has a nightmare where he sees Elizabeth in the streets of Ingolstadt, and he rushes to embrace and kiss her. But Elizabeth transforms into the corpse of his dead mother, covered in a shroud and grave worms.
He wakes up to see the Monster standing at the foot of his bed and holding the curtains. The creature stares at him and makes strange sounds while smiling. He reaches out his hand to grab Victor, but Victor flees the apartment and spends the entire night in the courtyard where his apartment is. It is a wet, early morning when he wakes up. The courtyard gate has opened, and he roams in the streets, fearing he will run into the Monster and is also scared to return to his apartment. He keeps walking until he arrives at the local inn and spots a coach approaching him. When the coach door opens, Clerval emerges and is delighted to see his friend again. Victor is relieved to see Clerval again and remembers his family back home. He immediately gets over his fear and is filled with bliss and joy.
Victor and Clerval walk to the university. Along the way, Clerval talks about their old friends and how he persuaded his father to attend university in Ingolstadt. He also tells Victor his family is doing fine but is shocked at how thin and weak he looks. Victor says he had been busy working on something without resting for months but hopes to finally be free. As they approach the university, he dreads finding the Monster at the apartment but is more afraid when Clerval sees it. He races upstairs to his room and shudders when he touches the lock, but when he throws open the door, he is surprised to see the apartment is empty and the Monster is nowhere to be seen. He is relieved when he assures himself the Monster escaped and rushes back to Clerval.
The men return to the apartment, where a servant serves them breakfast. Victor doesn’t eat but laughs hysterically, and Clerval asks what is wrong with him. Victor refuses to answer him, imagines the Monster grabbing him, and collapses in a fit. He suffers a fever for months, and Clerval is his only attendant as he looks after him during his illness. Victor is glad that Clerval doesn’t break the news of his illness to his family, but thoughts of the Monster always haunt him.
Victor recovers as spring arrives. He feels cheerful again and thanks Clerval for nursing him back to health, even though he is remorseful for having him attend to him throughout winter. Clerval tells him he should write to his father and cousin, as they have not heard from him for a long time and were unaware of his illness. He then presents Victor with a letter from Elizabeth.
In Elizabeth’s letter, she writes that she had been worried about him when he was sick and hadn’t written back.[6]She says that Clerval had written about Victor’s recovery and is eager to hear back from him. She talks about the family back home who are awaiting his return. Alphonse is well and eager to see him again, and Ernest has just turned 16 years old and wants to join the army. She also talks about Justine Moritz, a young servant girl who had lived with the family, and explains her backstory. Justine grew up as one of four children, and her mother rejected her, so the Frankensteins allowed Justine to live with them. The family loved and adored Justine, and Victor was close to her, but she had her struggles. She had nursed Elizabeth’s dying aunt and then lost her mother and siblings. But she had lived in the Frankenstein family household ever since.
Victor and Elizabeth’s youngest brother, William, is already growing up and is a beautiful, healthy child. After writing some gossip about some of the locals in Geneva, she urges Victor to write back and sends her gratitude to Clerval. Victor is filled with joy and immediately writes back. Within a fortnight, he is able to leave his room. He then introduces Clerval to his professors, but he feels unnerved whenever he sees any chemistry instruments, as it reminds him how he created the Monster. When Clerval notices his friend’s anxiety about chemistry, he makes changes inside his apartment. Mr. Waldman expresses his kindness to Clerval, and it torments Victor. Mr. Krempe continues to be blunt about Victor’s passion for alchemy.
Clerval has come to the university to study languages and is interested in Middle Eastern languages. Victor joins him in his studies. He plans to return home in autumn, but since the harsh weather will make the trip home impossible, he delays it until spring. He misses his family and home terribly and is unwilling to leave Clerval alone at the university.
Winter passes by, and it is spring again. Victor prepares to leave in May, and Clerval invites him to go for a walk in the Bavarian countryside so he can see more of the country one last time before leaving. They spend a fortnight walking in the countryside, and Victor is filled with relief and bliss from the spring air and flower blossoms and listens to Clerval recite fantasy stories and Victor’s favourite poems. They return to the university on a Sunday afternoon, with Victor feeling joyful and everyone around them happily dancing and roaming about.
But when they arrive at the university, Victor finds a letter from his father.[7]Alphonse writes that he was initially going to write an exact date when Victor should arrive home but finds it cruel to do it now, especially when he is about to break some tragic news to him instead of a loving welcome home. He reveals that William has been murdered and includes details of his death. Last Thursday, Alphonse, Elizabeth, Ernest and William went out for a family stroll in Plainpalais on a warm, serene evening. When it gets dark, the family decides to return home, but Ernest and William are nowhere to be found. They decide to wait for them to return, but only Ernest returns. He said he had been playing with William and ran away to hide himself. Ernest waited for him to come out, but after a long time, William never returned.
The family searched for him until nightfall. Elizabeth assumes William had returned to their home without them. But when William wasn’t at the house, they searched again with torches, with Alphonse and Elizabeth filled with unrest and anguish. Early the next morning, William’s body was found. He had been strangled after fingerprints were found around his neck. When Elizabeth saw his body, she was so shocked that she thought she killed him and fainted. After regaining consciousness, she wept that William was carrying a locket with a miniature portrait of their mother, which was not found on his body.
Alphonse urges Victor to return home immediately, as they are grief-stricken, and Elizabeth constantly blames herself for William’s death. Alphonse is also relieved that Caroline isn’t alive to witness this tragedy. He wants Victor not to have hatred for the killer but wants him to be strong as he comes home. After reading the letter, Victor is devastated, and Clerval asks what has happened. Victor hands him the letter and paces around the room. Clerval sheds tears when reading it and tells Victor he cannot console him and what he’ll do now. Victor replies that he must return to Geneva and orders Clerval to help him prepare for his journey home. After Clerval expresses his condolences, Victor bids him goodbye and hurries home in a coach.
Throughout the journey, Victor is filled with melancholy and wants to be home as soon as possible to be with his family, whom he hasn’t seen for a few years. But when he approaches Geneva, he is filled with dread of arriving home. He stays for two days in Lausanne and then proceeds on his journey home. He cries when he sees the Jura mountains and Mont Blanc but becomes more terrified when he gets closer to home. When he does reach Geneva, the city gates have closed, and it’s getting dark. He has no choice but to spend the night in the nearby village of Sechrone. But he cannot rest and decides to visit the area where William’s body was found. A thunderstorm rapidly approaches as he rows across the lake, and lightning strikes the Mont Blanc summit.
When he arrives at the spot where William died, Victor laments for his brother until he spots a figure hiding in nearby trees in the darkness. When the lightning flashes, he sees a giant, hideous creature resembling the Monster. He is immediately convinced that the Monster killed his brother, and the figure disappears into the mountains. Victor is motionless and restless the entire night, his mind on the past events leading up to the Monster’s creation. As soon as dawn arrives, he hurries into town and arrives at his home. He wonders if he should provide details of what he knows about the killer, but he reflects on his terror and illness from the Monster’s creation. He knows that if he told his entire story to his family, they would think he’s insane, so he decides to be silent.
It is five o’clock in the morning when he enters his home. He tells the servants not to wake the family and goes into the library. He remembers that the library was where he bid goodbye to his father before his departure to Ingolstadt. He gazes at his mother’s portrait above the mantlepiece and cries when he sees William’s miniature portrait below his mother’s picture. Ernest then appears, having heard of his arrival, and greets him. Ernest cries with Victor, and Victor tries to comfort his brother and asks about Alphonse and Elizabeth. Ernest says Elizabeth is devastated and blames herself for William’s death, and Victor claims he saw the murderer last night. Ernest then breaks more tragic news: Justine has been accused of William’s murder, and her trial will take place today. Ernest explains that when William was found dead, Justine fell ill and bedridden for a few days. One of the servants had discovered William’s locket inside her apron pocket and, after showing it to the family, reported it to the magistrate, and Justine was arrested.
Victor insists that Justine is a good, innocent girl and would never commit a crime. Alphonse then appears, and after Victor greets him, Ernest tells his father that Victor knows who killed William. Elizabeth joins him and tells him that his arrival has lifted her spirits, and she has been distraught by William’s death and Justine’s accusation. She laments that she’ll never be happy again if Justine is convicted. Victor assures her that Justine is innocent. As Elizabeth cries, Alphonse comforts her and says that if she believes in Justine’s innocence, she will testify in court.
At 11 o’clock, Justine’s trial begins. Victor and his family are called in to be witnesses.[8]He is so guilty that he wishes to confess his crimes in Justine’s place. Justine appears in court with a calm expression and wearing mourning clothes. She sheds a tear when she sees Victor and the family sitting in the courtroom. The trial begins, and several witnesses are called to the stand. One woman testified that on the night of the murder, Justine was absent, and a market woman discovered her the next morning near the spot where William died. She asked Justine what's she was doing there but didn’t give a direct response. When Justine returned home at 8 o’clock, she claimed she had spent the whole evening searching for William. When she was shown William’s body, she fell into hysterics and was bedridden for several days. A servant then finds the locket in Justine’s apron pocket, and the court murmurs with horror when Elizabeth confirms it is the same locket that went missing with William.
Justine remained silent throughout the trial, although she expressed horror and misery and cried a bit. She then says she knows she is innocent but knows her innocence can only be proven with testimonies. With Elizabeth’s permission, she explains that the night William died, she was visiting a family relative in a nearby village. When she returned to Geneva at 9 o’clock, a man asked her about William after he went missing. Alarmed, Justine spent several hours searching for him, but when the Geneva gates closed, she was forced to shelter inside a barn next to a cottage. She spent the whole night waiting and fell asleep for a few minutes when morning approached; she even heard footsteps inside the barn before she woke up when dawn arrived. She laments that she has no idea how the locket was found on her and assumes the killer placed it on her while she slept. She begs the court to allow more witnesses to testify against her.
Several witnesses who have known Justine speak some nice things about her, but the others who think she could be guilty of the crime were too scared to testify. When it is Elizabeth’s turn to testify, she explains she has known Justine for several years and describes her as a kind, loving girl who once nursed her dying aunt and then her own mother. The whole family loved Justine; she loved William as her own, and Elizabeth knows she is too kind to commit murder. Justine cries during Elizabeth’s testimony, while Victor can’t help but feel anguished and agitated. He also believes in Justine’s innocence and wonders if the Monster killed William and then framed Justine. He rushes out of the courtroom as the judge and jury prepare to make a verdict. The next day, Victor returns to the courthouse and learns Justine has been convicted and sentenced to death. A juryman said the judges didn’t want to convict a criminal without any evidence.
When Victor gets home, he informs Elizabeth of the tragic news and then adds that Justine has confessed. Elizabeth is grief-stricken when she hears this and is still unbelieved that Justine is a killer. They also learn that Justine wants to see them for the final time before her execution. Elizabeth wants to go, and she urges Victor to come with her. He knows the visit will be difficult, but he cannot refuse her. They arrive at Justine’s prison cell, where her hands are shackled, and she sits on some straw.
Both Elizabeth and Justine cry in each other’s arms, and Elizabeth begs Justine why she has confessed. Justine replies that a priest had forced her to confess a lie to face salvation and consoles herself that she will join William in Heaven. Elizabeth assures Justine that she won’t die and that she will prove her innocence, but Justine says she isn’t afraid of death and has accepted her fate. Meanwhile, Victor sits in the corner of the jail cell, filled with despair. When Justine sees him, she asks if he thinks she is guilty. Victor doesn’t answer, and Elizabeth tells her he is more convinced of her innocence than she is. Justine thanks Victor and Elizabeth for their kindness, and they stay with her for a few more hours. Elizabeth even wishes she could die with her, and Justine tearfully embraces her and bids her farewell.
Justine is executed the next day. Despite Elizabeth trying to proclaim her innocence, the judges wrongfully convicted and sentenced her to death. The family is devastated, but Victor suffers it the most, as he is filled with insanity and guilt for indirectly causing the deaths of two innocent loved ones.
Meeting the Monster Again[]
Following the deaths of William and Justine, Victor has trouble sleeping and is still filled with remorse.[9]Alphonse even advises his son to try to cope with losing William, and while Victor accepts this advice, he is still miserable. Around this time, the family has retreated to their vacation home in Belrive, and when the family goes to sleep at 10 o’clock, Victor will take a boat and sail out onto the lake. Sometimes, the boat sails into the middle of the lake when the wind picks up. Despite the quiet, serene nature of the lake, Victor feels like drowning himself in the lake to end his own life but refrains from doing so when he thinks of his loved ones. He is filled with hatred when he thinks about the Monster and wants to see him again so he can destroy him to avenge William and Justine.
Back at home, Alphonse is heavily shaken by the recent tragedies. Elizabeth becomes depressed and no longer does her daily activities. She is also no longer the happy, innocent woman she used to be. She even tells Victor she cannot see the world the same way again now that she has experienced injustice from William and Justine’s deaths. She knows that Justine is innocent, and the killer roams free.
Even though Victor knows he is indirectly responsible for his two loved ones’ deaths, he listens to everything she tells him. She consoles him and urges him to cope with their tragic losses since he still has his family and friends. One day, Victor suddenly leaves home and travels to the Chamonix Valley. He arrives there on horseback and then hires a mule. It is a fine day in August, and it has been two months since Justine’s execution. He passes the bridge of Pelissier and ascends a mountain that leads him into the Chamonix valley. He views the beautiful landscape that features glaciers, the Arve River and Mont Blanc. Victor is filled with joy and relief as the Chamonix Valley brings him back childhood memories. He arrives in the Chamonix village, where he rests and listens to the sounds of nature.
Victor spends the following day roaming the valley and then climbs the glaciers near Arveiron.[10]He spends the night in a forest near the glaciers, wakes up depressed, and decides to climb Montanvert on his own to ease his emotions. The climb is dangerous as the path is steep, and some rocks can come crashing down by the slightest disturbance. But Victor survives the journey and sees a breathtaking view of the valley along the way. At noon, he reaches the top of the summit and can see Mont Blanc. At that moment, a large man runs toward him, and when he gets closer, Victor realizes it’s the Monster. Victor gets angry and curses the Monster, threatening to destroy him for causing the deaths of his loved ones. The Monster reminds Victor he is responsible for his own creation, and the Monster warns he will destroy humanity if Victor decides to kill him. Victor loses his temper and lunges at the Monster, but the Monster restrains him, begging him to hear him out about his recent misery, even referring to himself as Adam. Victor refuses to listen to him and orders him to leave, or they will fight. The Monster tells him he is alone and unloved and that he has abandoned him to fend for himself. He has spent a long time roaming in the wilderness with despair, and he urges Victor to hear his story and decide whether Victor should destroy him.
Victor curses the day the Monster was born and pushes away the Monster’s hands when he covers his eyes. Again, the Monster convinces him to hear his story, which is long and strange, but he wants to talk about it in a hut atop the mountain. Despite Victor’s hatred toward the Monster, he is curious as he follows the Monster toward the hut. When they arrived, the air had turned cold and started to rain. While sitting by a fire, the Monster then narrates his story.
The Monster’s Story[]
The Monster recalls how he first woke up, confused and desolate, with no knowledge of daily elements, such as light and darkness, heat and cold, and hunger and thirst.[11] He wandered into the forest, where he discovered fire for the first time and learned how to cook food and warm himself from the fire. After some local villagers become frightened of his appearance and chase him off, the Monster seeks shelter inside a hovel attached to a cottage, where he observed the lives of the De Lacey family living in the cottage, consisting of a blind old man and his two adult children, Felix and Agatha. The Monster noticed that the family treated each other with love and kindness but were sad at the same time. The Monster heard music for the first time when he listened to the father play his guitar and expressed his first emotions.
Throughout the winter, the Monster continued to observe the De Laceys.[12]He learned that the family was sad because they were poor, and the Monster wished he could join them but wouldn’t take the risk after the villagers were terrified of him and chased him off. Instead, he secretly helped them by gathering firewood for them and foraging his own food instead of stealing their food. He also learned to talk by listening to the De Laceys speak French and was horrified when he saw his own reflection in a pond. He was determined to make the family happy again and hoped they would eventually accept him as their friend.
When spring arrived, a dark-skinned woman named Safie arrived at the cottage, and Felix was overjoyed to see her.[13]The family was also happy to see her and welcome her warmly into their home. Safie didn’t speak French, so Felix taught her with a book called Empire of Lives. The Monster learned with her and was taught about world history and good vs. evil. After learning about children and families, he is dismayed at the idea that he’s a hideous monster with no family or friends, but sees the De Laceys as his protectors, considering them the closest thing to a family he has ever had.
Some time passed, and the Monster pieced together the family background. [14]The De Laceys were once a respected, aristocratic family living in Paris. Safie was the daughter of a Muslim merchant from Constantinople and a Christian mother who taught her about the importance of Christianity, feminism and morality. Following her mother’s death, Safie and her father moved to Paris to start anew, but the Turk was tried and imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, with Safie joining him in jail. Felix was at the Turk’s trial and felt sympathetic to him. While visiting the Turk in prison, Felix met and fell in love with Safie, with the Turk offering him his daughter’s hand in marriage in exchange for freedom. In addition, Safie hopes to marry a Christian man.
The night before the Turk’s execution, Felix helped him and Safie escape, and they fled to Italy. But when the plot was discovered, the De Laceys were arrested, and Felix left Safie in a covent to reunite with his family. After a five-month imprisonment, the De Laceys lost their wealth and were exiled to Germany, where they settled in the cottage. Felix later learned that the Turk had been plotting against him all along and had no intentions of letting him marry Safie because he was a Christian, and he took Safie back with him to Constantinople. However, Safie managed to escape and was reunited with Felix with the help of a local as her guide.
One night, while foraging for food in the forest, the Monster discovered an abandoned satchel that contained some books and clothing.[15] The first book is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Werter, which is about the titular character’s suffering and rejection; the second is Plutarch’s Lives of Illustrious Greeks and Romans, which teaches about the Greeks and Romans; and the third is John Milton’s Paradise Lost, which is about the loss of innocence and humankind in the Garden of Eden. The Monster teaches himself to read from the books and how it taught him some ideas and perspectives on humanity and nature. The Monster explains to Victor that he compared himself to Adam from Paradise Lost, as he doesn’t have a social connection or link to anyone. While God created Adam, who was loved and cherished, Victor shunned his creation and never felt love. As such, he considered himself to be more like Satan than Adam. He also finds some notes inside the coat pocket he took from Victor’s laboratory and says he didn’t understand the notes when he stole the coat. They are Victor’s journal entries, and the Monster reads them, which were written several months before the Monster’s creation. Victor wrote about the creation process but also became disgusted by his Monster. This makes the Monster furious at Victor for creating him and then abandoning him to fend for himself.
Since Safie’s arrival, the De Laceys have become happier with her presence. The Monster then decided if he revealed himself to them and told them about his backstory, they may see past his ugliness and love him as their friend. For many months, the Monster prepared for his introduction while summoning up his courage. When the father was left alone when Safie, Felix and Agatha went out for a walk, he saw this as his chance to speak to the father first, who was blind but would be able to understand him. The Monster went into the cottage and talked to the father, explaining that he is a lonely traveller who wants some friends and lives nearby. The father listened to him and showed sympathy for him. The conversation went well until the Monster heard the adults returning and begged the father to be his friend, as he had been secretly observing them for almost a year. They were the only people who could save him from being a social outcast. When the adults walk in and see the Monster, Agatha faints and Safie ran away, while Felix beats the Monster with a stick until he fled to the hovel.
The Monster scolds Victor for giving him an awful existence and being looked down upon and prejudiced by humans and then goes back to his narrative.[16]Later that night, the Monster ventures into the forest, feeling outraged and upset that the De Laceys rejected him, and he vows to declare war on humanity. But when morning arrived, the Monster calmed down and decided to give it another try. But when he entered the hovel, the cottage was empty, and there were no signs of movement from the family. Afterwards, the Monster overheard Felix negotiating with the landlord and giving up the lease. The De Laceys had left the cottage, and the Monster never saw them again.
Infuriated that he was rejected twice and his last link to society had been broken, the Monster destroyed the cottage by burning it down later that night and vowed revenge against his creator. He then departed to Geneva to find Victor, using his notes on how to get there. Along the way, he rescued a young girl from drowning in a river, but the girl’s guardian shot him in the shoulder, fuelling the Monster’s hatred of humans. When he got closer to Geneva, the Monster saw a beautiful little boy and thought he would use the boy as his personal guide, as he would be too innocent to be afraid of his ugliness. But when the terrified boy mentioned that his father’s name was Frankenstein, the Monster knew he belonged to his creator and strangled him to death. He found the boy’s locket on him, which contained a portrait of a beautiful woman. He ventured into a barn where he found a girl sleeping and decided to frame her for the boy’s murder by placing the locket on her. He stayed in the area for a few days until he found Victor in the mountains. The Monster finishes his story, tells Victor he is alone and miserable, and urges him to make him a female companion.
The Monster again urges Victor to make him a female mate, and he must comply with his request.[17] Victor refuses to create him a female companion, and the Monster can torture him all he wants, but he will never accept his request. The Monster says he only wants to reason with him instead of threatening him. He explains he is wicked because he is miserable and all humankind despises him, including his creator. The Monster then gets angry and tells Victor that humanity will never accept him unless they treat him with kindness, and he would be kind to them, too, if that were the case. However, since he knows this will likely never happen, he pleads with Victor to make him a female monster who is just as ugly as he is. They may not be happy in the world, but they would have each other and seclude themselves from humans in harmony.
Victor is moved by the Monster’s words. While he fears the possible consequences if he consents, he believes that because he is the Monster’s creator, he still owes him some happiness. The Monster tells Victor that if he agrees to make him a companion, they will disappear from humans forever and travel to South America, seeking peaceful solitude. However, Victor isn’t very convinced and thinks the Monster and his companion will return and destroy humanity or try to connect with them and be rejected again. The Monster insists he and his companion will cut all ties from humanity and not cause chaos. Victor looks at the Monster in disgust, knowing there is no way he can sympathize with him. He questions the Monster why he should’ve trusted him after everything he has done to hurt him and humanity. The Monster says that he will become more docile if he has love and affection.
Victor pauses to reflect on everything the Monster has said, from his promise to permanently disappear from humans with his companion to his threat to destroy humanity. He also notes that the Monster was kind before his protectors rejected him. Since he doesn’t want to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people, he agrees to the Monster’s request and makes him swear an oath that once he has his female companion, he will leave Europe for good. The Monster promises to do just that and tells Victor he will monitor his progress and appear as soon as his companion is brought to life before he descends the mountain and disappears out of sight.
Victor leaves the mountain and returns to the valley, filled with unease and anguish that he is forced to keep the Monster’s promise to protect his loved ones. It is early morning when he arrives in Chamonix, but he doesn’t get some rest. He returns home, where his family is worried about him, but he doesn’t speak to them. Instead, his mind is filled with how he will create a female mate for his creation.
Victor Travels to England/Scotland[]
Many weeks have passed, and Victor procrastinates his task.[18]He feels hesitant about spending months building a female monster. After doing some research about an English philosopher, he decides he should request his father’s permission to travel to England for him to require more information about creating a female monster. But again, he constantly procrastinates about the trip.
Victor’s health has slightly been restored since his illness, but his mental health is still at risk. Alphonse devises a method to cure Victor’s mental illness and spends most of his time rowing his boat alone in the lake. But the fresh air and bright sunshine failed to lift his spirits. When he returns from his day at the lake, Alphonse calls him aside and expresses his concern that he is still depressed and distant from society. He confesses he has been looking forward to Victor and Elizabeth’s marriage, which would bring their family close since they were inseparable playmates and companions while growing up. However, Alphonse thinks that Victor may regard Elizabeth more as his sister than his wife and that he may be falling in love with someone else. Victor assures his father that he still loves Elizabeth very much and that he is still anticipating their marriage. But Alphonse opens up about the recent tragedies that have just endured, and he thinks that it would be best if Victor marries immediately, as delaying the wedding may cause more distress.
Victor is dismayed that marrying Elizabeth early would affect his promise to make the Monster a female companion and that he must come up with an excuse to delay the wedding, as he desperately needs to complete this task before marrying so that the Monster and his companion will vanish from humans forever. He also knows that trying to correspond with the English philosophers from home will be impossible, so he asks his father’s permission for him to travel to England. Alphonse is impressed that Victor wants to travel, as it might cure his depression, but Victor estimates that his journey may last a few months or a year. Alphonse also decides that Victor needs a companion to join him for his safety, and after consulting this with Elizabeth, they decide that Victor and Clerval will meet in Strasbourg. They will go on the journey together. Victor is relieved that Clerval will join him, believing he will be safe from the Monster in his friend’s presence. Once his trip has been set, he assures Elizabeth they will be married as soon as he returns.
While making preparations, Victor fears leaving his family behind and allowing them to be more vulnerable to the Monster but then remembers the Monster’s vow to follow him wherever he goes constantly. But even if it fills him with dread, Victor hopes his family will still be safe, even if he’s afraid the Monster might still harm them.
In late September, Victor leaves Switzerland, with Elizabeth filled with despair from his suffering and hopes he will return home soon for their wedding. After Elizabeth bids him an emotional farewell, Victor rides away in the coach, not knowing where he’s going, and he has also brought his chemical tools and instruments with him. All he could think of was his long journey to England and the gruelling task ahead. After several days, Victor arrives in Strasbourg, where Clerval joins him two days later. He is still jovial and cheerful, while Victor is despondent and miserable. The friends travelled from Strasbourg to Rotterdam on the Rhine River, taking a ship to London.
Throughout the journey, Victor and Clerval stay at Mannheim and then Mainz. Their ship passes through scenic, breathtaking views of Germany, which includes ruined castles and villages. They will occasionally hear the labourers working around them, and Clerval recalls all the places he has been to in Switzerland and that he finds Germany more beautiful, too. After travelling from Cologne to Rotterdam, they take a ship to England. It is now early December as they reach England; before long, they are in London.
Victor and Clerval stay in London for several months.[19]Clerval spends most of his time conversing with talented locals, but Victor is more obsessed with building a female monster and only wants to obtain some information from the locals. When alone, he is comforted by Clerval’s voice but notices his friend is an image of his former self. While in England, Clerval plans to travel to India while Victor collects the required materials to build the female monster, making him tremble.
In February, Victor and Clerval receive a letter from a friend in Scotland who had visited them in Geneva. The friend invites them to see him in Perth, where he lives, and Clerval happily accepts the invitation. However, Victor wishes to see the mountains and nature again rather than be in society. In late March, the friends leave London, and Victor is determined to work on his task in solitude in the northern Scottish Highlands. They visit Windsor, Oxford, Matlock, and the Cumberland Lakes on their journey to Edinburgh. They stay in Cumberland for two months, and Victor can’t help but worry about his family back home, but he isn’t worried about delaying his task. In Edinburgh, Victor admires the city’s old architecture but not as much as Clerval. A week later, they left Edinburgh and arrive in Perth, where their friend warmly greets them. Victor isn’t interested in conversing with strangers and urges Clerval that they should part ways so he can spend some time alone in Scotland. Clerval is initially reluctant to leave him alone but agrees and convinces him to stay in touch with him often.
Now that he is alone, Victor resolves to find a solitary place to work on his project. He believes that the Monster has followed him all the way to Scotland, and he would likely turn up to retrieve his companion when she’s finished. He travels to the Orkney Islands and ends up in a remote area with only three huts. One is empty with two rooms, but in disrepair, so Victor has a local fix the hut. He then sets up his laboratory, where he spends his morning building the monster and then in the evening, he walks on the beach and listens to the ocean. On some days, he couldn’t persuade himself to go into his laboratory; other times, he worked feverishly hard to finish the task. He becomes restless and anxious as he fearfully anticipates the Monster’s arrival to see his companion.
One night, Victor sits inside his laboratory, unsure if he should continue or retire for the night.[20]He starts imagining what will happen when he brings the female monster to life, but he thinks about the terrible consequences. He imagines that the female monster won’t get along with her mate and won’t isolate herself from him. But worst of all, Victor fears that the two monsters will produce some offspring he describes as a “race of devils.” Looking up, he sees the Monster smiling at him through the window. Victor becomes so disgusted and enraged that he tears the unfinished female monster to shreds. The Monster howls with grief and then leaves.
Victor locks the laboratory, vowing never to do this task again, and retreats to his room. Several hours pass, and he gazes through his window at the sea. Several fishing boats are seen, followed by the sound of a gentle breeze. Then he hears someone rowing near the shore and stopping near his hut. The door creaks in a few minutes, and Victor fearfully assumes it’s one of the locals. Footsteps are heard in the passage, and the Monster barges into Victor’s room. The Monster confronts Victor for breaking his promise, lamenting he has travelled with him from Switzerland to Scotland and has endured hunger and fatigue. Victor says he has the right to break his promise and will never create another creature like him again, but the Monster tells him he has proved himself unworthy and declares he is not just his creator, but the Monster is his master. Victor refuses to take orders from him, and nothing can make him change his mind now.
The Monster now refers to Victor as “Man” and vows revenge for Victor breaking his promise. Victor declares he isn’t afraid of his threats and demands he leave him alone. The Monster agrees to go but warns him that he will be with him on his wedding night. Victor watches as the Monster leaves and rows away in his boat until he disappears in the waves. Victor feels enraged that he wants to pursue the Monster further in the sea. He paces around in his room, worrying who will be the Monster’s next victim. Then, he shudders when he remembers the Monster’s warning that he will be with him on his wedding night and is afraid that the Monster will kill him soon after he’s married and leave Elizabeth a heartbroken widow.
The next day, Victor walks on the beach, contemplating if he should stay on the barren rock, but he knows that if he returns, he might discover who the Monster has killed. He walks across the Isle and falls asleep on the grass. When he wakes up, he wonders if he is still part of the human race. He eats an oaten cake hungrily when a fishing boat approaches him, and a man gives him a packet that contains letters from Geneva and one from Clerval. In Clerval’s letter, he writes that he wants to continue his travels in India and urges Victor to leave solitude and meet with him in Perth. After reading the letter, Victor is determined to leave Orkney within two days. He packs his chemical instruments and then sums up enough courage to enter the laboratory to clean it out at daybreak. The remains of the unfinished female monster are still scattered on the floor, so Victor places them in a basket filled with stones.
Early in the morning, when the moon rises, Victor rows four miles away from shore and into the sea. A couple of rowboats are returning to shore, and he avoids them, fearing his fellow humans will witness him commit a crime. When a cloud covers the moon, he drops the female monster’s remains basket into the water and watches as it sinks underneath. Afterwards, he rows away from the spot, but since the air is pure with a gentle breeze, he falls asleep in the boat. When he wakes up, it’s almost sunrise. The wind is strong, and the waves so rough that he can’t make it back to shore. Even if he tries to row his boat, he risks the boat becoming filled with water. He doesn’t have a compass or know where he is; he even fears being driven into the Atlantic Ocean and dying at sea. He thinks of his loved ones that he would leave behind and curses the Monster.
Several hours pass and the wind and waves become calm. Victor has been fatigued and anxious for so long that when he sees land, he is overjoyed. As he approaches the land, it has cragged rocks and vessels. He sails towards the land and is relieved he still has money on him. He also sees there is a small town and harbour up ahead. Several people gather around him when he lands onshore and fixes his sails. But instead of giving him a friendly welcome, they become suspicious of him. Victor notices they speak English, and he asks the name of the town he has arrived at. A man rudely answers him, and the strangers become hostile, confusing Victor. He then realizes that he’s in Ireland and more people gathered around him. He asks where the nearest inn is, and a man replies he must visit the magistrate, Mr. Kirkwin, as he is suspected of a young man’s death from the other night.
Victor knows that he’s innocent and has nothing to do with this. He is escorted to the magistrate’s office, and while still weak and fatigued, he keeps walking without rousing the crowd, blissfully unaware of another horror that awaits him.
Victor meets the magistrate, Mr. Kirkwin, an old man with a calm nature.[21] Mr. Kirkwin asks for any witnesses, and half a dozen men come forward. One man claims he was fishing with his son and brother-in-law last night. At ten o’clock, the wind grew stronger, but it was also dark. As the men prepared to leave, they stumbled upon the body of a man. They thought it had been washed ashore, but when they examined the body, they saw that the dead man wasn’t wet or cold. They brought the body to a nearby cottage, hoping the dead man could be revived. The man was handsome and was apparently strangled, with black markings around his neck and no signs of violence. Victor doesn’t sound interested when the witness describes how they found the body, but when he mentions how the victim was strangled, he shudders and trembles that this was the same way his brother William died. The witness’s son confirms the statement, and then the witness claims that when the body was found, he saw a man riding a boat a distance away from shore, which looked like Victor’s boat. After the body was brought to the cottage, the witness went to get an apothecary, but the man was already dead. The other witnesses agree that Victor could be a prime suspect as his boat was seen close by when the body was found, assuming he had dumped the body on shore before rowing away.
Mr. Kirkwin then desires to show Victor the body and see his reaction if he is the killer. Victor is brought into the room where the body is prepared to be interred and is horrified to see that the dead man is Clerval. Victor laments about his friend’s death and suffers from convulsions, so he is carried out of the room. He suffers from a fever for two months, and in his own language, he confesses to killing William, Justine and Clerval. He begs his attendants to kill the Monster and even imagines the Monster strangling him. Throughout his illness, he is confined inside a prison cell, and Mr. Kirkwin becomes kind to him. One of the turnkey’s wives is a nurse who tends to Victor and is also kind to him.
One day, the nurse asks Victor if he is feeling better. Victor believes he is but is upset that he feels this misery and horror. Victor loathes the nurse for nursing him back to health and imagines his whole life has been a dream. Mr. Kirkwin occasionally visits him for a short time. When Victor is slightly recovering, he reflects that he will either die or confess to being a murderer. Mr. Kirkwin visits him and asks if he can do anything for him, and Victor replies that his sympathy cannot help him. Mr. Kirkwin tells him that he knows he has been falsely accused of killing Clerval. He explains that shortly after Victor got sick, some letters found on Victor were brought to him, and one of them was from Alphonse in Geneva. He immediately wrote to Alphonse two months ago. He informs Victor that his family is well and someone wants to see him.
Victor immediately thinks it could be the Monster who has come to mock him for Clerval’s death. He pleads not to let the visitor in, and Mr. Kirkwin is baffled that the presence of his father would have made him better. Victor is overjoyed that his father has arrived, and Mr. Kirkwin is relieved. He and the nurse leave Victor, and Alphonse comes into his cell. Victor blissfully greets him and asks about Elizabeth and Ernest. Alphonse assures them they are fine but is shocked that his son is being kept inside a miserable prison cell following his grief from losing Clerval. Victor weeps that he wishes he could be buried with Clerval.
Victor and Alphonse couldn’t stay together because of his fragile health. Mr. Kirkwin insists to Victor that his strength will be shattered by his father’s unexpected visit. However, Victor starts to recover now that he’s reunited with his father, but the sight of Clerval’s corpse still haunts him. While still weak, Victor is obliged to travel 100 miles to a rural town for his trial, while Mr. Kirkwin works hard by gathering witnesses and arranging his defence. Victor is relieved that he won’t be tried as a criminal, and the grand jury acquits him, as he was at the Orkney Islands when Clerval was murdered, so they have no evidence against him. Within a fortnight, Victor is released from prison.
Alphonse and Victor prepare to travel back to Geneva, and he tries to cheer his son up about his siblings, Elizabeth and Ernest. But Victor’s feelings are still filled with his trauma in jail, and the idea of finally coming home doesn’t make him better. However, he still desires to be home with his loved ones again and vows to kill the Monster whenever possible. Alphonse delays the journey, fearing it will affect Victor’s health, but Victor insists they must leave Ireland now, so they board a vessel at midnight that takes them out of Ireland. Victor cannot help but imagine that Clerval has been the Monster’s latest victim but is finally looking forward to returning home. He reflects upon his happy life with his family leading up to his mother’s death and the creation of the Monster. Following his illness, he has been taking a small dose of laudanum to give himself strength. After taking a dose, he falls asleep but is plagued with nightmares of the Monster strangling him. When morning arrives, Alphonse wakes him, and Victor realizes the Monster isn’t here.
Victor's Final Happy Day[]
On the way home, Victor and Alphonse stay in Paris so Victor can fully regain his strength.[22] Alphonse is unaware of the cause of his son’s illness and mental instability, encouraging him to be active in society. But Victor hates being among his fellow human beings, as he believes they will accuse and hunt him for releasing a Monster into their population. He then confesses to his father that he’s responsible for the deaths of William, Justine and Clerval. Alphonse is shocked and thinks he’s insane. Victor again insists he has been the cause of their deaths, and Alphonse wants him to stop talking about it. Time passes by, and Victor becomes calmer. A few days before they leave Paris, he receives a letter from Elizabeth. She says she has been constantly worried about him when he was away all winter. She has been looking forward to their wedding and worries that he has fallen in love with someone else during his travels. But she reminds Victor that she still loves him and will be at peace with him when they marry.
Victor remembers the Monster’s threat that he will be with him on his wedding night and decides that if the Monster decides to kill him, he will still take the risk and kill the Monster first so he will finally be free. Even if he chooses to postpone the wedding, the Monster will possibly figure out another plan of revenge. He writes back to Elizabeth, saying he wants to be married immediately, but warns her he has a horrible secret to tell her later.
A week later, Victor arrives in Geneva, and Elizabeth warmly welcomes him home with open arms, but has grown thin. Victor becomes insane again, and he would either be despondent or violent with rage. Elizabeth cares for him until he has regained his sanity. When he tells his father about his immediate wedding, Alphonse suspects he has already loved someone else, but Victor insists that he still loves her and wants their wedding to be held within ten days. Alphonse advises him that they should stay more attached to their loved ones who are alive after all the misfortunes they have suffered. Deep down, Victor wishes he could leave Switzerland and spend the rest of his life wandering alone rather than consenting to his marriage to Elizabeth when he thinks again about the Monster’s threat.
As the wedding date gets closer, Victor pretends to be cheerful to brighten up his father, and Elizabeth is excited to be married. Alphonse discovers that a small fortune has been left for Elizabeth at Lake Como from the Austrian government, and he decides that right after the wedding, Victor and Elizabeth will spend the first few days of their honeymoon in a small chalet at Lake Como. In the meantime, Victor takes precautions to defend himself from the Monster by arming himself with pistols and a dagger and is always on the lookout.
Ten days later, Victor and Elizabeth are married. They prepare to travel to Lake Como by water, spending the night in Evian and continuing their journey the following day. Victor is unaware that this will be the last happy day in his life. It is a nice, sunny day as the couple travels by boat, passing banks and mountains, including Mont Blanc and Jura. Victor laments that he can only enjoy the beautiful scenery for a brief amount of time, as something is distressing him, but Elizabeth urges him to be happy and appreciate nature. At sunset, the couple pass the Drance River and get close to Evian. The wind turns into a gentle breeze as the couple reach the shore.
It is eight o’clock when Victor and Elizabeth land in Evian and walk along the shore before retiring to the nearby inn. A heavy rainstorm quickly appears.[23]Victor becomes so paranoid that he places his hand on his pistol hidden in his clothes and is scared of every sound he hears. Elizabeth notices his agitation and asks what is wrong. He replies that tonight is dreadful and urges her to retire to her room. With Elizabeth inside her room, Victor paces around the inn and looks out for the Monster. He thinks he may finally be safe when he hears Elizabeth scream from her room. He stands still with horror and realizes that the Monster has planned to kill her instead of him. When he hears her scream again, he rushes to her room, where he finds her lifeless and hanging over her bed, which causes him to faint.
He wakes up surrounded by the people of the inn, expressing their concern and horror. He hurries to the room where Elizabeth’s body lay, her face and neck covered in a handkerchief. He assumes she is asleep, but when he touches her, she is cold and breathless, and he realizes that she’s dead, with the Monster’s fingerprints imprinted on her neck, indicating that the Monster has strangled her as he did with William and Clerval. He gazes out a window and spots the Monster grinning at him and pointing to Elizabeth’s corpse. He rushes to the window and fires his pistol, but he misses, and the Monster quickly escapes by diving into the lake.
The sound of the pistol draws a crowd into the room. Victor points out where the killer has disappeared, and he and the others search through the lake, but after several hours of searching, the Monster can’t be found. Everyone else searches the area, but Victor is too exhausted and devastated to join them. He is carried into the inn and placed in a bed, but he gets up, enters the room where Elizabeth’s body lays, and grieves over her. He laments over the deaths of his loved ones and then realizes that his father and brother might be the Monster’s next victims, so he immediately returns to Geneva. But since no horses are around, he decides to return home by the lake. He has planned to hire some people to row him down the lake, but since he is so delirious, he must row his boat alone while the rain is pouring.
When Victor does arrive home, he’s relieved that Alphonse and Ernest are alive and well. But Elizabeth’s death is too much for Alphonse to handle. He becomes bedridden and dies of a broken heart in Victor’s arms a few days later. Victor becomes insane with grief and is confined in a solitary cell for months. When he is released, he loathes the Monster so much that he’s determined to avenge him. A month later, he visits a local magistrate, telling him he knows who has killed his family and friends and wants him to be captured. The magistrate listens to him, even shuddering with horror when he describes everything about the killer. When he finishes, he begs the magistrate to hold the culprit accountable for killing his loved ones. But the magistrate says that hunting down the Monster is impossible and that it has been months since his crimes were last committed, so it may be difficult to figure out where he is now. Victor angrily assumes that the Monster is hiding in the Alps, and his rage intimidates the magistrate, who again says there is nothing else he can do to track the Monster.
Enraged, Victor vows to dedicate his entire life to hunting the Monster and destroying it for good. The magistrate tries to comfort him, but Victor curses him and humanity for being ignorant of his suffering before storming out of the office.
Chase to the Arctic/Victor and Walton[]
Victor’s first part of his revenge is to leave Geneva forever, as he now finds his homeland a place full of hatred and bad memories.[24]He gathers sums of money and his late mother’s jewels before leaving. His next plan is to trace the steps of the Monster, but he wanders around the Geneva streets, unsure if he should pursue his path. That night, he finds himself in the cemetery where William, Alphonse and Elizabeth are interred. He visits the tomb where they are buried, and everything is silent except for the wind blowing through the trees. He vows to his family that he will extract his revenge on the Monster and destroy him at all costs. Afterwards, he hears evil laughter and the Monster whispering that he’s satisfied that he wants to hunt him. Victor chases after the Monster, but he escapes. The moonlight even shows him running away at full speed.
For many months, Victor pursues the Monster across the globe. He discovers the Monster’s whereabouts when he follows him down the Rhône River and into the Mediterranean Sea, where he boards a ship. He also boards the same ship, but the Monster escapes without him knowing it. While the chase continues in the Tartary region and Russia, Victor occasionally finds clues of where the Monster is, such as some terrified peasants pointing out where he has gone. The Monster would also leave behind taunting messages about his whereabouts. Whenever he suffers from hunger and fatigue, he is quickly revived with some food the local peasants gave him, and the rain revives his thirst. He tries to follow the Monster by river, but the Monster avoids travelling that way. Whenever he sleeps, he sees his family, friends, and his native country. When awake, he keeps persuading himself that he's just dreaming until nightfall.
When he finds one of the Monster's taunting messages, Victor reads that the Monster is going somewhere with "everlasting ices of the north," hinting that he's fleeing to the Arctic. Victor is enraged again and vows his vengeance, and he'll never give up until he or the Monster is dead. He heads northward, where the weather becomes cold and thick with snow. Everyone is inside their homes, and the rivers are frozen solid, as very few people have the courage or wits to travel further into freezing, hostile territory. He finds another taunting message from the Monster, urging him to stock up on food and thick clothing if he still wants to pursue him. Victor thanks his guiding spirit for allowing him to follow the Monster into a certain area.
A few weeks earlier, Victor arrives in a small hamlet near the seashore. He asks the locals about the Monster's whereabouts, and they reply that the Monster appeared the night before, frightening people with some firearms before stealing some food and a dog sled and then riding across the sea. When he hears this, Victor knows that the Monster has escaped him yet again into the Arctic Circle, and while he knows he won't survive in such a harsh, freezing environment, he decides to press on anyway. He obtains a dog sled and spends three weeks chasing the Monster across the sea, heading to the Arctic. His dogs eventually become exhausted, and one dies from fatigue, but when he sees a speck in the distance, he cries tears of joy that the Monster is just ahead of him. He releases the dead dog, gives the dogs some food, and rides the sled further after an hour of rest.
But just when Victor is within a mile of the Monster, the Monster quickly disappears from view. He keeps going in vain until the thick ice breaks, separating him from the Monster and leaving him stranded on a patch of ice, suffering from fatigue and exposure. Within hours, several of his sled dogs die and with no ships or vessels in sight, he breaks his sled apart and uses the broken pieces to build oars.
Soon afterwards, a ship appears, and when the crew spots Victor, they persuade him to come aboard.[25] The ship's captain, Robert Walton, appears, and Victor asks where his ship is going. Walton replies that he is going northward, leaving Victor satisfied, and allows him to come aboard. Walton and the crew are shocked to see him suffering from fatigue and exposure. He faints when the crew attempts to carry him to the ship's cabin, and they revive him by rubbing his face with brandy and making him swallow a small portion. When he wakes up, he's wrapped in blankets and placed near the chimney of the kitchen stove. He slowly recovers as he eats some soup. Within two days, he is able to speak, and when he slightly recovers, Walton takes him to his cabin and spends most of his time attending to him and forbidding his crew from talking to him.
When Walton’s lieutenant asks Victor what he’s doing in the Arctic Circle, Victor replies that he’s pursuing someone who is also travelling by dogsled, as the crew spotted the Monster earlier riding across the ice. Victor then asks questions about where the Monster went before he expresses his gratitude to Walton for saving him from death. He wants to be on deck to look for the Monster, but Walton wants him to stay in his cabin as he’s still too weak to be outside. But he promises Victor to remind him when the crew spots something in sight.
Walton’s bond with Victor grows, as he has been lonely during his expedition. Victor is gentle and friendly to Walton, and when he has regained some strength, he’s allowed on deck to look out for the Monster. He also enjoys conversing with Walton, but deep down, he is unhappy and devastated by everything he has been through. He laments to Walton that he has lost everything and cannot restart life again and tells Walton that he has suffered from misfortunes when trying to pursue knowledge. He decides that if he tells Walton his entire story, he will either convince Walton to keep following his ambition or give up. He also warns about the unusual events he’s about to hear and promises to explain his story tomorrow.
After he narrates his whole story, Victor makes Walton promise that if he dies, he must kill the Monster for him and not allow him to escape.
Death[]
Walton is fascinated and shocked by Victor’s story, and Victor even shows him Felix and Safie’s letters to connect the Monster’s story with his own.[26] He urges Walton to give up his quest as curiosity will surely destroy him. After arranging his letters, he hopes his story might be preserved. Walton even asks him how he created the Monster, but Victor refuses to tell him.
Victor spends a week narrating his story. He recalls that when he was younger, he believed he was destined to do great things, but when he looks back on his life, he realizes that he has made a terrible mistake and will forever be chained in an eternal hell. He thanks Walton for his hospitality and kindness but laments that nothing can replace Clerval and Elizabeth, as their voices constantly haunt him. He thinks he should have stayed civilized among his fellow human beings, but he chose to risk his own life chasing the Monster to the ends of the Earth. Even Walton’s crew are moved by Victor’s story.
The ship becomes surrounded by thick patches of ice. The weather becomes frigid, and many of Walton’s crew perish from the cold. Victor’s health starts failing, and the crew demands that Walton give up the expedition and turn the ship around once the ice clears. Walton doesn’t feel like giving up, but Victor urges the men to pursue their dreams and return home as heroes. The crew is puzzled, and Walton orders them to leave Victor alone and encourages them to consider what Victor told them. Within a few days, the ice slowly clears away, and Victor has become so weak that he has been confined to bed. As soon as the ice disappears and the passage to return to the South becomes visible, the crew rejoices. Victor asks Walton if he’s going to turn the ship around and leave the Arctic. When Walton replies he is, Victor says that he knows he won’t make it and tries to get up from bed but falls back and faints. After a doctor examines him, he concludes that he has only a few hours left to live.
As the ship goes southward, Walton sits at Victor’s bedside during his final moments. Victor says in a weak tone that he knows that he’s dying, but the Monster is still free and is filled with intense hatred and revenge. He believes he has failed mankind for refusing to build a female companion for the Monster. Because of this, the Monster killed his loved ones and vowed destruction to humanity. Victor thinks he’ll be justified in the Monster’s destruction but realizes he has failed to carry out his plan. Again, he urges Walton to fulfill his unfinished task and kill the Monster, hoping he might get to meet him during the journey home. After he wishes Walton happiness and begs him to avoid ambition, Victor dies half an hour later.
Soon afterwards, Walton discovers the Monster inside the cabin, grieving over Victor’s body and paying his final respects. The Monster laments to Walton that he regrets being bad and expresses his agony and loneliness. He decides that his life isn’t worth living anymore, and now that his creator is dead, he can end his own suffering by building a funeral pyre and setting himself on fire. After bidding Walton farewell, the Monster leaps off the boat and disappears from sight.
Personality/Appearance[]
Victor begins life as an idyllic, blissful child whose parents dote on him. He enjoys a perfect childhood, playing and bonding with his adoptive cousin, Elizabeth Lavenza. He was initially free from suffering and loss as he is surrounded by a loving, close-knit family. As a teenager, he develops an unusual fascination with nature and philosophy, which fuels his curiosity after he witnesses lightning strike a tree outside his home. He sees it as a powerful, mysterious force, and by studying about its philosophy, he would learn more secrets about nature’s power, that he describes as “citadel”. Throughout his adolescence, he spends his time alone studying about alchemy and science, eager for some knowledge and convinced he will be strong enough to comprehend nature and making a great deal for his fellow humankind.
But at a young, naive age, he is still too young and innocent to recognize the excessive pride of his dangerous ambition, and it will eventually cause him to suffer from misfortunes and tragedy. He believes that his ambition will gain him glory and aid humanity through his scientific achievements. He then becomes so caught up in his pursuit of knowledge and the creation of life that it makes him feel invincible and powerful, even hoping his creations will offer him their gratitude for giving them life.
Relationships[]
Elizabeth Lavenza[]
Victor’s adoptive sister/cousin. They grew up together and were close friends and playmates. He loves her for her kindness and beauty, even if he’s away from her for long periods of time. After his illness in Ingolstadt, his spirits are lifted when Elizabeth writes to him, providing her concern for his absence and offering news of their family and friends back home. He immediately writes back, showing that he still cares about her and wants to stay in touch with her. But after William’s murder and Justine’s execution, Victor notices that Elizabeth starts to lose her innocence, even though she tries to cheer him up during this difficult time. Alphonse even convinces Victor he should marry her immediately to bring some happiness to the family, but Victor prefers to delay the wedding further so he could travel to the Orkney Islands and work on the Monster’s female companion, and he promises Elizabeth they will be married as soon as he returns, even though he may be gone for a long time. He also constantly worries about the safety of Elizabeth and the family, as they would be vulnerable to the Monster’s wrath in his absence.
After the Monster confronts him for breaking his promise and warning him he will be with him on his wedding night, Victor worries that the Monster will kill him shortly after his wedding and leave Elizabeth a widow. When she writes to him a second time, he warns her that when they are married, he has a terrible secret to reveal to her, indicating he plans to be more honest and reveal the truth to her about the Monster. They are married within ten days after his return home, unaware that his wedding will be the last time he will ever be happy. The couple stop at an inn on their way to their honeymoon destination, but Victor leaves her alone in her room while he looks out for the Monster, who breaks into Elizabeth’s room and strangles her to death. Victor becomes grief-stricken from her death and causes him to lose his humanity.
Henry Clerval[]
Victor’s childhood friend. Clerval enjoys stories of chivalry and adventure, and while Victor doesn’t have anything common with him, they were close nonetheless. Victor becomes lonely at Ingolstadt without Clerval or his family, but is overjoyed when Clerval arrives at the university to study alongside him. However, Victor becomes ill with a fever from months of building the Monster and his fear from witnessing the Monster come to life. Clerval becomes his personal caregiver throughout the winter, and when spring arrives, Victor makes a full recovery. He is grateful for Clerval’s kindness and tending to him, but feels guilty for having him nurse him all winter. They study languages together, and when Victor delays his return home to next spring, he is determined to always stay at Clerval’s side, as he sees him as his truest friend and who will protect him from the dangers of the Monster and chemistry.
Sometime later, Victor plans to travel to Scotland to work on the female monster, and he allows Clerval to accompany him, who is urged to go with him for his safety. Despite feeling safe during their journey, Victor becomes increasingly obsessed with his task, which concerns his friend. So much so, that when they arrive in Perth, Scotland, to meet with a friend, Victor urges Clerval that they should temporarily part ways so he can be alone in nature. Initially reluctant, Clerval agrees and asks him to stay in touch. Unbeknownst to Victor, this will be the last time he would see his friend alive, and shortly after Victor destroys the unfinished female monster and leaving the Monster enraged, Clerval is killed by the Monster and his body washes ashore in Ireland. Victor is accused of his murder, but becomes more convulsed when he is shown Clerval’s body. Victor is eventually acquitted, but his friend’s death only causes his mental state and humanity to get worse.
The Monster[]
Alphonse Frankenstein[]
Robert Walton[]
M. Krempe[]
M. Waldman[]
Quotes/Relatable Quotes[]
Portrayals[]
References[]
- ↑ Frankenstein, Chapter 1
- ↑ Chapter 2
- ↑ Chapter 3
- ↑ Chapter 4
- ↑ Chapter 5
- ↑ Chapter 6
- ↑ Chapter 7
- ↑ Chapter 8
- ↑ Chapter 9
- ↑ Chapter 10
- ↑ Chapter 11
- ↑ Chapter 12
- ↑ Chapter 13
- ↑ Chapter 14
- ↑ Chapter 15
- ↑ Chapter 16
- ↑ Chapter 17
- ↑ Chapter 18
- ↑ Chapter 19
- ↑ Chapter 20
- ↑ Chapter 21
- ↑ Chapter 22
- ↑ Chapter 23
- ↑ Chapter 24
- ↑ Letter 4
- ↑ Walton, In Continuation