Frankenstein

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Setting:

The setting of the novel ranges all over Europe, emphasizing places with which Shelley herself was familiar: Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, England, Scotland, Ireland, and even the Arctic. The tale begins and ends in the Arctic with the explorer Robert Walton seeking a northwest passage. On his journey he first meets Victor Frankenstein and then the monster himself. The arctic atmosphere itself is a fitting symbol for the scientific enterprise on which Frankenstein has embarked and Walton is embarking. The landscape is barren and white: it is human beings who turn the landscape and scientific creation into colorful creation or black horror

Characters:

Robert Walton: The novel opens with letters from Rober Walton to his sister. It is through these letters that Walton narrates the tale of Dr. Frankenstein.Walton shares many of Victor Frankenstein's character traits, including boundless ambition, a fascination with science and discovery, and a thirst for fame.

Victor Frankenstein: Frankenstein tells Robert Walton his life story, one which includes collecting dead body parts and bringing a creature/monster to life, a monster who wreaks vengeance on his creator for abandoning him and leaving him alone.

Elizabeth Lavenza Frankenstein: Elizabeth is adopted by the Frankenstein family and raised to be the wife of Victor. She represents all that is beautiful to Victor. She is the antithesis of the monster he creates.

Henry Clerval: Henry is Victor's best friend and follows him to Ingolstadt to help Victor recover from an illness. Henry is Victor's opposite. He prefers the arts as opposed to the sciences. Henry becomes one of the monster's victims.

The Monster: Victor's creation is referred to as the monster or the demon. He is created on a dark, dreary night in November.The monster has no name. His story is filtered multiple times. The novel's structure emphasizes this point insomuch that the monster's story is told to Victor, who tells it to Walton, who tells it to his sister, who tells it to the narrator, who tells it to us. The monster, in addition, has no family and no friends and compares himself to Adam without Eve.

Justine Moritz:Justine comes to live with the Frankenstein family and cares for the dying Mrs. Frankenstein.Justine symbolizes goodness, a goodness which stands opposite to the monster's evil, a goodness in Victor's life the monster vows to destroy.

The De Lacey Family:The monster observes a family in a cottage in the forest and becomes their secret helper. He befriends the blind Mr. De Lacey in hopes that his kindness will serve as a bridge to the rest of the family.he monster is amazed about the beauty and depravity of human nature. The story of Felix and Safie moves him and causes him to feel true affection for them. This affection turns to pain as the family beats him and flees after witnessing his deformities.

Alphonso Frankenstein: Victor's father unwittingly encourages Victor's study of science by a disparaging remark regarding Cornelius Agrippa.Alphonso was a kind, caring father to Victor. The monster can't bear to see Victor enjoy the presence of loved ones. That's bad news.

Margaret Saville:Mrs. Saville is the audience for Robert Walton's tale.

Caroline Beaufort Frankenstein: The daughter of Alphonso's close friend is left in poverty at her father's death. Alphonso takes care of Caroline and marries her a couple years later.Her death shortly before Victor leaves for Ingolstadt affects his desire to reanimate life.

William Frankenstein: Victor's youngest brother, murdered by the monster.Although the monster's story is heart breaking at times, the fact that he was capable of killing an innocent boy makes mercy difficult.

Professors Krempe and Waldman: Two professors at Ingolstadt who influence Frankenstein's work. Both recognized Victor's scientific inclination, yet had no idea that Victor had created life from dead body parts.

Letters 1-4

These Frankenstein chapter summaries actually begin with letters:

Robert Walton's letters - The novel begins at the end. That makes little sense, I know, but apparently it was cool in the 1800s. Robert Walton writes letters to his sister (cell phones, text messaging, and e-mail did not exist and if they had he'd have gotten no reception once he entered the arctic ocean). He whines in his first three letters about how lonely he is because he has no friends and his crew are a bunch of primates, incapable of intelligent conversation.

Anyone with a brain would, of course, never agree to travel through ice with a loon looking to discover the secret of magnets. That's right. Walton sails to the North Pole to discover the secret of magnets (Walton's kind of like my Uncle Leonard who tried to get me to join his magnet-selling pyramid scheme/multi-level marketing company and can't figure out why he has no friends).

Imagine embarking on the most idiotic scientific expedition of all time and meeting the man responsible for the most idiotic scientific theory (that a 10-foot tall creature made from dead body parts wouldn't be hideous) in the middle of the arctic ocean while riding on a floating piece of ice. That's what happens. The man responsible for the aforementioned idiotic scientific theory (that a 10-foot tall creature made from dead body parts wouldn't be hideous) is none other than Victor Frankenstein, our protagonist.

Frankenstein, recognizing the same level of idiocy in Walton decides to tell his story as a warning. I now give you the summary of

Chapter 1 - Victor gives his parents' background: His Dad was a good fellow who searched out an old friend who had fallen on hard times. He finds his old friend dead and his daughter impoverished. He took her home. They married 2-years later (Note to self: make sure my life insurance premiums are paid up so my daughter doesn't have to marry my best friend when I die). Victor Frankenstein is their first child. While traveling through Italy, Victor's mother adopts a beautiful orphan named Elizabeth, who becomes Victor's playmate.

Chapter 2 - Frankenstein expresses his love for science and alchemy. He sees electricity destroys a tree and begins his passion for electricity.

Chapter 3 - Frankenstein's mother dies, delaying his departure for Inglolstadt where he is to go to school. His mother's dying wish is for Victor to marry Elizabeth. Most people would think marrying your adopted sister as somewhat creepy, but not Victor, who later enjoys robbing graves and charnel houses to construct living creatures out of dead body parts. He finally departs to Ingolstadt and meets M. Krempf and M. Waldman.

Chapter 4: Victor discovers the "essence of life" and spends an entire year gathering dead body parts so he can construct an 8-foot tall creature. He neglects his family and his health while working on his project, eating and sleeping very little. I'm all for achieving goals, but there are very few things worth staying up all night for: robbing graves is not one of them.

Chapter 5: Victor's spent an entire year collecting dead body parts from charnel houses and graveyards. He takes the body parts collected from charnel houses and graveyards and sows them together. He mixes the "essence of life" with some electricity and becomes immediately disgusted by the creature's appearance, who I remind you was assembled from dead body parts collected from charnel houses and graveyards. He abandons the monster because that's the responsible thing to do if you're completely insane, takes a stroll, finds Henry, who has just arrived in town, falls ill, and remains so for months.

Chapter 6: Elizabeth writes Victor a letter and begs for a letter in return (For all you ladies out there: you can probably do a little better than begging mad scientists who create gigantic creatures from dead body parts collected from charnel houses and graveyards to write you a letter. Find someone with a little more sense, like a tattoo artist or the treasurer of the local motorcycle gang.). The letter mentions the arrival of Justine Moritz to the Frankenstein household.

Chapter 7: Frankenstein receives a letter with news that his youngest brother William has been murdered. He returns home. He stays at a neighboring town the night beore his arrival, can't sleep, and decides to take a walk. He encounters the monster, who he realizes is responsible for William's murder. He decides not to tell anyone about the monster for fear they would think him crazy. Of course, he is crazy. He discovers upon his arrival that Justine Moritz has been blamed and has confessed the murder. Victor keeps his secret.

Chapter 8: Frankenstein pleads on Justine's behalf, but to no avail. Hey Victor! Remember that part about you creating a monster out of dead body parts collected from charnel houses and graveyards that came to life and murdered your brother. Do you think maybe now would be a good time to bring that up, you know, before they execute the housekeeper?

Chapter 9: Victor spends a lot of time alone grieving and contemplates suicide. Perhaps some crazy scientist could then reconstruct him, discover the essence of life, mix in some electricity, bring him back to life, and abandon him. He decides to continue living for fear of what the monster would do to his family.

Chapter 10: The monster approaches Frankenstein on top of a mountain and asks for a meeting. Frankenstein agrees. This would make a great reality TV show--deadbeat dads and child killers hang out in a cave for two weeks. Get FOX on the phone!

Chapter 11:

• The monster relates how he slowly learned about the world through his senses. He also discovered both the benefits of fire (warmth) and its drawbacks (that burning sensation).
• Begin use of historical present.
• At first, the monster attempts to get food by going into a hut, but the inhabitants scream in fear and run out. The same thing happens to him every time he goes into a village, or actually, any dwelling of people anywhere.
• The monster realizes that everyone is prejudiced against him because he is ugly.
• Finally, he finds a small hovel near a cottage and settles in there, watching the family, which consists of a blind old man, and two younger people

Chapter 12:

• The monster stays in the hovel all winter. He kind of grows fond of the family he is watching. In fact, he really cares about them.
• At first, he steals food from them, but when he realizes they are poor, he stops and finds food in the woods instead. He also does work at night, like clearing snow or gathering them firewood, just to help them out.
• Why? Because he’s a genuine, nice guy. Seriously. The monster is one of the kindest, most helpful people we see in this book.
• He learns that the two younger people are named Felix and Agatha. The monster also realizes they can talk, and he listens to them until he learns their language.
• The monster thinks they are beautiful, and he gets really upset when he looks at his reflection in a pond and remembers how hideous he is. Poor guy. It’s really not his fault he’s ugly.
• He feels increasingly isolated, especially when he sees that everyone around him seems to have someone

Chapter 13:

• Because the monster is all sensitive and stuff, he starts to realize that Felix is totally sad, too.
• Soon, a hot, foreign woman arrives at the cottage. Felix perks up. So does everyone else.
• The woman, Safie, doesn’t speak the language that the rest of the cottage people do, so they teach it to her. The monster eagerly eavesdrops on her lessons and learns the language, too. He also learns to read.
• He learns about history from the book Ruins of Empires that Felix uses to teach Safie.
• The monster’s increasing literacy and knowledge is both good and bad; it brings him an understanding of the world he’s in, but it reminds him that he can’t really participate in the world. He’s ugly and different, and now he really knows it. And he’s alone, and he really knows that, too.

Chapter 14:

• The monster eavesdrops on the family all the time. Now that he understands what they’re saying, he puts together their story, which in many ways is like what has happened to Victor’s family.
• Safie’s Turkish father was accused wrongly of a crime, much like Justine, and sentenced to death. Safie wanted to marry a European man because Turkish men treat women too much like property, a supposed product of them being Muslim, and her Christian mother taught her that that was a raw deal. Luckily, she met Felix when he was visiting her father in prison, and they fell in love.
• Agatha, Felix, and the blind old man (named De Lacey) were at one time respected and rich Parisians. Felix plotted to help Safie’s father escape from prison, but he was discovered, and the family was exiled sans all their money.
• Safie’s father tried to force her to move to Constantinople, but she escaped to Felix.
• These stories give the monster hope that Felix and De Lacey will be compassionate towards him, since they too have suffered injustice. Not only is the monster kind, but he seems to have quite a sophisticated understanding of the human psyche.

Chapter 15:

• The monster finds books and clothes in the woods one night while he is foraging for food. The most important book for him is Paradise Lost, which the monster mistakenly reads as history instead of fiction. How would he know? He sympathizes with Satan’s character. Interesting.
• Since the monster can read, he also finds some of Victor’s journal entries in the pockets of the clothes he initially took from Victor. He discovers that Victor was totally grossed out by him and hated that he had brought the monster to life. This stings considerably.
• The monster decides that his last hope for social acceptance lies with the cottagers. Since De Lacey is blind and the younger people often leave him alone during the day, the monster hopes that he can gain De Lacey’s trust and acceptance and in turn be trusted by Felix, Agatha, and Safie.
• Soon, the monster gets his opportunity. He approaches De Lacey, who is kind and cordial to him. As bad luck would have it, the others return too soon, and Felix drives the monster away.
• When the monster comes back, the family has moved out.

Chapter 16:

• Seeing as everyone hates him for no fair reason, the monster swears revenge on all people, particularly that jerk who created him only to live miserably, ugly, and alone.
• Still, he shows his compassion by rescuing a little girl who slips into a stream and almost drowns. He’s a hero, see?
• But when the man accompanying the girl sees the rescue, he assumes the monster is attacking the girl and shoots him. Not the nicest way to say "thank you."
• The monster hides out in the woods, nursing his wounded shoulder. Things are not going so well for him.
• In another occurrence of astounding coincidence, the monster makes it to Geneva and runs into William Frankenstein, Victor’s younger brother.
• Apparently shallowness runs in the family, because William reacts much the same way Victor did, calling the monster ugly and wretched.
• The monster is about to let this go when William threatens that his father is Alphonse Frankenstein. Bad call. Enraged upon realizing that William is related to his creator, the monster strangles him with his bare hands.
• Afterwards, he takes the picture of Caroline from William’s dead hands and puts it in Justine’s pocket. We told you he was clever.
• It is after this explanation that the monster asks for Victor to help him out by creating for him a mate so he won’t be alone.
• We probably would have buttered up Victor differently than confessing to murdering his brother. Just a thought.

Chapter 17: Victor deliberates whether or not to create a female monster for his original monster. The original monster threatens to kill Victor's family if he does not comply. Victor reluctantly agrees.

Chapter 18: Remember final exam week? You know you have a ton of studying to do, but you watch Cosby show reruns instead. That's kind of like what Victor is doing. He knows he needs to make a creature but procrastinates. He eventually leaves for England, wanting to complete the monster before marrying Elizabeth, who is also his adopted sister. While in England he meets up with his "friend," Henry Clerval.

Chapter 19: Victor spends two months in London before setting up his laboratory in the Orkney Islands. His work repulses him. This would be a convenient time to counsel you on choosing a career: don't become a gatherer of dead body parts in order to assist monsters looking for a booty call. You, like Victor, will find it repulsive.

Chapter 20: Victor almost finishes the "booty call" monster but changes his mind. While the lonely monster looks on, Victor destroys the new monster. The lonely monster vows revenge. He warns Victor that he will be with him on his wedding night. Victor packs up his supplies, ties them to a rock, and sinks them to the bottom of the ocean. Victor then falls asleep in his rowboat. He gets to shore where an angry crowd awaits. He is arrested for murder.

Chapter 21: Frankenstein discovers that the dead man is Henry Clerval. Victor collapses. He lies sick for two months. Victor's father comes to get him.

Chapter 22: Victor and Elizabeth are married and sail to Evian for the honeymoon. Not only has the monster not shown up yet, he hasn't even sent them a gift.

Chapter 23: Remember the I'll be there on your wedding night threat? Victor stupidly thinks the monster is coming to kill him. What a moron! Even I figured out the only way for the monster to get revenge is to kill Elizabeth, which he does. Victor's father dies of grief over Elizabeth's death. Victor goes insane and is sent to an asylum. He tells the town's magistrate about the monster. Nobody believes him. Victor vows to kill the monster or die trying.

Chapter 24: Victor visits the graves of his family and vows revenge on the monster. The monster laughs. It is on! The monster toys with Victor for several months, letting him remain close enough to spur him on to more suffering, but not allowing himself to be captured.