Frankenstein

Chapters 1-10

Chapter 1

• Victor Frankenstein is now the main narrator of the story from this point on to Chapter 24. He begins his story just slightly before his birth. His father, although as of yet unnamed, is Alphonse Frankenstein, who was involved heavily in the affairs of his country and thus delayed marriage until late in life. Alphonse quits public life to become a father and husband.
• Victor's father and Mr. Beaufort, his mother Caroline's father, had a congenial relationship. Mr. Beaufort and his daughter move from Geneva to Lucerne, Switzerland to seek refuge from poverty and a damaged reputation. Alphonse sets out to aid his lost friend to "begin the world again through his credit and assistance."
• While in Lucerne, Beaufort had saved a small amount of money and had recovered his reputation somewhat, but he became ill and within a few months had died. When Alphonse finds the Beaufort home, he discovers an impoverished Caroline grieving at her father's coffin. Alphonse gives his friend a decent burial and sends Caroline to his family in Geneva to recover. During a two-year period, Alphonse visits Caroline and they eventually became husband and wife.
• Seeking a better climate, the couple moves to Italy for a short period. During this time, Victor was born and lavished with attention. He was their only child for five years until Caroline comes across an impoverished family in need of help. She falls for a beautiful little girl who is Victor's age and asks the family if she could adopt her. The little girl, Elizabeth, becomes Victor's adopted cousin and playmate.

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So?

Mary Shelley seems to pull her own experiences from childhood into the writing of Victor's background, which is the topic of this chapter. Mary Shelley came from a family of half siblings and a stepmother; Victor's family includes his two brothers and an adopted "cousin" Elizabeth. Mary's mother and Victor's mother also share an interest in visiting the poor. The care for the poor and the uneducated was a theme in Mary Wollestonecraft's life. Also, note that Elizabeth's mother and Mary's died during childbirth.

While on a summer visit to Lake Como, near Milan, Italy, Caroline comes upon a poor family who has five children to feed and little income. Mary's own mother was a champion of the poor and this autobiographical concept of her own life made its way into this novel. Caroline offers to take a girl child and adopt her for their own. The poor family reluctantly gives this adopted child, Elizabeth Lavenza, to the Frankenstein family. Elizabeth is almost the same age as Victor and described as "none could behold her without looking at her as a distinct species, as being heaven-sent, and bearing a celestial stamp in all her features."

Elizabeth is a beautiful and striking child."Her mother was a German and had died on giving her birth," much like Mary Shelley's own mother, Mary Wollestonecraft, had done. Elizabeth is seen not as a mere orphan, but as a child the Frankenstein's had wanted for their own. Victor sees Elizabeth as a "pretty present" from his parents. Victor tells how Elizabeth was so much more than family to him; she was "more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only." These words have a true, ominous ring to them later in the novel.

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Chapter 2

• Around the age of seven, Victor's younger brother is born. Up to this point, he and Elizabeth have been the primary receivers of their parents' love. Their parents decide to settle down in Geneva to concentrate on raising their family.
• Victor introduces his life-long friend Henry Clerval, a creative child who studies literature and folklore.
• At the age of 13, Victor discovers the works of Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus, all alchemists from an earlier age. His voracious appetite for knowledge thus begins, and eventually leads him to study science and alchemy. At age 15, Victor witnesses an electrical storm that peaks his interest in electricity and possible applications for its use.

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Analysis

Victor tells how he and Elizabeth are brought up together as "there was not quite a year difference in our ages." He is serious and loud as a child, while Elizabeth has a more calm and subdued personality. The reader now sees a small glimpse of Victor's obsession with knowledge and learning. It is not unlike Mary Shelley's own lust for learning as a child and as the wife of Percy Shelley. Victor is the seeker of knowledge, "delighting in investigating their causes." He seeks answers to what occurs in nature and the physical world.

When Victor's parents return to Geneva to settle down, Victor is more solitary, doesn't like crowds, and finds himself alone at school. He befriends Henry Clerval, a Romantic character, who becomes his life-long pal. Henry is a writer and poet, a more creative person than the scientifically minded Victor. Henry is fascinated with the heroes of Roncesvalles, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and the knights of the Crusades.

We now begin to see Victor's personality type as sometimes "violent and my passions vehement." He dislikes learning languages, politics, and government and instead chooses to throw himself into the study of science, which he calls "the physical secrets of the world." While Elizabeth and Henry pursue the normal activities of children, Victor wants to learn all he can about the how's and why's of the world.

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Stuck inside....

At the age of 13, Victor makes a discovery that forever changes his life. A storm confines him to remain inside one day where he discovers a volume of Cornelius Agrippa's works. His passion for learning leads him to Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus, two other scientists from earlier days, and invigorates Victor into a serious study of science and its possible applications. He reads science books for pleasure and knowledge, seeking to improve his mind and stimulate his curiosity. He laments that his father "was not scientific." Victor "was left to struggle with a child's blindness, added to a student's thirst for knowledge." He also exults, "The raising of ghosts or devils was a promise literally accorded by my favorite authors, the fulfillment of which I most eagerly sought." This gives us an idea of where he got the idea to create his own creature. He goes on to say that, "if my incantations were always unsuccessful, I attributed the failure rather to my own inexperience and mistake than to a want of skill or fidelity in my instructors." This seems to tell us that he wasn't having any luck with the teachings of his "instructors," so he knew that there must be another way, which opens up the possibility of using another science, electricity.

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The Electric Storm!

At age 15, Victor witnesses a summer thunderstorm that arouses his thoughts about electricity and possible applications for its use. The storm indirectly gives Victor the opportunity to learn more about technology and science. The storm Shelley describes is much like the one she and her fellow writers experience during the summer of 1816. Victor sees how the lightning has the power of destruction when a tree near their home is destroyed from a lightning strike. This confirms his belief that electricity and "galvanism" are worthy subjects for further study. A visitor in the Frankenstein home explains the phenomena to the young boy, and it facilitates a change in his thinking.

"Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction."

• Although the details of the monster's creation are not described later in the book, Shelley hints that Victor uses his knowledge from the science books and of electricity to create his monster. Shelley makes Victor's interest in these topics very clear, so that the reader can deduce that he will use this knowledge in his creation.
• Victor becomes a student of mathematics and pure science, seeking to learn the most he can, while abandoning his earlier study of well-known alchemists. His mind is not eased but spurred on by his lust for all knowledge and learning.

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Chapter 3

Victor is now 17 years old and ready to become a student at the University of Ingolstadt in Ingolstadt, Germany (near Munich), but an outbreak of scarlet fever at home delays his departure. His mother and "cousin" both fight the disease; Caroline Beaufort Frankenstein dies, and Elizabeth recovers. Before Caroline dies, she reveals her unrealized plans for the marriage of Victor and Elizabeth by saying, "my firmest hopes of the future happiness were placed on the prospect of your union."

Elizabeth becomes the family caretaker upon Caroline's death. Victor finds it hard to say goodbye to his family and dear friend, but he sets out for Ingolstadt to begin his studies in science.

Victor meets his mentors, Professor M. Krempe and Professor M. Waldman, at the university. He does not like Krempe, but he does find Waldman a much more conducive and congenial teacher.

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Two Very Different Men

Victor does not like Krempe or the subject he teaches, modern studies of natural philosophy. Krempe calls Victor's prior studies of alchemists a waste of time by asking him if he has "really spent your time in studying such nonsense?" Krempe tells Victor that he must begin his studies again and gives him a list of books to read. He also advises Victor to attend the lectures of Professor Waldman in the forthcoming days.

Victor's visit with Professor Waldman goes much different. He describes the 50-year-old Waldman as "his person was short but remarkably erect and his voice the sweetest I had ever heard." Waldman explains to Victor that alchemy was a false science and teaches him that while the alchemist's pursuits were noble, real scientists do the scientific, valuable work.

Perhaps Mary Shelley is trying to tell us a bit about both men's personalities if we translate both names from the German language. Krempe is the brim of a hat, rather ordinary and mundane; the name sounds like the word "crammed." Wald is a forest or wood, and man, means woodsman or forester. A "wood" jibes with the Romantic idea of returning to nature or natural things, a good place to revive the spirit and spend time; thus, a man with the name "Waldman" would be a more kind and reviving spirit.

Victor sees this "new" science as the enemy to his "own" preconceived science and vows to prove that the alchemists were right. He says he felt as though his new teachings were like a "palpable enemy" to be reckoned with, and he pledges to himself to prove his detractors wrong, by saying "more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation."

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"Thus ended a day memorable to me; it decided my future destiny."

• Victor spends a restless night and pays Professor Waldman a visit. Here he finds a kindred spirit in his teacher, who does not ridicule his study of Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus but instead sees some value in their work. The contributions of these men are not lost in the body of general scientific knowledge. He encourages Victor to study "every branch of natural philosophy," including mathematics, by stating, "if your application equals your ability, I have no doubt of your success." He also gives the young student a brief tour of his own laboratory, taking the time to explain his work and the devices he owns. At Victor's request, Waldman gives him a reading list, and the two part company. The theme of the Romantic notion that technology is not entirely good enters the novel at this point.
• Victor calmly recounts that his time was well spent and a portent of his future fate."Thus ended a day memorable to me; it decided my future destiny."

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Chapter 4

Victor throws himself into his schoolwork, reading all he can about the sciences, particularly chemistry. Gaining a reputation as a scientist and innovator among the professors and fellow students alike. Believing his tenure at Ingolstadt was nearing an end, Victor thinks of returning home to Geneva. However, he launches into a new venue of scientific experimentation — creating life from death and reanimating a dead body.

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Visiting morgues and cemeteries for the necessary body parts, Victor fails several times before successfully bringing his creation to life. His work does take its toll on him, affecting his health and powers of judgment. This gruesome work carries on through the spring, summer, and fall of that year.

Victor lives for his work and throws himself into his pursuit so much that he shuts off all contact with the outside world. In the second summer Victor loses touch with his family. Letters from home go unanswered for long periods of time, and he delays sending a message home as to his health or well being.

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Themes

Mary Shelley combines several themes in this one chapter: the Romantic notion of technology as a bad thing, the allusion to Goethe's Faust, and learning and the use of knowledge for good or evil purposes. Her Romantic background draws her to state that technology is evil; it is man who must control the technology, not the technology controlling man. Finally, the creation of the monster is not described at all. Perhaps Shelley had not worked out the details of the creation or the description would have been too much for nineteenth century readers. The mysterious creation is a Gothic element.

*Victor is similar to Goethe's Faust character who went on a quest for knowledge, made a deal with the devil, and is rescued by God. Unfortunately, Victor does not have the benefit of divine intervention. Instead, he succumbs to the end that all men must face. Shelley also introduces the theme of using knowledge for good and evil purposes.

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The Living and the Dead

Victor's attention to the contrast between the living and the dead becomes an obsession. To study, he must experiment, and to experiment, he must collect samples upon which to practice. He looks at what causes life or death and states, "I saw how the worm inherited the wonders of the eye and brain." And from this restless pursuit, he succeeds "in discovering the cause of generation and life" and he becomes "capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter." He is now a creator of life. He is like Goethe'sFaustus, a man eager for knowledge and experience that is good for mankind in the end. Faust is saved by God, unlike Victor, who is not saved and who knows he will perish without redemption.

Chapter 5

Victor succeeds in bringing his creation, an eight-foot man, to life in November of his second year. Excited and disgusted at "the monster" he had created, he runs from the apartment.

He wanders the streets of Ingolstadt until Henry Clerval finds him in poor condition. Henry had come to see about his friend and to enroll at the university. Henry and Victor return to Victor's apartment to find the monster gone. Victor finds the disappearance of his monster a source of joy and falls down in a fit of exhaustion from the release of anxiety over his creation. Henry spends the rest of the winter and spring nursing Victor back to health after the tumultuous fall. Henry advises Victor to write home, as a letter had recently arrived from his family in Geneva.

Why is it important?

Chapter 5 is significant because it marks the beginning of the novel that Mary Shelley wrote during her now famous summer stay in the Lake Geneva region (refer to the "Life and Background" section).

The Gothic elements that can be found in this chapter are the grotesque (description of the monster's features), the eerie environment (Victor's lab at 1 a.m.), the undead quality, and some type of psychic communication (Victor's feeling of being followed). Also, this chapter builds fear in the reader, another big part of Gothic writing.

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The Monster

The monster now begins to take shape, and Victor describes his creation in full detail as "beautiful" yet repulsive with his "yellow skin,""lustrous black, and flowing" hair, and teeth of "pearly whiteness." Victor describes the monster's eyes, considered the windows upon the soul, as "watery eyes, that seemed almost the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips."

Here Shelley contrasts God's creation of Adam to Victor's creation of the monster. Victor sees his creation as beautiful and yet repugnant, versus the creation story taken from the Bible in which God sees his creation of Adam as "good."

In a distressed mental state, Victor falls into bed, hoping to forget his creation. He dreams of wandering the streets of Ingolstadt and seeing Elizabeth through the haze of the night. During the dream, Elizabeth then turns into his mother, Caroline, whom he pictures being held in his own arms. While holding his mother, he then sees worms start to crawl out of the folds of her burial shroud to touch him. He awakes from the nightmare and goes directly to the laboratory to see his creation.

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What he needs is a vacation....

In the morning, Victor wanders the streets, alone with his conscience. Shelley layers into the novel a passage from Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which makes a reference to a person who wanders the streets with a demon or fiend following him. The significance of this excerpt from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner cannot be underestimated. The significance of this poem in relation to this novel can be interpreted two ways. In the Gothic sense, Victor relates to the Mariner's isolation and fear. In theRomantic sense, both the Mariner and Victor want the knowledge; however, unlike the Mariner, Victor's new knowledge brings a curse along with it.

At this point Henry Clerval arrives in Ingolstadt. Their visit is the tonic that Victor needs to remind him of home and not his earlier labors.

Henry remarks on Victor's condition, noting the disheveled look, his "thin and pale" condition, and tiredness. The pair returns to Victor's apartment to find the monster gone. This note of happiness sends Victor into a fit of joy, knowing that his creation is no longer there. Victor falls in an uncontrollable attack of exhaustion and stress. He explains the cause as "I imagined that the monster seized me; I struggled furiously and fell down in a fit."

Henry becomes Victor's caretaker for the next few months. Occasionally, Victor, in his delirium, talks about the monster, causing Henry to think that the stress is causing him to be incoherent.

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Now I know what it feels like to be God!

Predict some consequences of Victor's reaction and offer a contemporary analogy (connection) to this situation.

Chapter 6

• Elizabeth writes out of concern for Victor: Where has he been?
• Justine is introduced: A faithful housekeeper
• Victor introduces Henry to professors and they begin their studies together; ancient languages
• Plans are made for Victor to return to Geneva in the fall, after his spring recovery, but weather and other delays make the trip impossible, and winter sets in. He revises his plans to depart in May.

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• Elizabeth's letter relates how Victor's brothers, Ernest and William, are doing, and how their housekeeper, Justine Moritz, is faring with her family troubles.
• The tale of Justine is important because it relates how she endured poor treatment by her own family, being accused of causing the deaths of several family members, and how she came to be loved and respected by the entire Frankenstein family.
• Henry removes the chemical instruments in Victor's apartment because of the reaction that Victor has at the sight of those lab apparatuses.
• Victor introduces Henry to his professors, Waldman and Krempe, who have nothing but high praise for their now prized student. For Victor, the praise is a bit much, because he has a big secret to hide.
• When you read their writings, life appears to consist in a warm sun and a garden of roses, in the smiles and frowns of a fair enemy, and the fire that consumes your own heart. How different from the manly and heroic poetry of Greece and Rome!"

Chapter 7

• Victor receives a letter from his father telling him to return home immediately.
• William, the youngest in the family, has been murdered by strangulation. The family were out on an evening stroll near their home when the young boy ran ahead of the group. He was later found "stretched on the grass livid and motionless; the print of the murder's finger was on his neck." Missing was a locket that Elizabeth had given William of their mother.
• It is at this time that he realizes that he had been gone six years from home and that two years have passed since the creation of his monster.

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• While near Secheron, on Mont Blanc, Victor catches a glimpse of the monster between flashes of lightning.
• "Could he be (I shuddered at the conception) the murderer of my brother?" The monster disappears when he realizes that he has been seen by his creator.
• , Victor is torn between revealing the monster and risking inquisition on his past or letting the criminal justice system free the accused.
• Justine is accused of the murder with circumstantial evidence.
• He relays his assertion of Justine's innocence and states that she will be found not guilty. His words reassure Elizabeth in a time of great need.

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The Monster Rises....

• The significance of the letter is that it is a turning point in the book, in which the monster now has a real presence in the story; he is a threat to his creator. Up to this point, the monster has been in the back of Victor's mind. Here the monster is asserting himself into Victor's life.
• The setting and atmosphere sets the stage for Victor to see the monster.
• it is interesting that lightning has such a recurring role in the story. It is first how Victor learns about electricity and gains an interest in natural sciences. Then, it is assumed that he uses electricity to "jumpstart" his creation's life.

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Chapter 8

• trial for Justine Moritz begins at 11:00 the next morning.
• Victor suffers silent torture while the entire scene plays out in front of him. Yet, he can do nothing to stop it.
• Justine carries herself calmly at the trial, answering the charges and getting a sterling defense from Elizabeth.
• She is convicted of the crime. Her sentence is to die by hanging the following day.
• Justine goes to her death with no fear, leaving Victor to ponder the deaths of two innocent victims.

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• the name Justine is probably word play on "Justice."
• Victor is now suffering "living torture" for the consequences of his actions
• He has witnessed how two people close to him die as a result of his actions, the creation of the monster.
• Justine appearing beautiful and calm, assured of her innocence. The prosecutor presents the evidence of a market woman who placed Justine at the scene of the crime and the picture from the locket given to William.
• Justine expresses true remorse for the death of William, proclaims her innocence, and tells of how she became part of the crime scene. Justine tells that she had been visiting in a nearby village, left that house to return home, heard of the search for William, found the gates of Geneva closed, and passed the night in a barn. However, she cannot explain how the locket was placed in her pocket.

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Chapter 9

Victor finds no relief at the end of Justine's trial. Haunted by the thoughts of how he ruined so many lives, he cannot sleep or rest. He sinks into a deep depression from which he cannot escape. He tries boating on Lake Geneva and a trip into the Swiss Mountains. He escapes to the Chamounix valley region to rest and recover his senses.

".....for excessive sorrow prevents improvement or enjoyment, or even the discharge of daily usefulness, without which no man is fit for society."

Victor suffers from a deep depression, almost like a relapse to his previous attack in Ingolstadt after he created the monster. His father sees his son's anguish and comments that it seems that Victor is suffering too much. Alphonse does not know what Victor has created and endured for six years, including recent events. Alphonse tells Victor that he owes himself to seek out happiness.

Seeking Refuge from "the storm"....

Victor seeks refuge in boating on nearby Lake Geneva. As a means of easing his pain, he even considers suicide by plunging "into the silent lake." His conversation with Elizabeth shows that even she is changed by the murder of William and conviction of Justine, that she is no longer the same and she sees injustice as part of her world. Victor admits that he is the murderer, and the thought troubles him deeply. She finds Victor's despair a bit too much and wonders about his sanity. Victor hopes that these murders will be the last. Ironically, these killings are only the beginning of the misery that Victor must endure. Also, it is ironic that Victor thinks about ending his life, when just a few years earlier he was determined to create life and dispel death.

To ease his troubled mind, Victor undertakes a tour of the nearby Chamounix valley, France. He hopes that a rest and vacation will do him good. The visit is characteristic of Romantic thought in that nature can restore and refresh the soul. Victor mentions the Arve River, "ruined castles," and the "sublime Alps" as a backdrop to begin his current healing. Mary Shelley delves into a description of Victor's depression and despair; depression and despair are both popular topics of Romantic writers. Also, the restorative and healing powers of nature come through when she describes scenes of beauty and majesty that transport the soul to another place and time. Shelley describes Nature, who has winds that "whispered in soothing accents," like a caring mother who tells Victor to "weep no more." With his senses overwhelmed by all that he has been through, Victor throws himself to the ground and weeps bitterly. Upon arrival in the town of Chamounix, he rents a room, watches a storm play upon the summit of Mont Blanc, and falls down asleep, finally resting and beginning his recuperation.

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Just for fun….Commercial Time!

Chapter 10

Victor takes a tour of a nearby mountain and glacier on Mount Montanvert to refresh his tortured soul. While on the glacier, the monster confronts his maker. Victor seems ready to engage in a combat to the death, but the monster convinces Victor to listen to his story. The two go to the monster's squalid hut on the mountain, and the monster begins to tell his tale.

Victor describes the area near Chamounix and the glaciers that were in the higher elevations. He comments on how nature will soothe his pain, "They elevated me from all littleness of feeling, and although they did not remove my grief, they subdued and tranquilized it." He found peace in nature and finds the scenery comforting. This is an extension of the same idea from Chapter 9, that nature has the ability to restore and heal.

A storm arises from the mountain below him. Again Mary Shelley is setting the scene for the events to come. The storm comes in, and the reader anticipates something is going to happen. This could possibly signal a confrontation with the monster, because throughout the book, Shelley has used the weather as a signal.

Victor describes a desolate scene, filled with ice, snow, and rocks, that parallels the descriptions of the North Pole earlier in the novel. There is always the possibility of an avalanche, a thought that appeals to Victor. Perhaps the avalanche, through nature, will assist Victor in getting rid of the monster or his own troubles.

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It is noon when he arrives on the top of the mountain, when he sees "the figure of a man, at some distance, advancing towards me with superhuman speed." Feeling rage and contempt for the creature, Victor says he could "close with him in mortal combat." Victor tells the monster to "begone" or "stay, that I may trample you to death."

The monster pleads with Victor to be allowed to tell his side of the story. The creature asks that he be made a happy and docile being once again. He pleads, "I am thy creature: I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed." In these lines, Shelley alludes to the Biblical creation story of Adam. The monster likens himself to Adam, the first human created in the Bible. He also speaks of himself as a "fallen angel," much like Satan. In the Biblical story, Adam goes against God by eating an apple from the tree and even though He banishes Adam from Eden, He doesn't speak harshly of Adam. However, the monster seems sinned against, hated by Victor, feared by society, and banished, and thus murders to get back at his God.

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The Romantic Movement espoused the idea that man is born good, but it is society and other pressures that create an evil man. Victor even says "I ought to render him happy before I complained of his wickedness." Thus, Victor and his views on the monster correlate to this Romantic viewpoint.

The monster speaks eloquently enough to convince Victor to calm down and hear his case. He asks that Victor hear his "long and strange" tale. Convinced that they should settle this feud between them amicably, Victor follows the creature to a small hut where they pass an entire afternoon together in conversation. The monster is not what one would expect. Not only is he eloquent and educated, he speaks of being loved and wanting love. And Victor, at this point, is the opposite in that he can only think of hatred for the monster. Thus, Shelley makes the monster a sympathetic creature, not a horrid one.

The One, The Only........