■ Robert Walton is writing these letters to his sister Margaret

■ Walton is about to set out on a journey at sea to reach the North Pole

■ Walton's purpose in venturing to the North Pole is twofold: to discover a

northern passage to the countries on the other side of the world; and to

determine the origin of the North Pole's magnetism.

■ Walton writes that his resolution to carry out his journey is "fixed as fate."

■ In his fourth letter, a stranger boards Walton’s ship

■ The man comes aboard. Walton says he showed a "benevolence and

sweetness" unequalled by anyone else he had ever met. As the days

pass and the stranger recovers his strength, Walton comes to love him as

a brother and considers him the friend he never thought he would meet

on his voyage.

■ The stranger decides to tell Walton his story in order to help him in his

quest for knowledge.

– Victor speaks in 1st person; everything is in relation to

him

– Traditional family structure (parents Alphose and

Caroline)

– Raised in a loving happy home with loving parents; we

assume that Victor would have the same instinct.

– For those who have been created and abandoned, it is

required that someone are for them; to do otherwise is

unthinkable. (adoption of Elizabeth)

– Victor and Elizabeth became very close friends and often times referred to each other as cousins rather than

siblings

■ THEME: Quest for knowledge leads to destruction

– Victor is predisposed to secrecy (even as a young man)

– Foreshadows how experiments come into play

– Victor claims to have a perfection childhood

– He long to unravel physical secrets of life from a young age and became

fascinated with the laws of nature

– Victor’s close friend Henry Clerval has very similar ambitions

– As he grows up, Victor becomes fascinated with "natural philosophy,"

and reads widely among the thinkers in this field who want to penetrate

the "citadel of nature.”

– One day, when Victor observes lightning strike a tree, he realizes that the

laws of science are beyond human understanding and decides to focus

on studies based in fact, like mathematics, rather than natural

philosophy.

– Yet he notes that he eventually returned to it, leading to his "utter and

terrible destruction."

Chapter 3 – For Victor, knowledge substitutes for people –disconnects

– This attitude is dangerous

– He “doesn’t do well with strangers”

– We learn his last name; removal of first name makes him less

personal; “scientific self”

– Elizabeth catches scarlet fever and passes it onto Caroline (Victor’s

mother) who passes away

– Grief stricken- Victor leaves for Ingolstadt in Germany to attend

university

– He meets with his professor of natural philosophy, M. Krempe, who

tells Victor that his previous studies have all been a waste of time.

– Yet Victor then attends a class with M. Waldman, a chemistry

professor, whose lecture on the power and recent successes of

science inspire Victor to dedicate himself to revealing "to the world the

deepest mysteries of creation."

– Two years go by without him going home

– This doesn’t speak well for his character

– Either Victor is normally kind and has become demonized by

scientific knowledge OR he is actually a selfish character

– Victor has no respect for natural boundaries; contempt for restraints

– Lost the ability to feel anything; no remorse

– He progresses rapidly, and suddenly after two years of work he

discovers the secret to creating life.

– Victor decides to build a race of beings, starting with one creature.

– He spends months alone in his apartment building a body to

reanimate, spurred on by the lure of fame and glory, imagining a

"new species" that will bless him as its creator

– THEME: Abandonment/ parenting

– Fickleness of human nature; Victor is horrified by what he’s done

– Creature emerges in a non-violent state; happy and shy

– We are supposed to see him as a child

– After months of effort, Victor is successful in bringing his creature to life. But once

alive, the creature's appearance horrifies him—he thinks of it as a monster.

– Victor runs from the room and tries to sleep, but nightmares of death and tombs wake

him, and he opens his eyes to see the monster by his bed, reaching out and grinning.

He runs, and spends the night outside.

– While wandering Ingolstadt, he finds Henry Clerval who has come to university to

embark on "a voyage of discovery to the land of knowledge.”

– Victor checks to see if the monster is still in his apartment, and is overjoyed to find

that it isn't. He invites Clerval up, but once there falls ill with a "nervous fever," which

lasts for months.

– Clerval nurses him, not revealing the illness to anyone. When Victor recovers, Clerval

asks Victor to send a letter to his father and family, and gives him a letter from

Elizabeth.

1st time we learn of Victor’s brother

 Elizabeth shows herself to be gentle like Caroline

 Victor wants to forget; desire to be reborn

 He is unable to act directly unless confronted.

 His character allows him to see only what is before his eyes, not beyond;

immature though full of knowledge

 In her letter, Elizabeth updates Victor on his brothers, and says that

Justine Moritz, a former servant of the Frankensteins, has come to live

with them after the death of her mother.

 Victor introduces Clerval to his professors, but though they praise him

Victor finds anything connected with natural philosophy causes him

distress. So he gives up such studies for a while, and studies Middle

Eastern language with Clerval.

 Near the end of term, as Victor and Clerval wait to travel back to Geneva,

they take a tour around Germany which rekindles Victor's love of nature

and raises his spirits.

Victor is still self-centered

 We are inclined to see the Creature through Frankenstein’s eyes

 Victor keeps creature secret in order to preserve reputation and save face

 On returning from the tour, Victor receives a letter from his father saying

that his youngest brother, William, has been murdered. Shocked and upset,

Victor and Clerval rush to Geneva. Victor visits the spot where his brother

died. On the way he sees lightning playing over the peaks of the mountain

Mont Blanc.

 Near where his brother died, Victor sees a figure resembling the monster.

He realizes that the monster killed William, which means that he, Victor, is

really responsible since he created the monster.

 When Victor arrives home the next day, his brother Ernest tearfully informs

him that Justine has been accused of William's murder: in her pocket the

police found a portrait of Victor's mother that William had been wearing.

 Victor announces to his family that Justine is certainly not guilty, but says no

more since he fears anyone hearing his story would think him insane. But

Victor is confident that Justine could not be convicted for a crime she did

not commit by circumstantial evidence.

Frankenstein’s selfish desire to conceal the truth causes Justine’s

death

 Victor wishes he could confess in Justine's place, but his absence at

the time of the murder would make his confession sound like

nonsense.

 At the trial, Justine maintains she is innocent, but cannot explain

how William's portrait of his mother wound up in her pocket. She is

sentenced to death.

 Victor speaks with a member of the court, who says that Justine has

already confessed to the crime. Victor and Elizabeth visit Justine in

prison, and she explains that she was pressured into confessing by

her jailors. She succumbed, and confessed a lie. Justine says she's

ready to die and leave behind the "sad and bitter world."

 The next day Justine is executed. Victor feels guilt and remorse

overwhelm him for his secret role in William and Justine's deaths.

Victor is suicidal; “oh poor victim”

 Revolts him to the reader

 “romantic” images; nature

 Victor despairs that his good intentions have resulted in such

horror. Soon the Frankensteins go to their vacation home in Belrive

to escape the bad memories of what's happened. Yet Victor still

has thoughts of suicide and begins to desire revenge against the

monster.

 One day Elizabeth tells Victor that she no longer sees the world the

same way after witnessing the execution of an innocent.

 A while later Victor decides to travel to Chamonix, France, hoping

the trip will provide relief from his "ephemeral, because human,

sorrows." Along the way he gazes at waterfalls and the towering

Mont Blanc.

■ Meets creature; will ultimately bring misery upon him

■ Victor’s conversation with creature “fallen angel”; supreme innocence with

evil

■ Sees himself as Adam = creature begs for compassion

■ THEME: parenting

■ Victor’s abandonment is what makes the creature

■ At Chamonix, Victor continues to feel despair. He again tries to escape it

through nature: he climbs to the peak of a mountain called Montanvert. But

just as the view begins to lift his spirits, Victor sees the monster. He curses it

and wishes for its destruction.

■ But with great eloquence the monster claims to be Victor's offspring. "I ought

to be thy Adam," it says.

■ The monster continues that it was once benevolent, and turned to violence

only after Victor, its creator, abandoned it. It begs Victor to listen to its story.

Victor, for the first time thinking about his responsibilities as a creator, follows

the monster to a cave in the glacier, and sits down to listen.

■ Meets creature; will ultimately bring misery upon him

■ Victor’s conversation with creature “fallen angel”; supreme innocence with

evil

■ Sees himself as Adam = creature begs for compassion

■ THEME: parenting

■ Victor’s abandonment is what makes the creature

■ At Chamonix, Victor continues to feel despair. He again tries to escape it

through nature: he climbs to the peak of a mountain called Montanvert. But

just as the view begins to lift his spirits, Victor sees the monster. He curses it

and wishes for its destruction.

■ But with great eloquence the monster claims to be Victor's offspring. "I ought

to be thy Adam," it says.

■ The monster continues that it was once benevolent, and turned to violence

only after Victor, its creator, abandoned it. It begs Victor to listen to its story.

Victor, for the first time thinking about his responsibilities as a creator, follows

the monster to a cave in the glacier, and sits down to listen.

 THEME: Knowledge brings destruction (“ignorance is bliss”)

 When the Creature sees his reflection, he is horrified

 The reader knows the can never over come the obstacles of his appearance

 We are intended to identify with the creature as an outcast

 We understand that he will NEVER integrate into human society

 The monster wonders why the family seems unhappy and realizes it is because the old

man is blind and the family is poor and hungry.

 To make up for adding to their misery by eating their food, it gathers wood for them and

leaves it outside their cottage at night.

 It also realizes they communicate through sound, and sets about learning their language.

 It learns that the young man is named Felix, and the girl, Agatha.

 One day the monster sees itself in a pool of water.

 He realizes finally why people have screamed and run when they see him.

 The monster becomes convinced that with gentle words and actions he could get the

family to see past his awful appearance.

 Creature asks “WHAT am I?” not “WHO am I?”

 Consuming desire to belong to this family

 Identifies with them; they were exiled as he was exiled

 Creature is ignorant of human nature; humans cannot get along with each other, let alone a new

species

 THEME: parenting

 Creature contemplates the lack of guidance in his life

 Victor’s neglect is horrifying

 When a dark and beautiful "Arabian" woman named Safie arrives at the cottage, the family's mood,

and Felix in particular, brightens.

 Safie does not speak the family's language, and Felix teaches her from a history book. As she learns,

so does the monster, which is disgusted that a race as noble as mankind is also capable of such evil.

 As he learns about society and humans, the monster realizes that it has no society of its own. It is a

monster, doomed to be always without family or people.

 It wishes it had never gotten this knowledge about society, which makes it so miserable.

 Shows attachment to the family; portrays various types of human interaction

 The tale of the family contains the best and worst traits of human nature

 Danger: if creature is not well-received, he now has tools to wreak vengeance

 THEME: basic human need for companionship

 From his hovel, the Creature cranes his neck to hear every word from his “friends”

 The monster figures out the history of the family, the De Laceys: Safie’s father was a wealthy

"Turk" living in Paris, who was wrongly accused of a crime. Felix offered to help the Turk escape

from prison, and meanwhile fell in love with Safie.

 The Turk offered Felix his daughter's hand in marriage in exchange for helping the two escape.

Felix, Safie, and her father escaped and made it to Italy, but then Felix's role in the conspiracy was

discovered, and as a result the De Laceys lost their wealth and were exiled by the government.

 Felix returned to help his family, assuming that the Turk would uphold his end of the bargain, but

the "treacherous Turk" decided he didn't want his daughter to marry a Christian. Safie's "Christian

Arab" mother had taught her to be independent and intellectually curious, however—traits not

encouraged among women in her father's Islamic society—so when Safie's father tried to force

her to return to Turkey with him, she escaped and came to find Felix.

 Creature is becoming more “human”

 Extreme rejection is ironic; never has he been more learned, never more “human”

 Creature realizes how he came to be; no love in his creation

 The monster next tells how it found three books in the woods, including John Milton's Paradise Lost

(an epic poem about humankind's loss of innocence in the Garden of Eden).

 The monster at times sees itself as similar to Adam.

 Yet at others he sees himself as more like Satan, because he does not have the love of his creator.

 The monster adds that when it fled from Victor's apartment it accidentally took some of his journal

entries, which turned out to describe its creation.

 It curses Victor for having created something so ugly

 The monster decides to reveal himself in the hope that men will be able to see past his ugliness.

 One day when Felix, Agatha, and Safie are out for a walk, he enters the cottage and introduces

himself to De Lacey, sensing that the blind man will not be prejudiced against him. The

conversation starts well, but just then the family returns. Felix attacks the monster, Safie runs in

terror, and Agatha faints.

 The monster flees.

Image of fire is prevalent; anger/ fire is unleashed

 Vengeance unleashed=logical target is Frankenstein

 Essentially declares war on all humans

 Problem: how he chooses his victims

 The family's rejection plunges the monster into a fit of rage. But the beauty of the next day calms him. He

decides to approach De Lacey again to try to make amends.

 But by the time the monster reaches the cottage, the De Laceys have moved out.

 He sees Felix terminating his lease with the landlord, and never sees any of them again.

 His last link with society destroyed, the monster gives in to rage and a desire for revenge. He burns down the

cottage and heads for Geneva and Victor.

 At one point along the way the monster saves a beautiful little girl from drowning in a stream, only to be shot by

her guardian.

 It takes weeks for him to heal, and his suffering only feeds his anger and desire for revenge.

 After a few weeks, the monster makes it to Geneva. There he encounters a young boy. Thinking the boy would

be too young to be horrified by his appearance, and thus could be a companion for him, the monster

approaches him.

 But the boy is terrified, and shouts that his father, a Frankenstein, will punish the monster.

 The monster becomes enraged at hearing the name Frankenstein, and strangles the boy. The boy dies.