Frankenstein mary shelley summary by chapter

After completing his story, the creature tells Frankenstein his demand: he wants him to create a female companion, as ugly as himself, to share his loneliness.

Frankenstein mary shelley summary by chapter

He also tells Frankenstein that if he refuses to do so, all his dear ones will be destroyed. Frankenstein agrees only after the creature promises to leave Europe forever with his mate and return to Geneva. Though Frankenstein loves Elizabeth and wants to marry her, he realizes he should fulfill his promise first to the Creature before marrying Elizabeth.

So he leaves for England, accompanied by his friend Henry Clerval, to finish his work. Before going to England, he also promises his father to marry Elizabeth on his return. In Edinburgh, Victor leaves Clerval and heads towards the remote Orkney islands to fulfil his promise to the monster. When he is nearly halfway through the work of creation, he is suddenly seized by fear and begins to question his promise to the creature.

Frightened by this prospect, he destroys his half-finished female creation. Frankenstein sets out in the middle of the night in a small boat frankenstein mary shelley summary by chapter the remains of the female creature with him and finally dumps them in the ocean. He is imprisoned and becomes deathly ill for several months.

Frankenstein travels with his father back toward Geneva. After their wedding, Frankenstein and Elizabeth travel to the town of Evian, where they stay at an inn. Frankenstein then suffers a severe mental breakdown and spends several months in an asylum. But when he finds the magistrate being skeptical of his story, he ultimately decides to leave Geneva and seeks vengeance on his own.

Now having lost everyone he has ever loved, Frankenstein sets out on a mission to spend the rest of his life pursuing the creature and destroying him completely. He tells Walton that he has now lost every sensation except for revenge. The Creature always leaves him clues including some food and notes written on tree barks and rocks. He chases the Creature everywhere and his pursuit has at last taken him to the Arctic region.

Just as he is about to catch that Creature, the ice suddenly breaks, separating them, and Frankenstein is cast adrift on a floating sheet of ice. After telling Walton his story, Frankenstein asks him to kill the Creature if he dies before doing the task himself. Now Walton resumes his role as the narrator and we are back in the present. His ship is still trapped in the ice, resulting in the deaths of some of his crewmen.

Meanwhile, Frankenstein delivers a rousing speech urging Walton and his crew to move forward with their journey and tells them that glory comes at the cost of sacrifice. But being pressured by his crew, he abandons his trip and agrees to return to England. He speaks of his sufferings and because of all the murders he has committed, now hates himself.

He tells Walton of his plan to immolate his own body at the North Pole, so that the whole ignoble affair can finally end. Victor wants to create a family only after the nightmare associated with the monster would be behind and long forgotten. That is why he decides to take a trip to London first. He gives himself a year to complete the work.

Elisabeth, worrying about Victor, arranged that his friend, Henry, would accompany him during the trip. Although Victor sought solitude and did not want to reveal his secret to his loved ones, he was still pleased to find out that Clerval agreed to go with him. He was alive to every new scene… and I was occupied by gloomy thoughts, and neither saw the descent of the evening star nor the golden sunrise.

After spending several months in London, they received a letter from an old acquaintance from Scotland who invited friends to visit his beautiful country. In Scotland, in a remote mountain settlement, away from prying eyes, Victor decided to stop and finish his work on creating another monster. However, Victor did not find joy in these landscapes.

The beauty of nature and carefree conversations of strangers caused terrible anxiety and horrifying memories in Frankenstein. Summary of the past traumatic events lingered in his mind. His heavy thoughts contributed even further to his isolation from society. It seemed to him that the curse hung over him and put up a massive wall between him and the rest of the world.

He knew that the beast was determined to get what he wanted at any cost. Having reached Scotland and parting with his friend, Victor finally set to work. His activity aroused an irresistible disgust in him. His feelings are understandable since when he worked on creating his first Monster, he was unaware of the terrible consequences of such experiments.

Now, when he was wise and experienced, he realized that by completing the task, he was about to give life to a new evil power which could destroy everything human. The closer he approached the completion of the work, the more tortuous his thoughts became. To summarize, in chapter 20, Frankenstein breaks his promise to the Monster. The beast confronts him with death threats, but Victor is firm in his decision.

He takes a boat and leaves the village. The strong current brings the boat to the banks of Ireland, where locals meet Frankenstein very unfriendly and take him to the judge, Mr. When the work on creating a wife for the Monster was almost over, a clear awareness of the responsibility before humanity that he was about to take upon himself came to Victor.

He could not guarantee that the newly born woman will be as agreeable and reasonable as the first creature. What if she refuses to live in a remote desert and turns violent? Even more so, if his creatures have children, then the whole population of monsters will inhabit the planet at some point. Guided by such reasoning, Frankenstein refuses to continue working.

He understands that for breaking his promise, he will pay with his own life and lives of his loved ones. However, the death of one family is nothing compared to the fate of the entire human race. The Monster, who has been following Viktor all this time, becomes furious when he learns that his last hope has collapsed. From that moment on, the only purpose of his existence is brutal revenge.

Even the prospect of losing his entire family is unable to dissuade Frankenstein. Mary Shelley, in summary, illustrates here, that after having made one terrible mistake in the past and having faced its outcome, Victor refused to repeat it. Circumstantial evidence points out that he has murdered a young man. In a frankenstein mary shelley summary by chapter man, Frankenstein recognizes Henry Clerval.

He faints and remains delusional for two months in prison. It became clear to him that the Monster was responsible for the murder. It was also obvious that the beast tried to frame Victor. He knew that Frankenstein would leave by boat. Therefore he used the same boat to drop the dead man. Victor found himself in a situation similar to the one Justina was in earlier.

They both were unfairly accused of the murders they did not commit. However, Victor had supporters — Mr. Kirwin, who genuinely felt for him, and his father. Justina had nobody to protect her. The similarity of situations in which both characters ended up supports the theme of reprisal in the narrative. Nothing could comfort Frankenstein.

Summary of everything that he had been through completely broke his spirit. The news that he was going to be released from prison did not give him any relief. In response to Mr. There was no freedom for a man whose mind was constantly tortured with remorse. Frankenstein would rather die in this prison and abolish himself of the torment, but he still had people whom he was obliged to protect.

In Paris, Frankenstein receives a letter from Elizabeth, in which she expresses concerns that he may have fallen in love with another woman. He feels as if he is guilty before the entire population. His resemblance to the Monster grows proportional to his pangs of conscience. But I felt that I had no right to share their intercourse. On the one hand, he wished to make her happy, at least for a short period of time.

On the other hand, he longed to put an end to his own torments. The beast threatened to come to his wedding night, which Victor understood as that he would have to fight to the death. Several days before the wedding, Frankenstein felt almost happy. Although he still worried that the Monster could be near, he embraced the hope that the tragedy might miraculously pass by him.

After the ceremony, these hopes began to vanish. Elizabeth became silent and sad as if she foresaw the onset of a disaster, and Victor, tortured by his horrible secret, could not do anything to alleviate her pain. In a house where newlyweds arrive for their wedding night, Frankenstein leaves Elizabeth alone in a room while he goes to search for the Monster.

Suddenly he hears blood-curdling screams of his wife and finds her dead. Devastated, he rushes back to Geneva to save his father and brother. The Monster achieved his goal and forced Frankenstein, in summary, to suffer the same fate as he had been suffering all along — complete loneliness and isolation. Victor continued to live with one goal — to catch the Monster and take reprisal.

While his relatives were alive, Victor did not tell anyone about the Monster for the fear that people would despise him for his experiments. Only when he was left alone in the world and became utterly seized by devouring hatred, he dared to tell the truth. In conclusion, the Monster reaches his goal and destroys Frankenstein. He leaves Geneva and chases his enemy all the way to the Arctic Ocean, where Robert Walton takes him on board the ship.

Before leaving Geneva, Frankenstein goes to the cemetery to visit the graves of his loved ones. There he vows to avenge their death. He feels that the spirits of the dead are going to give him the strength to find the creature. He ran after the Monster through the bare steppes and hot deserts, where he, like an animal, was forced to sleep under the stars and eat food inappropriate for humans.

None of these hardships stopped Frankenstein. Mary Shelly, in summary, illustrates here that, except for the appearance, there is no difference left between Victor and the beast. Despite the effort, destiny prevented Frankenstein from murdering his creation. As Walton became his friend, Victor asked him to finish his task for him. He believed that Walton, too, would treat the Monster as pure evil and have no sympathy for him.

At the end of Frankensteinthe summary of the narrative takes up the form of letters again. Walton writes to Margaret that his crew convinced him to return to England. Robert contemplates to take reprisals, but the beast promises to take his own life and disappears in the darkness. In his dying hours, Victor admits his responsibilities to the creature he gave life to, but he still justifies his desire to destroy the Monster.

This was my duty, but there was another still paramount to that. My duties towards the beings of my own species. The scene, where he repents for all the terrible things he had done, is very notable. Its significance lies in the fact that the reader sees the Monster to be more human than his creator. Even on his deathbed, Frankenstein wished for the beast to be destroyed, while the Monster regretted all his evil deeds.

However, Mary Shelley leaves no guarantees that he will not return to avenge humanity. Home Lit. Guides Frankenstein. When a young boy walks by, the creature grabs him, thinking that this youth might be free from prejudice. Instead, the boy insults him mercilessly. When the boy says his father is Monsieur Frankenstein, the die is cast.

The creature strangles William and then, later, slips his locket into the pocket of Justine. In return for a companion, the creature promises to relocate to the wilds of South America, never to be seen again. Though he has his doubts, Victor consents. The creature is elated and promises to watch his progress anxiously. After the creature leaves, Victor descends down the mountain slowly and rejoins his family.

They return to Geneva, where Victor attempts to enjoy daily life. Victor tries to feign happiness but is weighed down by his promise to the creature. His father asks him if he is having doubts about his eventual marriage to Elizabeth. When Victor says no, his father suggests an immediate marriage. Victor doubts whether he is in any shape for a wedding.

As he needs to talk with a few scientists abroad, he suggests a two-year research trip to England. His father gives his blessing and Victor agrees to marry Elizabeth upon his return. Clerval accompanies to England and loves every minute of their journey. After Victor and Clerval have spent a few months in London, they receive a letter from an acquaintance in Scotland inviting them to visit.

They agree and travel north in the spring. He tells Clerval to tour Scotland alone and rents a cottage in the Orkney islands to complete his work. At this moment, he begins to have doubts. What if the two creatures have children? What if she is even more cruel? Suddenly resolved, Victor tears his new creation to pieces. The creature sees what Victor has done and howls in despair.

The creature threatens him with every sort of misery, but Victor refuses to change his mind. Once the creature leaves, Victor takes all his scientific equipment out on a boat and dumps it in the ocean. Exhausted, he falls asleep on the boat and drifts out to sea. He fights with the frankensteins mary shelley summary by chapter and currents until he makes it to a small town on the coast of Ireland.

He arrives to whispers from the townspeople and is taken promptly to a Magistrate to answer for some crime. Victor is taken into custody for murder. At first, Victor is merely puzzled — as he was on the Orkneys when the body was found, he knows he can easily prove his innocence. He collapses in convulsions and is held in prison for two months.

Though despairing, Victor proves his innocence and leaves Ireland with his father. Victor and his father travel to London and then to Paris, where Victor receives a letter from Elizabeth. In it, she asks if he does not love another. Victor writes back immediately to reassure her of his love — though he tells her he has a monstrous secret he will share with her the day after their marriage.

Consequently, once they arrive in Geneva, Victor moves ahead quickly with the wedding. The evening after their wedding, Victor tells Elizabeth to retire while he anxiously paces the hallways of the inn where they are staying. Just when he dares to think something must have delayed the creature, he hears Elizabeth scream. All at once, Victor realizes that the creature always meant to kill Elizabeth, not him.

With his family and friends dead where is Ernest? Victor sets his sights on revenge. He tells the whole tale to a Genevan Magistrate and asks for help. The Magistrate demures, and Victor swears to continue his mission of revenge. Chapter 18— Question details This is a 3 part social work question. Social Work Question. Critical Review and Organization of Scholarly Resources.

Discussion 7. Assigment 7. Communications Question. Supply Chain Question. Chapter Summaries Table. Summary: Preface I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. Frankenstein opens with a preface, signed by Read more. Summary: Chapter 1 The reader soon learns that the stranger is Victor Frankenstein as he begins his narration.

He describes his family background, bir Summary: Chapter 3 I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation. Barely 17 years of ag He thinks of committing suicide but restrains himself by thin Summary: Chapter 11 Sitting by the fire in an ice cave, the monster apprises Victor of the confusion he experienced upon being created.