Frankenstein (Abridged)
Chapter 1
Chapter 6
Chapter 5
Chapters 2&3
Chapter 4
Chapter 7
Chapter 11
Chapter 10
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 12
Chapter 16
Chapter 15
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 17
chapter 21
Chapter 20
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
The Final Letters
chapter 22
Movie
chapter 23
chapter 24
Chapter 1 (Full)
Before reading, click the blue play button to view a video summary of the introductory letters which frame the novel's main narrative.
*Page 14 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 2 & 3 (Summary)
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
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.
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.
" Before this I was not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity. On this occasion a man of great research in natural philosophy was with us, and excited by this catastrophe, he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and astonishing to me"
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 4 (Full)
*Page 29 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 5 (Full)
*Page 34 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 6 (Summary)
Elizabeth's letter is the kind one would expect from a concerned family member. It is full of news from home that delights Victor and restores him to better health. Elizabeth tells of Justine Moritz, the Frankenstein's housekeeper and confidant. Even though Justine was treated poorly by her own family, she is a martyr for being a good, loyal friend to the Frankenstein family.
Victor introduces Henry to his professors, who praise Victor highly. Henry Clerval induces Victor to study the Oriental languages Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit to help move his mind away from the sciences. The two study and work together on their language studies, even comparing those languages and their works with the ancient Greek and Roman works. Victor uses a great deal of emotion in his discussion over the differences in languages. He says, "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!" Both men are happy to be hard-working college students.
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.
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 7 (Half & Half)
Summary of Chapter 7 (First Half): 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. When Victor arrives at the city gates, they are closed, so he must remain outside the city in Secheron until the gates are reopened at dawn. 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.
Begin at 10:36
*Page 50 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 8 (Summary)
The chapter is a commentary on Mary Shelley 's view of the justice system. In fact, the name Justine is probably word play on "Justice." The trial for Justine Moritz begins at 11:00 the next morning. Victor is now suffering "living torture" for the consequences of his actions since his university days. He has witnessed how two people close to him die as a result of his actions, the creation of the monster. 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. 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. Although Justine proclaims her innocence, she is convicted of the crime. She did so thinking that she would not face excommunication from the church and atone for her supposed disgraceful conduct. Her sentence is to die by hanging the following day. Elizabeth and Victor go to see Justine in prison where both learn that Justine had given a false confession under stiff questioning. Justine goes to her death with no fear, leaving Victor to ponder the deaths of two innocent victims.
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 9 (Summary)
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. 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 "for excessive sorrow prevents improvement or enjoyment, or even the discharge of daily usefulness, without which no man is fit for society." He tries boating on Lake Geneva and a trip into the Swiss Mountains. He 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, 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. 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.
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 10 (full)
*Page 65 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 11 (Summary)
During Chapters 11-16 the monster is the narrator and begins to tell his tale to Victor. The monster begins his story by recalling his earliest memories and how he came to be. The monster's beginnings are vague, as are the memories of most adults when they recall their childhood. He learns about his bodily sensations and the strange world around him. After fleeing the city and villages where he is not welcomed, the monster learns to live in the forest. Food is sometimes stolen, and shelter is scarce. He does manage to find a "hovel" attached to a small cottage. He fashions a way to see into the cottage and begins to observe the life of the De Lacey family — brother Felix, sister Agatha, and their blind father — who lives in the small home. Mary Shelley takes pains to develop a full account of the creature's adventures. She describes a pastoral family, living by their own volition, in a plain and simple life. Brother Felix performs outside chores, such as gathering wood for fire, and sister Agatha tends the garden and home. Their father, now blind, is the children's source of joy and inspiration. This small family exhibits the devotion, love, and care that all families should strive to achieve. The Romantics celebrated the common folk in their works. They saw the farmer and the laborer as the best in man. These authors were celebrating not the high aristocrats, most of whom history books are written about, but rather, the man who makes his living simply, while engaged in simple life. The monster observes the De Lacey family for a long time, careful not to make them aware of his presence. It is a quiet time for the monster and he grows fond of his newly "adopted" family. This is the first time he feels love and he, "felt sensations of a peculiar and overpowering nature; they were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such as I had never before experienced, either from hunger or cold, warmth or food; and I withdrew from the window, unable to bear these emotions." Shelley makes the reader want to see the monster as a maligned creature, worthy of understanding.
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 12 (full)
*Page 77 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 13 (full)
*Page 81 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 14 (Summary)
The De Lacey family history is told through this chapter. The monster tells that the family was once well regarded in France with wealth and social position, with Felix serving as a civil servant and Agatha who was "ranked with ladies of the highest distinction." One day, a Turkish merchant is falsely imprisoned and sentenced to death which enrages Felix. It is supposed that all the merchant did was suffer from a xenophobic — fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners — attack by local authorities. Shelley's point here is that the monster is telling this story about the injustice that the De Lacey family has to endure. This gives him the idea that he's not the only one who has suffered from an injustice. Felix aides the Turkish merchant in a plot to subvert the biased French justice system and free the merchant from death on the gallows. The merchant promises Felix marriage to his beautiful daughter Safie in return for his escape. Felix helps them successfully escape to Italy, but the discovery of the plot by the French authorities causes the ruin of the De Lacey family, as the government confiscates the De Lacey's wealth for their aid in the escape of Safie's father. Felix returns to France to help his father and sister who had been thrown in jail, 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. Safie also must endure her own trials to find her benefactors in a foreign country.
Summary by CliffsNotes and LitCharts
Chapter 15 (HALF & Half)
Summary of Ch. 15 (First Half): The monster begins his own education, reading the books and notes that he found in Victor's jacket in the nearby woods: Milton's Paradise Lost, Plutarch's Lives of Illustrious Greeks and Romans, and Goethe's Sorrows of Werter. Plutarch compares and contrasts the lives of Greek and Roman statesmen or soldiers for historical perspective. Goethe's work is a novel of letters written by a youth who is very sensitive and steadfast, who kills himself after being so uncompromising and idealistic. Milton's book is about the creation story and Adam, which causes the monster to question his own creation and place in the world. Finally, the monster discovers Victor's own notebooks, which explain how the monster came into existence. The monster is both intrigued and horrified at learning how he came into existence. The monster notices that all has become better in the cottage with "his family" since Safie has brought some servants and money. Since the cottage dwellers have reduced their stress levels, the monster turns his thoughts inward to ask why he does not have an "Eve"? His readings in Milton have prompted him to want a mate for his own. He says, "no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone." The monster wishes to know "his family" better, so he plans to somehow make his presence known to them.
Start at 12:23
*Page 95 in Dover Thrift edition
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 16 (full)
*Page 97 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 17 (Summary)
The monster and Victor finish their conversation in a hut on the slopes of Montanvert. This important chapter is where the monster confronts his maker with an all or nothing proposition: "You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being." Victor refuses and then later relents to the monster's wishes. The monster threatens "I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth." The monster also pleads his case saying, "My creator, make me happy and do not deny my request." The creature further promises to move far away from continental Europe to the wilds of South America. He convinces Victor to once again re-create the process first used on the monster. Victor sees the monster's point of view and agrees to create a mate for the monster. When Victor returns to Geneva to make preparations, his family is alarmed at his "haggard and wild appearance." Again, Victor is plunged into the abyss of despair and depression.
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 18 (full)
*Page 108 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 19 (Summary)
Victor and Henry spend the winter in London, touring that city and making plans to visit the rest of England. The visit delights Henry, while Victor broods and only visits the philosophers who have the latest scientific information. The two go to Oxford, and a friend invites them to visit Scotland. Victor wonders if his family is safe, not knowing the whereabouts of the monster for some time. Here, Victor suggests they part ways; he carries on with his plan, unknown to Henry, and fixes upon a poor, relatively uninhabited island in the Orkney Island chain. Here, Victor can finish his work in solitude and out of sight of anyone who may suspect his intentions. He gathers the latest information about the advances in his field but remains a depressed soul with the thought of what he must do again. At times, Victor works feverishly; at other times, he would not work at all for days. His mind and heart are in a state of confusion, choosing between two choices:"Finish the monster or destroy this creation?" His body is "restless and nervous." He looks forward to finishing his work with mixed feelings. He says, "I looked towards its completion with a tremulous and eager hope, which I dared not trust myself to question but which was intermixed with obscure forebodings of evil that made my heart sicken in my bosom."
The setting is significant to the book. Victor says "I thought of Switzerland; it was far different from this desolate and appalling landscape." He picks a desolate island in the Orkneys off the coast of Scotland. The reader doesn't learn how he find body parts on a practically uninhabited island.
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 20 (full)
*Page 120 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 21 (full)
*Page 128 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 22 (Summary)
Victor and Alphonse travel from Le Harve, France to Paris. They rest a few days in Paris before continuing on to Geneva. Spent physically and mentally from his ordeal in Ireland, Victor tries to tell his father that he alone is responsible for the deaths of Justine, William, and Henry. Alphonse dismisses these claims as ramblings of his exhausted son. Victor even tells his father "how little you know me. William, Justine, and Henry — they all died by my hands." An emphasis on "my hands" can be made because it was Victor's hands that created the monster, although the monster uses his own hands to strangle his victims. Elizabeth sends a letter to Victor asking if he has another love. What really troubles Victor is the pull between family loyalty and happiness versus the sentence announced by the monster. When he arrives in Geneva, he assures her that he is ready to marry her. Victor promises Elizabeth that he needs to tell her his "tale of misery and terror" after they are married. This foreshadows the events that are to come later in the novel. Ten days after his return home, Victor marries Elizabeth. Knowing that the threat made by the monster still hangs over him, Victor leaves on his honeymoon not sure whether the monster will carry out his evil plan. The contrast between the joy of the wedding and the threat of the creature weighs heavily on Victor. He arms himself with "pistols and a dagger constantly."
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 23 (full)
*Page 143 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 24 (Summary)
This chapter brings everything full circle because it will end where the novel began. Visiting the cemetery where William, Elizabeth, and Alphonse are buried, Victor wishes his dead family goodbye and vows to seek revenge for their deaths. He curses the monster and wants retaliation for all the sorrow that has come to him. The monster is nearby laughing at Victor, which spurs the creator to give chase to the monster in order to destroy him. The monster knows that Victor would be at the cemetery because of their psychic communication, a Gothic element. Victor chases the monster from Geneva south to the Mediterranean Sea. Both board a ship bound for the Black Sea, journey through Russia, and make their way north to the Arctic Circle. The monster leaves notes behind to inspire Victor on and to keep his wave of hatred going against his foe, "My reign is not yet over — you live, and my power is complete. Follow me; I seek the everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and frost, to which I am impassive." The monster feels they "have yet to wrestle for our lives, but many hard and miserable hours must you endure until that period shall arrive." Victor cannot follow the monster without help of the notes from the monster and the villagers' sightings. The weather gets worse as the duo travels north. There is little or no food and fierce winter storms. The monster steals a dog sled team and is seen by local villagers to be armed and dangerous. Victor closes to within one mile of the monster when the ice on which both travel begins to crack and separate the two from each other.
It is at this time when Robert Walton finds Victor, with his dying dog team dogs floating on an ice flow in the Arctic Ocean. Victor encourages Robert to continue the fight to destroy the monster if he does not.
Summary by CliffsNotes
The Final Letters (Summary)
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Frankenstein (Abridged)
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Transcript
Frankenstein (Abridged)
Chapter 1
Chapter 6
Chapter 5
Chapters 2&3
Chapter 4
Chapter 7
Chapter 11
Chapter 10
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 12
Chapter 16
Chapter 15
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 17
chapter 21
Chapter 20
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
The Final Letters
chapter 22
Movie
chapter 23
chapter 24
Chapter 1 (Full)
Before reading, click the blue play button to view a video summary of the introductory letters which frame the novel's main narrative.
*Page 14 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 2 & 3 (Summary)
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
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.
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.
" Before this I was not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity. On this occasion a man of great research in natural philosophy was with us, and excited by this catastrophe, he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and astonishing to me"
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 4 (Full)
*Page 29 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 5 (Full)
*Page 34 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 6 (Summary)
Elizabeth's letter is the kind one would expect from a concerned family member. It is full of news from home that delights Victor and restores him to better health. Elizabeth tells of Justine Moritz, the Frankenstein's housekeeper and confidant. Even though Justine was treated poorly by her own family, she is a martyr for being a good, loyal friend to the Frankenstein family. Victor introduces Henry to his professors, who praise Victor highly. Henry Clerval induces Victor to study the Oriental languages Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit to help move his mind away from the sciences. The two study and work together on their language studies, even comparing those languages and their works with the ancient Greek and Roman works. Victor uses a great deal of emotion in his discussion over the differences in languages. He says, "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!" Both men are happy to be hard-working college students. 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.
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 7 (Half & Half)
Summary of Chapter 7 (First Half): 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. When Victor arrives at the city gates, they are closed, so he must remain outside the city in Secheron until the gates are reopened at dawn. 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.
Begin at 10:36
*Page 50 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 8 (Summary)
The chapter is a commentary on Mary Shelley 's view of the justice system. In fact, the name Justine is probably word play on "Justice." The trial for Justine Moritz begins at 11:00 the next morning. Victor is now suffering "living torture" for the consequences of his actions since his university days. He has witnessed how two people close to him die as a result of his actions, the creation of the monster. 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. 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. Although Justine proclaims her innocence, she is convicted of the crime. She did so thinking that she would not face excommunication from the church and atone for her supposed disgraceful conduct. Her sentence is to die by hanging the following day. Elizabeth and Victor go to see Justine in prison where both learn that Justine had given a false confession under stiff questioning. Justine goes to her death with no fear, leaving Victor to ponder the deaths of two innocent victims.
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 9 (Summary)
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. 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 "for excessive sorrow prevents improvement or enjoyment, or even the discharge of daily usefulness, without which no man is fit for society." He tries boating on Lake Geneva and a trip into the Swiss Mountains. He 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, 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. 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.
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 10 (full)
*Page 65 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 11 (Summary)
During Chapters 11-16 the monster is the narrator and begins to tell his tale to Victor. The monster begins his story by recalling his earliest memories and how he came to be. The monster's beginnings are vague, as are the memories of most adults when they recall their childhood. He learns about his bodily sensations and the strange world around him. After fleeing the city and villages where he is not welcomed, the monster learns to live in the forest. Food is sometimes stolen, and shelter is scarce. He does manage to find a "hovel" attached to a small cottage. He fashions a way to see into the cottage and begins to observe the life of the De Lacey family — brother Felix, sister Agatha, and their blind father — who lives in the small home. Mary Shelley takes pains to develop a full account of the creature's adventures. She describes a pastoral family, living by their own volition, in a plain and simple life. Brother Felix performs outside chores, such as gathering wood for fire, and sister Agatha tends the garden and home. Their father, now blind, is the children's source of joy and inspiration. This small family exhibits the devotion, love, and care that all families should strive to achieve. The Romantics celebrated the common folk in their works. They saw the farmer and the laborer as the best in man. These authors were celebrating not the high aristocrats, most of whom history books are written about, but rather, the man who makes his living simply, while engaged in simple life. The monster observes the De Lacey family for a long time, careful not to make them aware of his presence. It is a quiet time for the monster and he grows fond of his newly "adopted" family. This is the first time he feels love and he, "felt sensations of a peculiar and overpowering nature; they were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such as I had never before experienced, either from hunger or cold, warmth or food; and I withdrew from the window, unable to bear these emotions." Shelley makes the reader want to see the monster as a maligned creature, worthy of understanding.
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 12 (full)
*Page 77 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 13 (full)
*Page 81 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 14 (Summary)
The De Lacey family history is told through this chapter. The monster tells that the family was once well regarded in France with wealth and social position, with Felix serving as a civil servant and Agatha who was "ranked with ladies of the highest distinction." One day, a Turkish merchant is falsely imprisoned and sentenced to death which enrages Felix. It is supposed that all the merchant did was suffer from a xenophobic — fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners — attack by local authorities. Shelley's point here is that the monster is telling this story about the injustice that the De Lacey family has to endure. This gives him the idea that he's not the only one who has suffered from an injustice. Felix aides the Turkish merchant in a plot to subvert the biased French justice system and free the merchant from death on the gallows. The merchant promises Felix marriage to his beautiful daughter Safie in return for his escape. Felix helps them successfully escape to Italy, but the discovery of the plot by the French authorities causes the ruin of the De Lacey family, as the government confiscates the De Lacey's wealth for their aid in the escape of Safie's father. Felix returns to France to help his father and sister who had been thrown in jail, 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. Safie also must endure her own trials to find her benefactors in a foreign country.
Summary by CliffsNotes and LitCharts
Chapter 15 (HALF & Half)
Summary of Ch. 15 (First Half): The monster begins his own education, reading the books and notes that he found in Victor's jacket in the nearby woods: Milton's Paradise Lost, Plutarch's Lives of Illustrious Greeks and Romans, and Goethe's Sorrows of Werter. Plutarch compares and contrasts the lives of Greek and Roman statesmen or soldiers for historical perspective. Goethe's work is a novel of letters written by a youth who is very sensitive and steadfast, who kills himself after being so uncompromising and idealistic. Milton's book is about the creation story and Adam, which causes the monster to question his own creation and place in the world. Finally, the monster discovers Victor's own notebooks, which explain how the monster came into existence. The monster is both intrigued and horrified at learning how he came into existence. The monster notices that all has become better in the cottage with "his family" since Safie has brought some servants and money. Since the cottage dwellers have reduced their stress levels, the monster turns his thoughts inward to ask why he does not have an "Eve"? His readings in Milton have prompted him to want a mate for his own. He says, "no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone." The monster wishes to know "his family" better, so he plans to somehow make his presence known to them.
Start at 12:23
*Page 95 in Dover Thrift edition
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 16 (full)
*Page 97 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 17 (Summary)
The monster and Victor finish their conversation in a hut on the slopes of Montanvert. This important chapter is where the monster confronts his maker with an all or nothing proposition: "You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being." Victor refuses and then later relents to the monster's wishes. The monster threatens "I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth." The monster also pleads his case saying, "My creator, make me happy and do not deny my request." The creature further promises to move far away from continental Europe to the wilds of South America. He convinces Victor to once again re-create the process first used on the monster. Victor sees the monster's point of view and agrees to create a mate for the monster. When Victor returns to Geneva to make preparations, his family is alarmed at his "haggard and wild appearance." Again, Victor is plunged into the abyss of despair and depression.
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 18 (full)
*Page 108 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 19 (Summary)
Victor and Henry spend the winter in London, touring that city and making plans to visit the rest of England. The visit delights Henry, while Victor broods and only visits the philosophers who have the latest scientific information. The two go to Oxford, and a friend invites them to visit Scotland. Victor wonders if his family is safe, not knowing the whereabouts of the monster for some time. Here, Victor suggests they part ways; he carries on with his plan, unknown to Henry, and fixes upon a poor, relatively uninhabited island in the Orkney Island chain. Here, Victor can finish his work in solitude and out of sight of anyone who may suspect his intentions. He gathers the latest information about the advances in his field but remains a depressed soul with the thought of what he must do again. At times, Victor works feverishly; at other times, he would not work at all for days. His mind and heart are in a state of confusion, choosing between two choices:"Finish the monster or destroy this creation?" His body is "restless and nervous." He looks forward to finishing his work with mixed feelings. He says, "I looked towards its completion with a tremulous and eager hope, which I dared not trust myself to question but which was intermixed with obscure forebodings of evil that made my heart sicken in my bosom." The setting is significant to the book. Victor says "I thought of Switzerland; it was far different from this desolate and appalling landscape." He picks a desolate island in the Orkneys off the coast of Scotland. The reader doesn't learn how he find body parts on a practically uninhabited island.
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 20 (full)
*Page 120 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 21 (full)
*Page 128 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 22 (Summary)
Victor and Alphonse travel from Le Harve, France to Paris. They rest a few days in Paris before continuing on to Geneva. Spent physically and mentally from his ordeal in Ireland, Victor tries to tell his father that he alone is responsible for the deaths of Justine, William, and Henry. Alphonse dismisses these claims as ramblings of his exhausted son. Victor even tells his father "how little you know me. William, Justine, and Henry — they all died by my hands." An emphasis on "my hands" can be made because it was Victor's hands that created the monster, although the monster uses his own hands to strangle his victims. Elizabeth sends a letter to Victor asking if he has another love. What really troubles Victor is the pull between family loyalty and happiness versus the sentence announced by the monster. When he arrives in Geneva, he assures her that he is ready to marry her. Victor promises Elizabeth that he needs to tell her his "tale of misery and terror" after they are married. This foreshadows the events that are to come later in the novel. Ten days after his return home, Victor marries Elizabeth. Knowing that the threat made by the monster still hangs over him, Victor leaves on his honeymoon not sure whether the monster will carry out his evil plan. The contrast between the joy of the wedding and the threat of the creature weighs heavily on Victor. He arms himself with "pistols and a dagger constantly."
Summary by CliffsNotes
Chapter 23 (full)
*Page 143 in Dover Thrift edition
Chapter 24 (Summary)
This chapter brings everything full circle because it will end where the novel began. Visiting the cemetery where William, Elizabeth, and Alphonse are buried, Victor wishes his dead family goodbye and vows to seek revenge for their deaths. He curses the monster and wants retaliation for all the sorrow that has come to him. The monster is nearby laughing at Victor, which spurs the creator to give chase to the monster in order to destroy him. The monster knows that Victor would be at the cemetery because of their psychic communication, a Gothic element. Victor chases the monster from Geneva south to the Mediterranean Sea. Both board a ship bound for the Black Sea, journey through Russia, and make their way north to the Arctic Circle. The monster leaves notes behind to inspire Victor on and to keep his wave of hatred going against his foe, "My reign is not yet over — you live, and my power is complete. Follow me; I seek the everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and frost, to which I am impassive." The monster feels they "have yet to wrestle for our lives, but many hard and miserable hours must you endure until that period shall arrive." Victor cannot follow the monster without help of the notes from the monster and the villagers' sightings. The weather gets worse as the duo travels north. There is little or no food and fierce winter storms. The monster steals a dog sled team and is seen by local villagers to be armed and dangerous. Victor closes to within one mile of the monster when the ice on which both travel begins to crack and separate the two from each other. It is at this time when Robert Walton finds Victor, with his dying dog team dogs floating on an ice flow in the Arctic Ocean. Victor encourages Robert to continue the fight to destroy the monster if he does not.
Summary by CliffsNotes
The Final Letters (Summary)
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