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Frankenstein: the plot
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Mary Shelley's 1818 novel is a story within a story within a story. A scientist creates life and then abandons it, with terrible results.
Walton and Victor
The explorer Robert Walton, sailing towards the North Pole, writes letters to his sister. His crew rescue the exhausted Victor Frankenstein from the ice.
Victor tells his story: as a student at Ingolstadt, he discovered how to bring dead matter to life. "It was on a dreary night of November" that his creature opened its eyes. Horrified, Victor fled.
Victor tells his story: as a student at Ingolstadt, he discovered how to bring dead matter to life. "It was on a dreary night of November" that his creature opened its eyes. Horrified, Victor fled.
The creature's story
Victor's young brother William is murdered, and the servant Justine is wrongly executed. Victor knows the creature is responsible.
On a glacier the creature tells his own story: he was kind at first, learned to speak by secretly watching the De Lacey family, but was attacked and rejected by everyone.
He asks Victor to make him a female companion.
On a glacier the creature tells his own story: he was kind at first, learned to speak by secretly watching the De Lacey family, but was attacked and rejected by everyone.
He asks Victor to make him a female companion.
Revenge
Victor starts making a female creature but destroys it. The creature warns: "I will be with you on your wedding-night."
He kills Victor's friend Henry Clerval, then Victor's bride Elizabeth on their wedding night.
Victor chases him to the Arctic and dies on Walton's ship. The creature grieves over Victor and leaves to end his own life.
He kills Victor's friend Henry Clerval, then Victor's bride Elizabeth on their wedding night.
Victor chases him to the Arctic and dies on Walton's ship. The creature grieves over Victor and leaves to end his own life.
Why does Shelley use three narrators (Walton, Victor and the creature)?
- Walton's letters frame the story.
- Victor gives his version, then the creature gives his.
- The reader can compare their views and judge who is really to blame.
Answer: So readers hear different sides, especially the creature's, and judge for themselves.
Walton's letters, Victor's creation at Ingolstadt, abandonment, William and Justine, the creature's story and the De Laceys, the female creature destroyed, Clerval and Elizabeth killed, the Arctic chase, Victor's death.
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