Frankenstein: A Brief Summary

Frankenstein opens with Robert Walton’s letters to his sister Margaret Saville, who is home in England. He is an explorer who is up in the Artic hoping to make some huge scientific discovery; it is in one of his letters to Margaret that he reveals that overnight his ship had become stuck and surrounded in ice. He also tells of the strange gigantic man who was being pulled by a dogsled across the ice field. The next day Walton and his crew discover another, smaller man adrift on a sheet of ice. He seemed ill and malnourished and the crew brought him on board. A week later, the strange man tells Walton his story. Walton records the story in his letters to Margaret.

The man’s name is Victor Frankenstein. He was born in Geneva. He relates the history

As Victor journeys home he sees the Monster, and knows that it was it who murdered William, but he know he cannot tell of the truth. Although Elizabeth tries to defend Justine she is found guilty and hanged. Victor tells Walton that he was guilty for William’s murder and Justine’s framing. Needing to be alone Victor took a journey alone into the mountains; there he encounters his creation yet again. The Monster forces Victor to sit down and listen to his story. The monster woke up disoriented and has no ability to speak or anything really. After Victor abandoned him he wandered into the forest. He survived for two years hiding in the trees and eating nuts and berries. The monster later finds a family living in a cottage in the forest; it is from them that he learns to speak and read. And from the jacket he wore he found Victor’s notes and became convinced that Victor must pay for his misery. When the cottagers are out one day the Monster enters when only the blind old father is there. He befriends the man but when the son returns he chases the monster away and the entire family moves soon after. The monster realizes that society was repulsed by his

But that night, as Victor worried that the monster would come to kill him, stood guard as Elizabeth went to their room. When Victor hears a scream from the room he realizes that the monster’s true intentions were and rushes in to find Elizabeth strangled to death, and the monster nowhere to be found. Soon after Victor’s father died from grief. Victor then vowed to spend the rest of his life determined to destroy his creation. He chases the monster up to the Artic, where he encountered Walton.

Victor dies after making Walton promise to finish his quest. Walton closes the story in a few more letters for his sister, telling her about how the monster came the night of Victor’s death. The monster lamented over his creator’s death and told Walton about his struggles. He also tells Walton of his plans to burn himself on an enormous pier, and jumps out the window onto a floating slab of ice and disappears into the