Frankenstein guide

Summary

Characters

• R. WaltonHelperFrom Letter 1
• BeaufortGuardianFrom Chapter 1
• Caroline BeaufortGuardianFrom Chapter 1
• ElizabethLoveFrom Chapter 1
• VictorAlso FrankensteinLeadFrom Chapter 1
• HenryAlso ClervalHelperFrom Chapter 2
• M. KrempeGatekeeperFrom Chapter 3
• M. WaldmanHelperFrom Chapter 3
• JustineHelperFrom Chapter 6
• Madame MoritzGuardianFrom Chapter 6
• WilliamChildFrom Chapter 6
• AgathaHelperFrom Chapter 12
• FelixSuitorFrom Chapter 12
• SafieSuitorFrom Chapter 13
• Mr. KirwinGatekeeperFrom Chapter 20

Chapter by chapter

Storylines

• Walton seeks to carry out a northern voyage of discovery, reviving his early exploratory ambitions and choosing glory over ease.

  • Walton secures a vessel and engages sailors and officers, bringing the northern voyage closer to execution.
  • Walton and his crew reach a very high latitude, making progress on the northern voyage.
  • The discovery voyage has reached the northern ice. Temporary immobilization ends when the ice breaks, and Walton reaffirms his expedition's purpose and willingness to sacrifice wealth and life.
  • Ice and the crew's demand for return compel Walton to abandon further exploration and sail toward England.

• Walton's firm commitment to the expedition coexists with recurrent depression and fluctuating hope.

  • Encouragement briefly restores hope, but retreat and Victor's death deepen Walton's disappointment; he resolves to resist despondency.

• Walton prepares for exploration through physical conditioning, whaling experience and scientific study; he plans to travel to Archangel in two or three weeks, hire a ship and experienced whaling sailors, and sail no earlier than June.

  • The planned hiring becomes concrete through the vessel hire, sailors' engagement, and appointments of the lieutenant and master. These events do not establish that preparations are complete or that the expedition has sailed.
  • The planned expedition is now underway aboard its ship, and Walton recounts his preparations and continuing plans to Victor.
  • The prepared expedition has sailed and reached the northern ice; its outward voyage ends in retreat.

• Walton earns a whaling captain's esteem through his service; the captain offers him the vessel's second-ranking position and urges him to remain, giving Walton pride in this recognition.

• Walton recognizes a need to learn additional languages, extending his educational ambitions.

• Walton's prior acquaintance with the lieutenant develops into employment and the lieutenant's commitment to assist the expedition.

• Reports of the ship master's kindness and generosity prompt Walton to recruit him and appoint him master of the expedition vessel.

• The ship master prepares to marry the Russian lady and retire to a farm, obtaining her father's consent and buying the property; he subsequently abandons the marriage pursuit after learning her wishes.

• The Russian lady loves a poor man while her father consents to her marriage to the ship master. The master relinquishes his claim, gives her lover his farm and money, and seeks her father's consent. The father initially refuses to yield; the master leaves the country, and the lovers eventually marry.

• Walton pledges to avoid rash conduct while responsible for the expedition's other members.

  • A leak threatens Walton and the crew; he renews his pledge to avoid rash danger and act with composure, perseverance, and prudence.
  • Walton puts his pledge of caution into practice by waiting for daylight to avoid navigating loose ice in darkness.
  • Walton accepts the crew's opposition to further danger and acts on his commitment by returning south.

• The crew rescues and nurses Victor, whose gentle manners subsequently win their sympathetic interest.

• Walton shelters and cares for Victor, develops brotherly affection for him, shares his ambitions and longing for friendship, and wishes to improve his fate.

  • Their attachment deepens into the friendship Walton sought; his attempts to restore Victor's desire to live fail, and Victor dies under his care.

• Victor pursues a fugitive travelling north by sledge; news of a possible sighting renews his hope, and he watches for the traveller as his health permits.

  • Victor nearly overtakes the creature, loses him when the ice separates them, and dies without completing his pursuit.

• Victor pursues the fleeing ice traveller, whose survival after the breakup of the ice remains uncertain.

  • The creature's survival is confirmed by Walton's sightings, but Victor's death ends their direct pursuit.

• Walton promises to maintain a lookout and immediately inform Victor of new objects in sight, enabling him to rest while continuing his search.

• Victor seeks to dissuade Walton from destructive ambition by telling him his own history.

  • Victor connects consuming passion with the destruction of his hopes, undertakes to explain his attachment to natural philosophy, and presents abandoning those studies as a source of happiness, developing his warning against destructive ambition.
  • Victor makes his warning against destructive ambition explicit and refuses to transmit the dangerous method.
  • Victor completes his cautionary history and renews his warning against creation and ambition, but his exhortation to the sailors and qualified final advice complicate that purpose.

• Walton seeks to learn Victor's history and, if possible, improve his fate, despite Victor's claim that it is irreversible.

  • Walton learns Victor's history but cannot reconcile him to life or prevent his death.

• Victor withholds the particulars of his catastrophic losses and the final event he awaits. He abandons his determination to keep his misfortunes secret and commits to an account, but has not yet disclosed it.

  • Victor begins disclosing his family history and formative attachments, although these events do not yet disclose his catastrophic losses or the final event he awaits.
  • His account discloses the discovery underlying his experiments and his retrospective horror, while the method and the particulars of his catastrophic losses remain withheld.
  • Victor completes the account of his losses and pursuit.

• Victor promises to begin his history the following day when Walton is free; Walton resolves to record each day's narrative nightly in Victor's own words, taking notes when duties intervene.

  • The promised history proceeds through Victor's family origins, birth and childhood relationship with Elizabeth; these events do not establish Walton's execution of his recording plan.
  • Victor continues his promised history by explicitly turning to the origins of his attachment to natural philosophy.
  • Walton records the completed history, and Victor corrects and augments his notes.

• Beaufort seeks respectable employment after financial ruin, but grief and failing health obstruct recovery; Caroline earns money to sustain them until nursing consumes her working time and his death leaves her without support.

• Victor's father seeks the concealed Beaufort to help rebuild his livelihood; he finds him, but Beaufort dies before that assistance can restore him.

• Orphaned Caroline entrusts herself to Victor's father, who arranges protection in Geneva; their relationship develops into marriage and parenthood.

  • Caroline's death ends the marriage formed after Alphonse's protection of her.

• Victor's father relinquishes public responsibilities and takes Caroline to Italy to restore the health and tranquillity damaged by her hardships.

• Elizabeth's father seeks Italy's liberty; confiscation of his property removes Elizabeth's paternal wealth and support, while his fate remains unknown.

• Elizabeth's foster parents care for her after her mother's death; after consultation with the village priest, they consent to entrust her to Caroline, and she joins the Frankenstein household.

• Elizabeth becomes Victor's intimate childhood companion. Caroline's presentation of her as a promised gift leads Victor to believe she belongs to him and to resolve to protect, love and cherish her as his own.

  • Victor wishes to remain until Elizabeth is consoled, and her request for frequent letters carries their attachment into separation.
  • Victor affirms his love for Elizabeth and commits to marriage after his return; she accepts his journey while grieving their separation and his suffering.
  • Victor renews his exclusive attachment and commitment to Elizabeth's happiness, and their longstanding companionship becomes marriage.
  • Elizabeth's murder ends their companionship and marriage and defeats Victor's commitment to protect her.

• Victor and Henry form an intimate friendship, and Henry becomes Victor's closest friend.

  • Henry seeks to join Victor at university; Victor recognizes his resistance to commerce and feels the loss of his companions on departure.
  • Their reunion relieves Victor's horror; Henry then sacrifices his studies to nurse him through months of illness and relapses, deepening Victor's gratitude and remorse.
  • Henry protects Victor from painful reminders, shares study and travel with him, and restores his affectionate engagement with others; Victor feels gratitude for his care.
  • Victor shares the family letter with Henry, whose sympathy and consolation remain memorable to him.
  • Victor welcomes Henry's companionship and shares moments of pleasure during their travels. From the later time of narration, he discloses Henry's death and expresses enduring affection and grief without yet explaining the death.
  • Henry temporarily soothes Victor, who conceals his suffering to preserve Henry's pleasure and fears for his safety. Henry reluctantly accepts their separation while requesting frequent letters and a prompt reunion.
  • Henry's death ends their living companionship; Victor's overwhelming grief shows the continuing force of their attachment.

• Henry tries to recruit his companions into chivalric plays and masquerades.

• Recognition of his fortunate upbringing strengthens Victor's gratitude and love for his parents.

• Elizabeth's influence leads Henry to make doing good the purpose of his ambition.

• Agrippa's extraordinary claims awaken Victor's enthusiasm for natural philosophy; he acquires occult works and accepts their assertions as privileged truths.

  • Victor's attraction to the alchemists' ambitious projects develops into renewed scientific study after Waldman changes his view of modern chemistry.

• Victor's father tries to discourage his reading of Agrippa, but Victor continues and becomes a disciple of the occult authors.

• Victor seeks the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life, then concentrates on defeating disease and natural death to win glory; he later abandons these pursuits.

• Victor attempts to summon ghosts or devils through incantations, explaining repeated failure as his own error or inexperience rather than evidence against the occult teachings.

• Witnessing lightning's destructive power and hearing an account of electricity and galvanism undermine Victor's faith in the occult authors. He rejects his former pursuits, turns to mathematics, and associates the change with renewed tranquillity.

  • Victor's retreat from natural philosophy ends: Waldman's teaching overcomes his prejudice against modern chemists and restores his scientific ambition.

• Victor's family arranges his studies at Ingolstadt; illness and bereavement interrupt the departure, but after a further postponement he travels there and begins meeting his professors.

• Caroline's determination to nurse the dangerously ill Elizabeth overrides her agreement to keep away; Elizabeth recovers, but Caroline contracts a fatal fever.

• Charged by Caroline to care for the younger children, Elizabeth assumes family duties and works to comfort the bereaved household.

• Victor's wish to remain with his grieving loved ones competes with his departure for study and his growing desire to enter the wider world.

• Henry seeks to accompany Victor as a fellow student and gain a liberal education; exclusion distresses him and strengthens his resolve to escape a commercial life.

  • Paternal permission and arrival in Ingolstadt enable Henry's educational ambition, but he forgoes his winter studies to nurse Victor.
  • Henry now meets the university professors and pursues language study with a defined career ambition, advancing the education previously obstructed by his commercial circumstances.

• Elizabeth asks Victor to maintain their connection during his absence by writing frequently.

  • Victor defers attention to absent loved ones until the work is finished, obstructing the requested maintenance of their connection through correspondence.
  • Victor's continued silence worries his family, and prolonged illness further obstructs correspondence. Henry urges him to write and announces an awaiting letter, but no reply is recorded.
  • Illness had prevented Victor from writing, but Elizabeth's renewed appeal prompts him to compose an immediate reply.

• Krempe demands that Victor abandon his alchemical education and begin anew, but Victor resists his teaching and refuses to attend his lectures.

  • Victor recognizes Krempe's knowledge and commits himself to modern scientific study, weakening his earlier resistance without establishing that he accepts Krempe's teaching.

• Waldman's account of modern chemistry inspires Victor to resume scientific study, surpass his predecessors and uncover unknown powers and the deepest mysteries of creation.

  • Victor gains exceptional proficiency, improves chemical instruments and discovers how to animate lifeless matter, fulfilling a central part of his ambition while opening further pursuits.
  • Scientific subjects now cause violent aversion and nervous distress; Victor turns to literary study for relief.

• Victor becomes Waldman's disciple; Waldman introduces him to laboratory equipment, supplies a book list and promises to lend apparatus once he is competent.

  • Waldman's mentorship develops into mutual friendship; his instruction accelerates Victor's progress, which gives Waldman joy.

• Victor seeks the principle of life through physiology, anatomy and the study of bodily decay; he discovers the cause of life and a method for animating lifeless matter.

• Victor possesses the method for animating lifeless matter and explicitly withholds it from his listener to prevent its destructive use.

  • Victor refuses Walton's attempt to learn the method of animation and explicitly warns him against repeating the work.

• Victor seeks to create a human being, anticipating a grateful new species and the possible later restoration of the dead.

  • Victor achieves the immediate goal of creating a living being, but responds with horror and bitter disappointment rather than the anticipated satisfaction. A grateful species and restoration of the dead remain unrealized.

• Victor resolves to construct a proportionately built being about eight feet tall, gathers materials and conducts experiments; despite repeated failures, he perceives the work approaching completion.

  • The constructed being opens its eye, breathes and moves, completing the animation project.

• Victor persists in creating life despite loathing his occupation, mounting anxiety and serious physical deterioration.

  • Completion and flight end Victor's persistence in the work despite his revulsion. Its physical and psychological consequences continue as collapse, prolonged fever and an uneven recovery.

• Victor postpones attention to friends and family until his creation is complete; his father presses for particulars of his occupations, and Victor acknowledges responsibility for his neglect.

  • The creation's completion does not restore family communication: illness prolongs Victor's silence, Henry challenges his neglect, and the family remains uneasy and uninformed about his condition.
  • Victor resumes correspondence, plans his return and regains affection for others, countering his former neglect, although the homecoming is delayed.

• Alarmed by his deteriorating health, Victor promises himself exercise and amusement after completing his creation.

  • Victor walks in search of relief after completing the creation, but collapse and months of illness prevent his intended return to exercise and amusement. Recovery eventually restores pleasure and cheerfulness without establishing that he resumes the plan.
  • Victor becomes able to leave his chamber and finally obtains the exercise and amusement he had deferred; literary study and walking accompany restored health and spirits.

• Victor's successful animation destroys his enthusiasm: horror and disgust drive him to flee the creature, whose whereabouts become unknown. Fear of it persists through hallucination and recovery.

  • The aftermath continues through distress at scientific reminders. His oppressive thoughts subsequently lose their force, but these events establish no resolution of the creature's whereabouts.
  • Victor encounters the creature again, becomes convinced it murdered William, and suffers renewed anguish as it disappears into the mountains.

• Victor conceals the creature's existence from Henry, checking his rooms before admitting him and later fearing questions. His ravings lead Henry to suspect a terrible precipitating event without learning what happened.

  • Henry learns which objects and conversations distress Victor and acts to protect him, without any recorded disclosure of the creature or the cause of his suffering.
  • Victor considers disclosing the creature and initiating pursuit but resolves to remain silent. He tells his family that he knows the murderer and that Justine is innocent without revealing the creature's existence.
  • Henry accompanies Victor to England while Victor privately prepares to resume the concealed work; no disclosure to Henry is recorded.

• Henry undertakes Victor's nursing alone and withholds the severity of his illness from the family to spare them distress.

  • Henry's reports keep Elizabeth informed, she dissuades Alphonse from travelling to Ingolstadt, and Henry's care continues through Victor's recovery to restored health.

• Elizabeth seeks Victor's handwritten reassurance and return home; his reply answers her request for a letter, but his homecoming remains delayed.

  • Victor returns home and rejoins Elizabeth and the family, fulfilling the outstanding request for his homecoming.

• Ernest wants to enter foreign military service against his family's resistance.

• Caroline rescues Justine from maternal mistreatment and gives her a place and education in the Frankenstein household. Justine takes Caroline as her model and grieves her death; after returning to her mother, she eventually rejoins the Frankensteins.

  • Justine's place within the household is tested by her murder charge: most members come to suspect her, while Elizabeth maintains her faith and seeks her vindication.

• Madame Moritz's mistreatment of Justine gives way to guilt after her other children's deaths. Encouraged by her confessor's punitive interpretation, she recalls Justine and seeks forgiveness before her own death.

• Miss Mansfield and John Melbourne intend to marry.

• Manon and Duvillard marry.

• Louis Manoir reportedly intends to marry Madame Tavernier after recovering his spirits.

• Victor's aversion to natural philosophy makes instruments and scientific praise acutely distressing. Waldman and Krempe mistake his discomfort for modesty, while Henry recognizes the distress and intervenes.

• Henry seeks mastery of oriental languages to prepare for an ambitious career in the East.

• Victor takes up Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit for diversion, finding consolation and improved spirits in literary study shared with Henry.

• Victor plans to return to Geneva in late autumn, but accidents and impassable winter roads postpone the journey until spring.

  • William's murder prompts Victor's departure from Ingolstadt, and he completes the postponed journey home to Geneva.

• Henry proposes a farewell walking tour around Ingolstadt; Victor agrees, and they complete the fortnight's walks before returning to college.

• William's murder plunges the Frankenstein family into grief; Elizabeth holds herself responsible because she let him wear the missing miniature, which Alphonse believes attracted the murderer.

  • Justine's execution compounds the household's bereavement; Elizabeth and Alphonse grieve the accumulating deaths.
  • Justine's death compounds the family's bereavement. Alphonse's health suffers, and Elizabeth loses her former happiness and develops a darker understanding of humanity.

• Urged by Alphonse to return with kindness rather than vengeance, Victor seeks to console his bereaved family and reaches their home despite fear delaying his journey.

  • Victor wants to recover peace so he can console his family, but remorse and deteriorating health obstruct him; he leaves Belrive to seek relief in the Alps.

• Seeing his creature near the murder site convinces Victor, without direct evidence of the killing, that it murdered William; he regards its supposed violence as the consequence of his own creation and fears further misery.

  • The reported confession briefly shakes Victor's confidence, but learning that it was false removes that apparent counterevidence. He withholds his intended avowal and anticipates further deaths among those he loves; these events do not independently establish the creature's guilt.
  • Victor's guilt deepens, his expectation of further consequences hardens, and his attribution of the deaths to the creature develops into a desire for revenge.
  • Victor confronts the creature with accusations of murder, and the creature threatens further violence. These threats intensify the danger without establishing responsibility for the earlier deaths.
  • The creature's account confirms Victor's attribution of William's murder and reveals that the killing deliberately targeted Victor through his family.
  • The strangulation recalls William's murder. Recognizing Henry, Victor connects another death to his creation and anticipates further victims.

• Justine faces trial for William's murder after the missing miniature is found in her clothing; her confused response strengthens suspicion, and most of the household comes to believe her guilty.

  • The prosecution overcomes favourable testimony and appeals. Justine is unanimously condemned and executed, ending the trial through punishment rather than establishing her actual guilt.

• Elizabeth seeks Justine's vindication despite the household's suspicion; Victor asserts Justine's innocence and promises to prove it, while Alphonse promises an impartial trial.

  • Elizabeth's public defence backfires. Although she briefly accepts the reported confession, Justine's explanation restores her conviction of innocence and prompts a renewed promise to save her. Elizabeth's and Victor's appeals fail, Victor abandons his intended avowal, and the execution makes rescue impossible.
  • Justine's death ends the opportunity to save her through vindication; Victor's promised proof has not secured her release.

• Elizabeth's defence of Justine survives a temporary collapse of trust after the reported confession. Learning that the confession was coerced restores her belief in Justine's innocence; her affection and Victor's support bring Justine peace before their final separation.

• Under her confessor's threats, Justine falsely admits William's murder to obtain absolution. The confession deepens her suffering and nearly undermines her belief in her own innocence; religious faith and her friends' affection subsequently help her face death.

  • Justine dies, ending her ordeal following the coerced confession.

• Victor considers an avowal concerning his responsibility but withholds it, concluding that the judges would regard him as mad and would still execute Justine.

  • Victor repeatedly declares responsibility for the deaths while continuing to withhold the creature's existence. Alphonse interprets his claims as derangement, and Victor learns to restrain his public self-accusations.

• Alphonse and Elizabeth recognize Victor's distress and try to comfort him; Elizabeth's affection temporarily calms him despite the agony her discussion of the deaths causes.

  • Victor's appearance alarms his family, while he feels excluded from their sympathy and from future companionship.
  • Alphonse tries to remedy Victor's melancholy through marriage and travel, initially misattributing it to romantic reluctance. He and Elizabeth arrange Henry's companionship, while Elizabeth remains distressed by Victor's suffering.
  • Alphonse comes to Victor, reassures him that the family is safe and restores intermittent happiness. Henry's memory defeats sustained comfort, but his father's presence again calms him after a nightmare.
  • Alphonse tries to redirect Victor's thoughts but misunderstands his distress. Elizabeth repeatedly restores his responsiveness during his fits, while his outward composure leads both loved ones to overestimate his recovery.

• Victor's despair produces an impulse to drown himself, but love and responsibility toward his family restrain him.

  • Victor again wishes for the extinction of sensation and memory and feels estranged from companionship, yet commits to acting for his family's protection.
  • Victor considers obtaining death through a confession, wishes for mutual destruction with his enemy and repeatedly attempts self-destruction; attendants preserve his life through restraint and vigilance.
  • Revenge and a perceived heavenly obligation replace family responsibility as reasons to endure; Victor ultimately welcomes approaching death and dies.

• Victor desires to find and kill the creature in revenge for William's and Justine's deaths.

  • Victor attempts to kill the creature, who easily evades him. He then suspends his demand for mortal combat and agrees to hear the creature, moved by curiosity, compassion and recognition of his obligations.
  • Victor attempts to seize the creature and intends to pursue him and throw him into the sea, but the creature escapes.
  • Victor seeks help destroying the creature during delirium and later renews his conscious intention to kill it if he can find it.
  • Victor fires at the creature without stopping its escape. After further bereavement and recovery, revenge becomes his sustaining purpose, and he vows personally to destroy it even at the cost of his life.
  • Victor repeatedly renews his vow, but separation on the ice and terminal weakness prevent him from killing the creature.

• Victor seeks relief and self-forgetfulness through exercise and Alpine scenery, travelling to Chamounix. Nature brings intermittent comfort and eventual sleep, but grief repeatedly returns.

  • Victor extends his solitary mountain excursion to Montanvert and the glacier. Sublime scenery repeatedly brings temporary consolation, while melancholy continues to return.
  • The mountain excursion ends in acute misery rather than lasting relief; Victor leaves Chamounix without resting and returns to Geneva.

• The creature makes peace conditional on Victor meeting his demands and threatens Victor's remaining friends, his family and other humans if refused.

  • The creature explains his intention to inflict further misery through others and specifies the demand Victor must meet: creating a female companion.
  • Victor's refusals provoke renewed threats of revenge; he ultimately accepts the demand and resolves to perform the work to protect his family.
  • Victor permanently refuses the demanded companion despite renewed coercion; the creature responds with an explicit revenge plan and wedding-night threat.
  • The creature carries its threat against Victor's loved ones into action by murdering Elizabeth and displaying its triumph to Victor.
  • The creature's account confirms that the threatened campaign culminated in Elizabeth's death and Victor's destruction.

• The creature seeks a hearing before Victor judges or attacks him; Victor initially refuses but ultimately agrees to listen.

  • The creature begins the hearing Victor granted, recounting his initial helplessness, learning, persecution and capacity for affection as grounds for judging him through his history.
  • The creature continues his account with the family's history and offers documentary evidence for Victor to assess.
  • The creature finishes his account and moves from seeking a hearing to requiring Victor's promise.

• The creature demands that Victor fulfill his obligations as creator. Victor begins to recognize a duty to make his creature happy before condemning him.

  • The creature pursues justice from his creator and makes the obligation concrete as a demand for a companion; Victor commits to creating her.
  • Victor recognizes the justice of the request, rejects personal revulsion as sufficient grounds for refusal, and accepts a conditional obligation to create the companion.
  • Victor judges fulfillment dangerous to humanity, destroys the unfinished companion and rejects the obligation the creature presses upon him.
  • Victor's final reckoning acknowledges his creation of a rational being while maintaining his refusal of a companion and attempted destruction of the creature; his death ends their negotiation.

• The creature claims that misery turned his love of humanity into hostility and declares his intention to spread his suffering among hostile humans.

  • His account supplies early evidence of isolation and human hostility alongside affectionate responses to others; it has not yet reached his claimed transformation into hostility.
  • Rejection and the shooting after his rescue harden the creature's hostility into repeated vows of vengeance, destruction, murder and deliberate incrimination.
  • The creature renews his hatred and threat of revenge after rejection, then calms himself and offers withdrawal from humanity if granted companionship.
  • Despair over the destroyed companion and renewed insistence on humanity's rejection culminate in the creature's decision to prioritize revenge.
  • The creature describes pity and self-abhorrence competing with envy and revenge; recalling rejection still renews his anger even after his campaign ends.

• The creature proposes telling his history in a mountain hut before sunset; Victor accepts the hearing and follows him into the hut.

  • The proposed narration is underway, carrying his history from departure from Victor's apartment to concealed observation of the cottage household.
  • The agreed narration continues through the history of the De Laceys and Safie; delivery of the promised letter copies remains pending.
  • The proposed history reaches its conclusion and the creature presents the request it supports.

• The creature seeks sufficient food and shelter to survive independently; scarcity drives him from the forest, and he eventually finds refuge in a hovel adjoining a cottage.

  • The creature replaces stolen food with foraging and repeatedly gathers provisions for himself while retaining his refuge.

• The creature learns to maintain a fire by gathering and drying wood and preserving embers, but leaves it behind when food scarcity forces him to travel and he cannot devise a way to reproduce it.

• Human encounters expose the creature to fear and violence: the shepherd flees, a village woman faints, and villagers attack him, leading him to avoid further contact.

  • His recognition of his appearance reinforces his expectation of rejection and leads him to delay contact until he can speak effectively.
  • His attempt to approach the household he admires produces another encounter with human terror and violence, ending in retreat to concealment.
  • After saving a girl from drowning, the creature is shot by the man who takes her away, reinforcing his expectation of human violence.
  • The creature recalls continued rejection and the shooting that followed his rescue of a child, renewing his anger at human treatment.

• The creature resolves to remain in the hovel until circumstances change, screening its openings and retreating from approaching people to preserve his refuge.

  • He maintains concealment, travels for food at night and makes language acquisition a condition of revealing himself.
  • The creature returns to his refuge, discovers the family's permanent departure, burns the cottage and leaves the district.

• Watching the cottage household without their awareness, the creature develops reverence for the old man and love for the young woman; witnessing their affection produces powerful mixed feelings.

  • His affection deepens into sympathy, practical assistance and hopes of reciprocal love, although the cottagers remain unaware of him.
  • The household's music moves the creature, and learning the cottagers' history increases his love and reverence for them.
  • The cottagers remain his moral models and increasingly his source of hoped-for happiness. His attachment survives Felix's violence sufficiently for him to refrain from retaliation.
  • The family's departure destroys the creature's perceived connection to humanity; affectionate memories give only brief relief before renewed rage.

• The creature seeks to understand and relieve the cottagers' unhappiness, abandoning theft when he recognizes its harm and secretly supplying firewood.

  • The creature learns the causes of the family's poverty and Felix's unhappiness: confiscation, exile, betrayal and separation from Safie.

• The creature secretly supplies the cottagers with firewood; Agatha and Felix discover the supplies without knowing their source.

  • The creature describes his daily assistance without specifying it, then identifies De Lacey's family as its beneficiaries. His precise services remain undisclosed.

• The creature seeks to learn spoken language and reading, gaining basic words but remaining unable to follow conversation.

  • Following Safie's lessons enables the creature to understand most speech, imitate almost every word and learn letters; explained readings also expand his historical knowledge.
  • The creature now reads books and Victor's journal, extending his knowledge of human society, moral ideas and his own origin.

• The creature postpones revealing himself until he can use language and a gentle introduction to overcome revulsion at his appearance and win the cottagers' love.

  • His growing linguistic competence strengthens his preparation for an introduction, and his desire to enter human society through acquaintance with the cottagers increases.
  • He executes a refined introduction through the blind De Lacey and initially gains sympathy, but the younger household members return before he secures mediation; Felix's attack forces him to withdraw.
  • His renewed hope of winning acceptance through De Lacey becomes impossible when the family abandons the cottage permanently.
  • The creature explicitly reports losing his hope of acceptance despite his appearance.

• Recognizing his own appearance as monstrous brings the creature shame and despondency and makes anticipated human revulsion an obstacle to his hopes of acceptance.

  • Learning the standards governing social respect and the bonds of family extends his shame beyond appearance: he questions whether humanity universally disowns him and suffers anew over his unknown origin and absence of kin or resembling companions.
  • Victor's recorded disgust deepens the creature's shame. He identifies appearance as the chief obstacle to acceptance, and the younger cottagers' reactions reinforce that fear.
  • His hope that a child will overlook his appearance fails; William's terror and insults, imagined rejection by the portrait's subject and fear of denunciation renew his despair and rage.

• Safie's arrival brings Felix ecstatic joy and restores gladness to the cottage; De Lacey and Agatha welcome her affectionately into the household.

  • Their earlier courtship, forced separation and Safie's independent journey establish the history behind their reunion and Felix's renewed happiness.

• The creature secretly follows Safie's language lessons, using Felix's instruction to acquire speech, letters and knowledge of human history and society.

• Education increases the creature's suffering: knowledge of human cruelty brings disgust, while knowledge of social distinctions and family life deepens his anguish over his exclusion, unknown origin and lack of relations. He cannot dispel these reflections and believes only death could end the pain, although he fears it.

  • Reading increases both pleasure and distress, sharpens his sense of exclusion and reveals his abandoned origin. He accepts literary accounts as history and responds to Victor's journal with horror and renewed condemnation of his creator.
  • Lost hope of fellowship and shame over his crimes leave death as the creature's only declared consolation.

• Felix seeks to save Safie's father from execution, rejects financial inducements, and strengthens his commitment after receiving Safie's letters; he successfully conducts the merchant out of France.

• Felix arranges the merchant's escape using passports in his family's names, with De Lacey and Agatha hiding in Paris to support the deception; the fugitives reach Leghorn.

• Felix and Safie develop mutual romantic affection and anticipate marriage; her father's betrayal and their separation distress Felix, but Safie independently seeks him out and reunites with him.

• Safie's father promises Felix marriage to secure his help while secretly intending to sustain his hopes only until he can safely take Safie away; his subsequent departure reveals the betrayal to Felix.

• The creature obtains copies of Safie's letters and promises to give them to Victor before departing as evidence supporting his account.

  • Victor possesses and shows Walton Felix's and Safie's letters, fulfilling their promised evidentiary role.

• Following her mother's teaching, Safie seeks intellectual and personal independence and hopes to remain in Europe through marriage to Felix rather than return to the confinement she fears in Asia.

• Safie's father seeks safety in Turkish territory, hires a vessel for Constantinople after claiming extradition is imminent, and plans for Safie to follow with a trusted servant and most of his property; Safie instead seeks Felix.

• The French authorities pursue the merchant's rescuer and imprison De Lacey and Agatha; Felix's surrender fails to free them, and the family loses its fortune and standing and is condemned to permanent exile.

• Felix seeks to free his imprisoned father and sister by returning to Paris and surrendering himself, but his surrender fails to obtain their release.

• Felix and Safie's father agree that Safie will stay in a Leghorn convent if her father leaves before Felix returns; the father subsequently orders her to return to her native country and arranges for her to follow him with a servant.

• Safie's father orders her to abandon Felix and return to her native country; her protests fail, and she defies his command by leaving Italy to find Felix.

• Safie uses her father's papers to locate the exiled Felix and travels to Germany with jewels, money and an attendant; after the attendant dies despite her nursing, a host woman helps her reach the cottage.

• De Lacey welcomes the creature as an unknown stranger, believes his sincerity and offers to help him win his friends' acceptance. The creature reveals that those friends are De Lacey's own family, but their return interrupts the appeal.

  • The creature hopes to renew De Lacey's assistance, but the household's permanent departure prevents further contact.

• Felix violently attacks the creature on finding him with De Lacey; Agatha faints and Safie flees. Despite his anguish, the creature restrains himself from retaliation and escapes.

  • The aftermath of the encounter ends in permanent separation when Felix and the household abandon the cottage.

• The creature resolves to repair the failed introduction by returning to secure De Lacey's support; the family's permanent departure defeats this attempt.

• Felix commits the household to leaving the cottage permanently despite its owner's attempt to dissuade him.

• The creature prepares to burn the abandoned cottage and carries out the destruction.

• The creature seeks Victor in Geneva to obtain justice from his creator.

• Believing a child will lack prejudice against deformity, the creature attempts to seize William and educate him as a companion; William's resistance and family identity turn the attempt into revenge.

• The creature murders William and secretly plants William's portrait in Justine's clothing to make her bear punishment for the killing; he now discloses both acts to Victor.

• The creature alternates between seeking Victor and resolving to end his own life.

  • After reaching Victor's remains, the creature declares a definite intention to kill himself and departs; completion is unconfirmed.

• The creature demands a female companion of his own species and requires Victor's promise to create her before they part.

  • Despite repeated refusals, the creature obtains Victor's conditional promise before departing; the companion herself remains uncreated.
  • Victor destroys the prospective companion and maintains his permanent refusal despite the creature's renewed threats.
  • Victor reaffirms his abandonment of the companion and dies without creating her.

• Victor commits to creating the female companion requested by the creature.

  • Victor temporarily repudiates the undertaking, then conditionally agrees to it and renews his resolve after returning home.
  • Victor renews his intention to make the companion, identifies further study in England as necessary, takes his instruments and reaches England; construction has not yet resumed.
  • Victor seeks the necessary information, acquires materials, establishes a secluded workplace and begins experimental work, anticipating completion with fragile hope.
  • Victor definitively abandons the creation plan, destroys the body and disposes of its remains.

• Victor's compassion and recognition of an obligation to provide the creature happiness contend with physical revulsion and fear that a companion will increase the danger to humanity.

  • Victor continues toward fulfilling his promise, but increasing revulsion keeps him from entering the laboratory for days; experimental absorption and hope alternate with forebodings.
  • Victor settles his competing obligations in favor of refusing the companion, treating the risk to humanity as decisive and excluding arguments for reversal.

• The creature promises that, if Victor creates his companion, they will withdraw permanently from human society to South America; Victor makes permanent exile a condition of his agreement.

  • Victor makes securing the creature's departure a prerequisite for his marriage, organizing his immediate future around fulfillment of their agreement.
  • The promised withdrawal depended on receiving a companion; Victor's refusal defeats that arrangement, and the creature chooses revenge.
  • The promised companion is never supplied; the creature instead announces solitary withdrawal north to destroy himself.

• The creature intends to watch Victor's work and appear when the female companion is ready.

  • The creature follows Victor and appears to inspect progress and demand fulfillment, only to witness the companion's destruction.

• Victor travels to England to acquire the knowledge needed to create the female companion, intending to complete her away from his family and secure the creature's departure before returning.

  • The journey develops into a concrete effort to obtain scientific information and materials, followed by solitary residence and preparation for work on a remote Orkney island.
  • The plan to complete the companion abroad and secure the creature's departure is abandoned; Victor destroys the work and prepares to leave the island.

• Alphonse proposes immediate marriage to relieve Victor's melancholy; Victor instead commits to marrying Elizabeth immediately after returning from England, and Alphonse accepts the schedule.

  • After returning, Victor accepts immediate marriage, agrees to a wedding in ten days conditional on Elizabeth's consent, and marries her.

• Victor conceals the true purpose of his English journey from Alphonse, who welcomes the travel as a sign of recovery.

• Alphonse and Elizabeth arrange for Henry to accompany Victor; the friends meet at Strasburgh and travel together through Holland to England.

  • Henry accompanies Victor through England and into Scotland as far as Perth, where Victor leaves his company to continue alone.

• Victor fears that leaving home exposes his family to the creature, but proceeds by adopting the uncertain reassurance that it will follow him and spare them.

  • Victor fears that delay will provoke vengeance against his relatives, and gaps in their letters intensify his anxiety. Suspicion that the creature follows him eventually becomes firm belief, without confirming its whereabouts.
  • The creature's following Victor is confirmed, but this no longer reassures him: at sea he fears attacks on Elizabeth, his father and Henry.
  • Henry's death intensifies Victor's expectation of further losses. Assurances of his family's present safety bring relief but strengthen his determination to return and protect them.

• Victor conceals his sorrow and work from Henry, using a supposed engagement to obtain solitude while preserving Henry's enjoyment.

• Victor and Henry accept an invitation to Perth and undertake a northern tour through England and Scotland.

• Victor resolves to remain constantly with Henry because he suspects the creature might murder Henry to force compliance.

  • Victor discovers Henry dead, making his earlier intention to protect him through constant companionship impossible.

• Victor separates from Henry to work alone, proposing a reunion at Perth after a month or two and agreeing to write frequently and hasten back.

  • Henry requests their reunion at Perth, and Victor determines to leave the island in two days.
  • Henry's death prevents the planned reunion and continued correspondence.

• Isolation and anticipation of the creature's arrival make Victor restless and fearful; he avoids looking up and straying beyond sight of other people.

  • The anticipated visitation occurs; fear prevents Victor from seeking nearby help, and the confrontation leaves him despairing and wishing for permanent isolation.
  • Fear of the creature persists through hallucination, the mistaken identification of his visitor and a strangulation nightmare; correction brings only temporary security.

• The creature vows to watch Victor, destroy his happiness and appear on his wedding night.

  • The threatened wedding night becomes imminent as Victor marries and reaches Evian with Elizabeth; his fears return on landing. The creature has not yet appeared in the supplied events.
  • The creature fulfills the wedding-night threat by killing Elizabeth, appearing at the window and escaping.

• Victor interprets the wedding-night threat as foretelling his own murder, grieves for Elizabeth's anticipated bereavement and resolves to resist.

  • Victor continues to understand the threat as directed against his own life, chooses marriage despite expecting death, and arms himself. Defensive confidence temporarily weakens his belief in the threat, but fear returns at Evian.
  • Victor prepares for an attack on himself, but Elizabeth's scream and death reveal that she was the intended victim, overturning his interpretation.

• Henry plans an imminent return to London to complete negotiations for his Indian enterprise and asks Victor to meet him at Perth and travel south together.

  • Henry's death prevents his planned return to London, completion of his negotiations and southward journey with Victor.

• Victor plans to conceal the destroyed companion's remains by sinking them offshore, avoiding the local inhabitants' horror and suspicion; he carries out the disposal.

• Driven far offshore, Victor struggles against dangerous seas, thirst and exhaustion to reach inhabited land and obtain nourishment.

  • Victor has reached inhabited land and receives sustained medical care, ending the immediate struggle for survival at sea.

• Hostile Irish townspeople require Victor to appear before magistrate Kirwin concerning a gentleman found murdered the previous night; Victor tries to conceal his weakness lest it be read as guilt.

  • Suspicion leads to imprisonment and investigation, but Kirwin arranges a defence and the grand jury clears Victor of the charge, securing his release without a public capital trial.

• Kirwin combines suspicion of Victor with humane concern, arranging his medical care, contacting his father and organizing his defence.

• Henry's death precipitates Victor's near-fatal illness; physical recovery leaves persistent grief, disturbed memories and nightmares of the creature.

  • Exhaustion delays further travel, and guilt over the deaths persists beneath greater outward composure. Recurrent rage, despondency and withdrawal continue after his return, with Elizabeth helping him recover responsiveness.
  • Further losses intensify Victor's existing grief and physical vulnerability into collapse and loss of coherent awareness; recovery restores his understanding of his accumulated bereavements.
  • Victor's continuing anguish accompanies progressive physical decline, ending in death.

• Victor resolves to return immediately to Geneva to protect his surviving loved ones. He overcomes Alphonse's wish to postpone travel for his health, and they leave Ireland together aboard a vessel bound for Havre-de-Grace.

  • Victor and Alphonse reach Paris, pause because of Victor's exhaustion, and complete the return to Geneva. Their arrival fulfills the journey, but the goal of protecting the surviving family remains unsettled.

• Elizabeth fears that Victor regrets their engagement and remains bound by honour; Victor answers with an assurance of exclusive love and proceeds with their marriage.

• Victor promises to disclose his dreadful secret to Elizabeth the day after their wedding and asks her not to raise it before then.

  • Elizabeth dies on their wedding night before Victor can make the promised disclosure the following day.

• Victor and Elizabeth plan to spend their first married days at Villa Lavenza, travelling by water and stopping overnight at Evian; they depart and reach Evian.

  • Their overnight stay at Evian ends in Elizabeth's murder; Victor returns to Geneva instead of continuing their married journey to Villa Lavenza.

• Victor prepares to defend himself against the creature through weapons and vigilance; these precautions calm him and encourage increasing confidence that the threat will not destroy his marriage.

  • Victor's armed vigilance focuses on defending himself and leads him to separate from Elizabeth. It fails to prevent her murder, and his subsequent shot fails to stop the creature's escape.

• Elizabeth experiences foreboding on her wedding day but resolves to disregard it and divert herself and Victor through the scenery; moments of joy repeatedly give way to distraction and reverie.

  • Victor's expression intensifies Elizabeth's terror, and her murder ends her effort to overcome her foreboding and enjoy their wedding journey.

• Elizabeth's murder and Alphonse's subsequent death overwhelm Victor, leading to loss of coherent awareness, confinement as mad and melancholy; he eventually recovers reason and is released.

  • Anguish and hopelessness persist after his recovery of reason; he eventually welcomes death, which ends his suffering.

• Victor and the inn's occupants attempt to capture the creature through searches of the lake and surrounding land; the lake search fails, some searchers doubt Victor's sighting, and exhaustion prevents his participation on land.

• Fearing further attacks on Alphonse and Ernest, Victor arranges an immediate return to Geneva and finds both alive, but news of Elizabeth's murder precipitates Alphonse's fatal collapse.

• Victor seeks official apprehension and punishment of the creature by disclosing his history to a criminal magistrate. Despite repeated conditional promises, the magistrate interprets his account as madness, and Victor leaves to consider another means.

  • Victor turns from official assistance to personal pursuit and finally appeals to Walton; no official apprehension occurs.

• The creature deliberately leaves tracks, directions and taunts to draw Victor north and prolong his suffering through pursuit.

• Victor forms friendships with villagers through gifts of money and exchanges of hunted food for cooking assistance.

• Victor asks Walton to destroy the creature after his death, first requesting pursuit, then limiting the request to an encounter, and finally leaving the decision to Walton's judgment of duty.

• Victor corrects and expands Walton's transcription to preserve a fuller and more accurate account for posterity.

• The crew seeks a binding assurance that Walton will return south if the ice releases the ship; Walton eventually consents and begins the homeward voyage.

• Walton's sympathy for the creature competes with Victor's injunction to destroy him and Walton's renewed indignation at the deaths he caused.

• The creature declares that he will travel into the far north and burn himself, ending his suffering and preventing his remains from enabling another creation; he departs on an ice raft, but his death is not witnessed.

Places

England, St. Petersburgh, London, North Pacific Ocean, North Sea, Russia, Archangel, Lucerne, Reuss, Geneva, Italy, France, Germany, Naples, Milan, Austria, Belrive, Ingolstadt, Plainpalais, Lausanne, Mont Blanc, Secheron, Switzerland, Mont Salêve, Chêne, Chamounix, Valley of Chamounix, Bridge of Pélissier, Village of Chamounix, Arveiron, Montanvert, Forest near Ingolstadt, Paris, Constantinople, Asia, Leghorn, Lyons, Mont Cenis, South America, Europe, Strasburgh, The Rhine, Rotterdam, Mainz, Mannheim, Lakes of Lucerne and Uri, Holland, Britain, Thames, India, Scotland, Perth, Edinburgh, Matlock, Oxford, Windsor, Northern Highlands of Scotland, Cumberland, Derby, Westmorland, Coupar, The Tay, The New World, Orkney Islands, Ireland, Villa Lavenza, Evian, The Alps, Rhone, Black Sea, Tartary, Frozen Ocean