Frankenstein (book summary)

Frankenstein

by: Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein begins by telling Walton of his childhood. Born into a wealthy family of Geneva, Frankenstein is encouraged to seek a greater understanding of the world around him through science. He grows up in a safe environment, surrounded by loving family and friends.

As a young boy, Victor Frankenstein became obsessed with studying outdated theories of science that focused on achieving natural wonders. In particular, Victor studied the works of Cornelius Agrippa. He planned to attend university at Ingolstadt Germany. But, a week before his planned departure, Frankenstein's mother died, ironically after curing his adopted sister, Elizabeth Lavenza, who became ill with scarlet fever. The whole family was aggrieved, and Frankenstein sees the death as his life's first misfortune. At university, he excels at chemistry and other sciences and—in part through studying how life decays—discovers the secret to imbuing the inanimate with life. He also becomes interested in galvanism, a technique discovered in the 1790s.

While the exact details of the monster's construction are left ambiguous, Frankenstein explains that he collected bones from charnel- houses, and "disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame." He also says that the dissecting-room and slaughter- house furnished many of his materials. (However, these parts were for study and Victor admits that death cannot be reversed.) He had been forced to make the monster much larger than a normal man — he estimates it to be about eight feet tall — in part because of the difficulty in replicating the minute parts of the human body. The creature, which he had hoped would be beautiful, is instead hideous to his eyes, with a withered, translucent, yellowish skin that barely conceals the muscular system and blood vessels. After giving the monster life, Frankenstein is repulsed by his work: "I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” Frankenstein flees hoping to forget what he has created and attempts to live a normal life. Victor's abandonment of the monster leaves the monster confused, angry and afraid.

After his exhausting and secretive efforts to create a human life, Frankenstein becomes ill. He is nursed back to health by his childhood friend, Henry Clerval. It takes Frankenstein four months to recover from his illness. He has determined that he should return home when his five-year-old brother, William, is found murdered.

Elizabeth blames herself for William's death because she had allowed him to have access to his mother's locket, which she believes caused a thief to murder William and steal the locket. William's nanny, Justine, is hanged for the murder based on the discovery of Frankenstein's mother's locket in Justine's pocket. It is revealed that the creature murdered William and then placed the locket into Justine's coat as she slept, and the back story for the creature's murder of William is given.

Frankenstein's monster travels to Geneva and meets a little boy in the woods. Hoping that, because the boy is still young and potentially unaffected by older humans' perception of his hideousness, the boy will be a companion for him, Frankenstein's monster plans to abduct the child. But the boy reveals himself as a relation of Frankenstein. Upon seeing the monster, the boy shouts insults, angering the monster. In an attempt to reason with the boy, the monster covers the boy's mouth to silence him. The monster ends up killing the boy by asphyxiation. Although not his original intent, the monster takes it as his first act of vengeance against his creator. The monster removes a necklace from the dead boy's body and plants it on a sleeping girl, Justine. Justine is found with the necklace, put on trial and found guilty. The judges at the trial are noted for their dislike of executing people when there is any doubt; but, under threats of excommunication, Justine confesses to the murder and is executed.

When Frankenstein learns of his brother's death, he returns to Geneva to be with his family. Frankenstein sees the monster in the woods where his young brother was murdered, and becomes certain that the monster is William's murderer. Ravaged by his grief and guilt for creating the monster who wreaked so much destruction, Frankenstein retreats into the mountains to find peace. After some time in solitude, the monster approaches Frankenstein. Initially furious and intent on killing the monster, Frankenstein attempts to spring on him. The monster, far larger and more agile than his creator, eludes Frankenstein and allows the man to compose himself. Frankenstein encounters his creation while pursuing him to avenge William's death. The monster begins to tell Frankenstein of his encounters with humans, and how he had become afraid of them and spent a year living near a cottage, observing the family living there.

The family had been wealthy, but was forced into exile when Felix De Lacey rescued a Turkish merchant wrongfully accused of a crime and sentenced to death. The man rescued by Felix was the father of his beloved, a girl named Safie. Once rescued, the father agreed to allow Felix to marry Safie. Ultimately, though, he could not stand the idea of his beloved daughter marrying a Christian and fled with his daughter. Safie returned, eager for the freedom of European women.

Through observing the De Lacey family, the monster becomes educated and self-aware, realizing that he is very different in physical appearance from the humans he watches. In loneliness, the monster seeks to befriend the De Laceys. When the monster tries to befriend the family, they are horrified by his appearance and react viciously, with violence against him. This rejection makes the monster seek further vengeance against his creator.

The monster concludes his story with a demand that Frankenstein create for him a female companion, on the basis that he is lonely since no human will accept him. The monster argues that as a living thing, he has a right to happiness and that Frankenstein, as his creator, has a duty to oblige him. He promises that he and his mate will vanish into wilderness uninhabited by man, never to reappear, if Frankenstein creates a companion for him.

Fearing for his family, Frankenstein reluctantly agrees and travels to England to do his work. Clerval accompanies Frankenstein, but they separate in Scotland. In the process of creating a second being on the Orkney Islands, Frankenstein is plagued by premonitions of the carnage another monster could potentially wreak.

Given the murderous behavior of the first creature, Frankenstein is reluctant to compound his error, particularly as creating a female companion for the creature might lead to an entire race of monsters that could plague mankind for millennia to come. Frankenstein destroys the unfinished project. The monster witnesses this event and vows revenge on Frankenstein's upcoming wedding night. Frankenstein sails far out to sea to dispose of the parts of the unfinished project, and remains adrift and alone. Meanwhile, the monster murders Clerval and leaves the corpse on an Irish beach, coincidentally near where Frankenstein finds himself washed up after his unintentionally long voyage. Arriving in Ireland, Frankenstein is imprisoned for the murder of Clerval, and falls violently ill in prison. After being acquitted (he was proven to be on the Orkney Islands when the murder took place) and with his health renewed, Frankenstein returns home with his father.

Once home, Frankenstein marries his cousin Elizabeth and, possessing full knowledge of and belief in the monster's threat, prepares for a fight to the death with the monster. Wrongly believing the monster's vowed revenge meant his own death, Frankenstein asks Elizabeth to retire to her room for the night. Of course, the continued revenge of the monster is the destruction of those closest to Frankenstein, and the monster kills the secluded Elizabeth in her bed. Grief- stricken by the deaths of William, Justine, Clerval, and now Elizabeth, Frankenstein's father dies. Frankenstein's father was overwhelmed with the deaths of so many important family members. Frankenstein was infuriated. Frankenstein vows to pursue the monster until one of them destroys the other. After months of pursuit, the two end up in the Arctic Circle, near the North Pole, where we return to Walton's ship and the end of Frankenstein's narrative.

At the end of Frankenstein's narrative, Captain Walton resumes the telling of the story. A few days after Frankenstein has finished his story, the ship becomes entombed in ice and a deputation from Walton's crew insist on returning South once the ship is freed. In spite of a passionate and rousing speech from Frankenstein, encouraging the crew to push further North, Walton is forced to relent and head for home. Although Frankenstein is desperate to continue his pursuit of the monster and exact his revenge, he is critically ill and dies shortly after the ship heads for home. Walton discovers the monster mourning over Frankenstein's body. Walton hears the monster's adamant justification for his vengeance as well as expressions of remorse. The destruction of Frankenstein had not brought the monster peace - rather his crimes increased his own misery and alienation, finding his own emotional ruin in the destruction of his creator. He leaves the ship and travels toward the Pole to destroy himself on his own funeral

N\A 29/11/2010

Ενότητα: Book Summaries part 1

Πηγή: Wikipedia