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In the middle of the ocean he
sees a sleigh pulled by dogs with a large figure driving it. All the crew
is puzzled as to where the man is bound. Then the next day they see
yet another sleigh on the brink of destruction as the sea ice has cracked.
Wallace rescues him and asks the stranger what he is doing in so desolate
a place. He replies that he is tracking the stranger whom they had seen
the day before. When the stranger gets to know that Wallace is playing
with his life for the sake of science, he decides to tell him his story so
that Wallace may change his mind.
He tells Wallace that he hails from a well to do
Italian family and his name is Victor. His father had helped an old friend
when he was in trouble and falls in love with his daughter Caroline and
marries her in spite of the age difference. They have a very happy marriage
but Caroline is not in the best of health which is why they travel to many
countries and the narrator is born in Italy. For many years he is the only
child. Then one day they are in a poor neighborhood and see a beautiful
little girl with the brightest golden hair. They find that she is an
orphan and lives with a poor family who already have many children of
their own to look after and so decide to adopt her and call her Elizabeth
Lavenza. They are raised in the Alps of Switzerland and after a while a
second son is born to their parents. The narrator describes his childhood
as happy and secure. He is an introvert and his main acquaintance is with
his class fellow Henry Clerval. Victor develops a passion for science and
wants to learn the secret of life. At the age of 13, he reads the work of
Cornelius Agrippa and though his father tells him that it is trash he
still continues to be fascinated with it. He is sent to Geneva for further
studies and devotes all his time to try and search for the elixir of life.
He is attracted not by the wealth that would follow but the fame of it
all. At the age of seventeen he is sent to the University of
Ingolstadt. Before his departure Elizabeth catches the scarlet fever and
his mother nurses her day and night. In the process she catches the fever
herself and dies. On her death she tells them how she hopes that someday
they will be married. Shortly after he leaves for university. His friend
Henry Clerval also wishes to join him but his father is a trader and wants
him to follow in the same profession so he does not permit him to
accompany Victor.
At the university he is very uncomfortable at first
among strangers but soon gets so absorbed in his studies that he forgets
everything else. He becomes very interested in Chemistry and becomes a disciple
of his Chemistry professor Mr. Waldham. It is Waldham who helped
him and cleared his misconceptions about Chemistry. He becomes his star
pupil. For two years he does not visit his home or family. Victor
continually tries to study what it is that makes a human being alive. He
pillages graveyards for specimens and keeps on trying until he finally
discovers the secret of life. At first he wonders what he should do next
but then he decides that he will create another human being. He gets so
absorbed in this work that he even stops corresponding regularly with his
family. Finally he creates the being but he is so ugly and repulsive that
the moment he comes alive Victor runs away out of fear of what the being
will do to him. When he returns he sees that the being has disappeared and
is happy that it is out of his sight. But the being continues to haunt his
thoughts and he falls very ill. Then one day he sees that his old friend
Henry Clerval is come to the university to study there with him. When
Henry sees the state that he is in he nurses him day and night and brings
him back to health.
Elizabeth writes to Victor and is full of concern
for his well being. In her letter she updates them about what has been
happening at home. She tells them how their serving girl Justine has been
forced to return home to her stepmother until she dies and Justine is now
back with them, how Earnest has decided to join the foreign service as
soon as Victor returns home and how his younger brother William is also
doing well. Henry realizes that Victor seems to have developed some sort
of dislike for his scientific instruments and somehow convinces him to
study oriental languages with him in order to occupy and distract his
mind. Victor is now starting to become his old self once again. They go
for a two-week trek to Geneva and this really refreshes Victor’s mind
and he is cheerful once again. But on returning home he receives a
horrific letter from home saying that his younger brother William has been
murdered during an evening walk. Elizabeth had let him wear her locket
containing his mother’s picture but that has been stolen from his
corpse. Victor’s father urges him to come home as soon as possible and
Victors leaves for his hometown with Clerval. He feels an unexplainable
fear of returning home. He arrives home amidst a bad storm. Suddenly from
behind a clump of trees is illumined the hideous figure of a man who he
recognizes as the monster. He immediately realizes that it is this monster
that has killed William as no one else could kill such a dear child. When
he reaches home he finds that it is the servant girl Justine who is the
main accused as she is found missing on the night of the murder and the
stolen locket is found on her person. Victor protests her innocence and
Elizabeth is also takes his side saying that she will be very miserable if
Justine is taken from her.
The trial begins the next morning. At first Justine
seems calm and confident about her innocence. Then the witnesses say that
she is found near the body of the victim and the locket is found in her
coat pocket. When asked about this she answers unintelligibly and gets
hysteric when she sees the body of William. Then she says that she had
spent the night with an aunt and on the way back was asked by a stranger
if she had seen William. She had rushed back to the house to see if he was
all right but the gates were already locked so she spends the night in a
barn. She pleads that if the body was found near her she had no idea it
was so near her and as for the locket she swears she doesn’t know how it
got there. Elizabeth pleads her innocence but to no avail and Justine is
condemned to death. Then Justine actually makes a confession of the
murder. When Victor and Elizabeth go to visit her she tells them that she
has confessed a lie in order to avoid excommunication. The next day she is
put to death and Victor blames himself because it is because of his
creation that two innocents have been killed.
After these events Victor keeps getting pangs of
guilt and this effects his health. He begins confining himself to his room
and even contemplates suicide. But the thought of Elizabeth being left
alone without anyone to protect her from the fiend. The entire house is in
mourning and Elizabeth says that her faith in mankind has been shaken
because two innocents have been killed and the murdered is still roaming
free. He leaves his house and spends time in the Alps hoping that he will
be able to deal with the guilt. It is on one of these trips in the alps
that he spies the figure of a huge creature moving towards him and
realizes that it is the monster he created He is enraged and asks the
creature how he dares to approach him. The creature says that he expected
this reception but begs the author to listen to his plea before he passes
judgment on him.
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part 2 of the summary of Frankenstein |
