Maxwell Meyer

Summary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

ENGL 23301

The novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley illustrates the downfall of Victor Frankenstein

as he is tormented by the creation of which he gave life to. The novel opens with an English

sailor (Robert Walton) writing letters to his sister while at sea, when he encounters a stranger

drifting on a sheet of ice. Eventually the stranger decides to tell his tale to Robert, and so begins

the majority of the novel. The stranger (Victor Frankenstein) recounts his youth and how he grew

up in Geneva, Switzerland. He talks about his family and friends who he loved dearly as he

grew up. Eventually Victor decided to attend a University where he became obsessed with

creating life, creating a body from various corpses. His goal was to create a perfect being but

upon the creature gaining life, Victor is horrified and immediately regrets his decision. It is here

where he has successfully reached his goal, but in actuality has failed to reach what he truly

sought to achieve. Upon panicking and suffering what can only be described as a mental

breakdown Victor encounters his childhood friend Henry who nurses him back to health over

several months. Upon receiving a letter from his father informing him that his brother William

has been murdered, Victor returns to Geneva. On his way home he encounters his creation once

more and begins to suspect that his brother’s murderer was none other than the monster.

However instead of the monster being accused of the murder the blame is instead placed upon

Victor’s cousin Justine. This is heartbreaking to both Victor and his adoptive sister Elizabeth, as

Justine is found guilty of the crime and executed. Victor travels into the mountain where he once

again encounters his creation who tells his creator his story of how he has been hated by anyone

he has come across despite only wishing to find peace and love. After telling Victor about how
he has been attacked by men just for attempting to help them, he confesses to murdering William

and putting the blame unto Justine. The creature then asks Victor to create him a mate and tells

his creator that if this is done he will leave Europe and never come into contact with man ever

again. Victor eventually agrees with the creatures demands and leaves for England with Henry

where he begins to work on the creatures mate. Before finishing this second creation Victor fears

that this second creation will create destruction alongside the monster. Upon realizing his

mistake he destroys this creation, which enrages the monster (which had followed him to

England). After refusing to create a mate for the monster it leaves, and Victor rows out on a boat

to dispose of what remains of the monsters mate. He becomes lost and winds up being accused of

murdering Henry. He is eventually set free and returns to Geneva where he marries Elizabeth.

However, his creation returns once more and kills Elizabeth. After this Victor begins to track the

monster to the North. This leads to him being stranded on a piece of ice and discovered by a ship

in the far North. Now returning to the events of the beginning of the novel Victor dies aboard the

ship and is visited one last time by his creation, who proclaims Victor as the last of his victims

after having a brief discussion about his existence with Robert Walton the monster leaves the

ship on a drifting piece of ice and the story ends.

The dichotomy that I found most present in this novel was that of success vs. failure. What I

mean by this is that both Victor and the monster both constantly set goals which they seek to

achieve, but upon reaching the endpoint of their goals they both either succeed and view this as a

failure or truly fails. So in many ways they are both succeeding and failing at the same time.

Another dichotomy present in the novel is humanization vs. dehumanization which is shown

through how the monster simply wants companionship, but due to his horrifying appearance is

constantly driven away by any people who he comes across. This dichotomy relates to the more
present success vs. failure because of how Victor instantly dehumanizes his creation upon seeing

it come to life for the first time. Perhaps if he had stayed by its side rather than deeming it a

failure and leaving, it might have avoided its violent and hateful nature. This could be seen as a

way of telling the audience that we create our own worst enemies through refusing to take

responsibility for our own actions.