Summary

"Frankenstein" takes place in the 1790s. It's a wild scenic ride, beginning in St. Petersburgh (spelling later changed to St.
Petersburg), Russia, and then shifting to the Archangel, Russia; the waters of the Arctic Ocean; Geneva, Switzerland;
Ingolstadt, Germany; Mont Blanc, between Italy and France; Germany; the Netherlands; London; the Orkney Islands off the
coast of Scotland; and finally back to the Arctic Ocean.
Robert Walton, an explorer headed for the North Pole, opens the story by relating his adventures in letters to his sister
Margaret Saville. Walton and his crew see a manlike giant driving a dogsled in the distance. Soon after, they see another
man, skeletal and nearly frozen to death, also driving a dogsled. They rescue the latter figure and learn that he is Victor
Frankenstein and has been chasing the huge creature. As Victor regains his strength, he tells Walton his story.
Victor takes up the narration. He and his younger brothers, Ernest and William, enjoyed a happy childhood in Geneva,
Switzerland, thanks to their loving and wealthy parents, Alphonse and Caroline, who adopted Alphonse's sister's
daughter, Elizabeth Lavenza. Elizabeth and Victor were both five years old at the time. They became close friends. Victor's
other close companion was Henry Clerval, a classmate who enjoyed stories of knights in shining armor, a contrast to
Victor's obsession with science.
The family's happiness dimmed when Elizabeth became ill with scarlet fever and Caroline contracted the illness while
nursing her. Before dying she communicated her great wish: that Victor and Elizabeth marry. After recovering from the
loss of his mother, Victor left home to study science at the University of Ingolstadt in Germany. The top chemistry student,
he was determined to discover "the principle of life." Victor studied day and night, dug up corpses from cemeteries, and
set up his own laboratory. Stitching together body parts from various corpses, he made a creature 8 feet tall. Using
electricity, he gave the Monster life, but it was terrifically strong and grotesquely hideous. Repelled by his gruesome
creation, Victor rejected the Monster.
Later, Victor was relieved to find that the Monster has disappeared. Exhausted from two years of nonstop work and the
horrid results, Victor collapsed. Henry nursed Victor back to health.
Returning home more than a year later, Victor was shocked to learn of the murder of his brother William. A
servant, Justine Moritz, was blamed for the crime after a locket belonging to William was found in her pocket. Although
Justine was hanged for the crime, Victor was sure that the Monster committed the murder, seeking revenge for Victor's
rejection. Victor did not reveal his suspicions, because he did not think that anyone would believe him.
Victor went hiking at Montanvert to help deal with his guilt and grief, but the Monster found him and recounted his own
history. The Monster explained that he had found refuge in an abandoned cottage. There he spied on a family in a
neighboring cottage, the De Laceys, learning to speak and to read by observing them through a window. The Monster grew
very fond of the family for their kindness to each other. Finally he got up the courage to approach the family, but they
rejected him and fled from their home. Furious, the Monster burned their home to the ground and both murdered Victor's
brother William and framed Justine for the crime. Bitterly lonely and isolated, the Monster told Victor that he would leave
his creator in peace only if Victor created a mate for him. Victor reluctantly agreed.
Victor resumes his narration of events. Victor and Henry traveled together to England, where they parted ways. Suspecting
that the Monster was shadowing him to make sure that he kept his word, Victor set up a new laboratory in the isolated
Orkney Islands. There he began building the female monster, but just before he gave her life, he tore the body apart, fearful
that she and the male would mate and create a race of monsters. The Monster, watching through the window, became
enraged and threatened that he would be with Victor on his wedding night. The Monster then strangled Henry, leaving
evidence (through witness sightings) that Victor was responsible. Victor was found innocent after a trial, but his health
became shattered. He returned to Geneva, recovered, and made plans to marry Elizabeth.
On Elizabeth and Victor's wedding night, the Monster killed Elizabeth. The shock proved too much for Victor's father, who
died soon after. Determined to get revenge, Victor tracked the Monster around the world, ending near the North Pole.
The story ends where it began, with Walton listening to Victor's story. Walton's voyage is brutally hard, and the sailors want
to turn back, but Victor wants them to push on so that he can continue to track the Monster, reminding them of their goals
for the voyage. With the voyage endangering their lives, Walton agrees with the men to turn around, and Victor dies soon
after. Walton is shocked to see the Monster appear and mourn over Victor's corpse. The Monster explains that he killed
Victor's family and Henry because of his rage at being shunned by all humans—even his creator. The Monster has found
no comfort in his actions, however, and promises to kill himself. At the conclusion Walton watches the Monster spring
"from the cabin-window ... upon the ice-raft" that lies close to the vessel. He is "soon borne away by the waves and lost in
darkness and distance."

Symbols
"Light and Darkness"

Light is a positive symbol in , representing hope, knowledge or learning, and discovery. Walton introduces the symbol
when he describes the North Pole as a place where "the sun is ever visible ... a region of beauty and delight." He asks his
sister, "What may not be expected in the country of eternal light?" showing his optimism in science and exploration. When
Victor realizes he can create life, he says, "Until from the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in upon me—a light
so brilliant and wondrous, yet so simple." As these examples show, light is associated with knowledge and discovery—
positive things.
As Victor's words about the flash of insight that led him to recognize how to create life show, darkness represents
ignorance. Later in that conversation, Victor tells Walton that he hoped his discovery would "pour a torrent of light into our
dark world." When Victor returns home to Geneva after his brother William's murder, it is during a dark, stormy night that he
sees the Monster. That vision convinces him that the Monster is linked to the murder; his darkness (ignorance of the
Monster's involvement) is dispelled by light (the flash of lightning that reveals the Monster). Darkness is also a symbol for
evil. Elizabeth's letter to Victor recounting the news of William's death speaks of "the dark side of human nature." Finally,
darkness symbolizes emptiness and despair, as shown by the descriptions of Victor's dark depressions. It is into darkness
that the Monster disappears as the book closes.
"Fire"
Fire is the dual-edged sword of light; it can sustain life by heating food, providing warmth, and ensuring protection from
wild animals. But fire also causes pain, death, and destruction, as shown when the Monster uses fire to destroy the De
Laceys' cottage. The Monster discovers the dual nature of fire when he says, "When night came again, I found, with
pleasure, that fire gave light as well as heat; and that the discovery of this element was useful to me in my food."
Overcome by pleasure at the warmth, the Monster says, "I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out
again with a cry of pain." The Monster also intends to use the destructive power of fire to destroy himself, thereby
eliminating any memory of him from the world. As with scientific knowledge, fire can both help and harm. The fire symbol
also recalls the Prometheus myth, as he brought fire to humans.
"Adam and Satan"
The Monster is both symbolized by Adam, the first man, and Satan. Victor creates him, and he is the first—and only—of his
kind. Mary Shelley brings in allusions to Milton's epic poem , the biblical story of the fall of humanity, from the beginning of
the novel, and the Monster seems identified with Adam in the cited lines that serve as the novel's epigraph. The
connection is carried out in several aspects of the book, including the Monster's explicit identification of himself with
Adam when he recounts his history to Victor and says, "I ought to be thy Adam." In addition, like Adam, the Monster is
curious about the world and desires a mate. In contrast, the Monster is also Satan, cast out of heaven. Like Satan, the
cast-aside Monster lives in hell (what the world has become after he is rejected). He is also like Satan in being fallen;
Victor hoped to make him beautiful and magnificent. Instead, he is hideous, a lesser version than the creator wished. The
Monster's fallen state can also be seen—from Victor's perspective—in violent revenge.
In this interpretation, Victor is allied with God, the creator. Victor makes the monster; he gives it life. But Victor rejects his
creation, abandoning any responsibility for it. (God punishes his creation, Adam, for disobedience.) Here the Adam-Satan
symbol takes a twist, for the Monster who murders is also capable of kindness and compassion. He feels the De Laceys'
love and essential goodness; he saves the life of the drowning girl. Victor, however, shuns his creation. It could be argued
that he casts the Monster out, as God cast Adam out of the garden, but Victor is actually the one who flees after creating
the Monster. In a sense he, too, is Adam, ashamed and horrified at having partaken of the forbidden fruit of hoisting
himself into the role of creator. The plaintive epigraph could be his words, as well as the Monster's, as he laments being
brought into the world and allowed to do evil.