About Author:
Theme of author:
1).Dangerous Knowledge
2).Monstrosity
3)Secrecy
About Novel:
In a series of letters, Robert Walton , the captain of a ship bound for the North Pole,
recounts to his sister back in England the progress of his dangerous
mission. Successful early on, the mission is soon interrupted by
seas full of impassable ice. Trapped, Walton encounters Victor Frankenstein,
who has been traveling by dog-drawn sledge across the ice and is
weakened by the cold. Walton takes him aboard ship, helps nurse
him back to health, and hears the fantastic tale of the monster
that Frankenstein created.
Victor first describes his early life in Geneva. At the
end of a blissful childhood spent in the company of Elizabeth Lavenza
(his cousin in the 1818 edition, his adopted
sister in the 1831 edition) and friend Henry
Clerval, Victor enters the university of Ingolstadt to study natural
philosophy and chemistry. There, he is consumed by the desire to
discover the secret of life and, after several years of research,
becomes convinced that he has found it.
Victor refuses at first, horrified by the prospect of creating a second monster. The monster is eloquent and persuasive, however, and he eventually convinces Victor. After returning to Geneva, Victor heads for England, accompanied by Henry, to gather information for the creation of a female monster. Leaving Henry in Scotland, he secludes himself on a desolate island in the Orkneys and works reluctantly at repeating his first success. One night, struck by doubts about the morality of his actions, Victor glances out the window to see the monster glaring in at him with a frightening grin. Horrified by the possible consequences of his work, Victor destroys his new creation. The monster, enraged, vows revenge, swearing that he will be with Victor on Victor’s wedding night.
Later that night, Victor takes a boat out onto a lake
and dumps the remains of the second creature in the water. The wind
picks up and prevents him from returning to the island. In the morning,
he finds himself ashore near an unknown town. Upon landing, he is arrested
and informed that he will be tried for a murder discovered the previous
night. Victor denies any knowledge of the murder, but when shown
the body, he is shocked to behold his friend Henry Clerval, with
the mark of the monster’s fingers on his neck. Victor falls ill,
raving and feverish, and is kept in prison until his recovery, after
which he is acquitted of the crime.
Shortly after returning to Geneva with his father, Victor
marries Elizabeth. He fears the monster’s warning and suspects that
he will be murdered on his wedding night. To be cautious, he sends
Elizabeth away to wait for him. While he awaits the monster, he
hears Elizabeth scream and realizes that the monster had been hinting
at killing his new bride, not himself. Victor returns home to his
father, who dies of grief a short time later. Victor vows to devote
the rest of his life to finding the monster and exacting his revenge,
and he soon departs to begin his quest.
Victor tracks the monster ever northward into the ice.
In a dogsled chase, Victor almost catches up with the monster, but
the sea beneath them swells and the ice breaks, leaving an unbridgeable gap
between them. At this point, Walton encounters Victor, and the narrative
catches up to the time of Walton’s fourth letter to his sister.
Walton tells the remainder of the story in another series
of letters to his sister. Victor, already ill when the two men meet,
worsens and dies shortly thereafter. When Walton returns, several
days later, to the room in which the body lies, he is startled to
see the monster weeping over Victor. The monster tells Walton of
his immense solitude, suffering, hatred, and remorse. He asserts
that now that his creator has died, he too can end his suffering.
The monster then departs for the northernmost ice to die.Cited:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/frankenstein/summary.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/frankenstein/themes.html
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