Chapter I
In chapter one, Victor Frankenstein reflects on his upbringing and the relationship he had with his family, painting it as an idyllic childhood. Victor’s father, Alphonse, is regarded with very high esteem and married Victor’s mother Caroline Beaufort out of a desire to care for her and protect her following her own father’s death. Critically, Victor draws attention to his family life and how his parents loved him deeply and directed all of their time and energy toward ensuring he had the best upbringing possible. This is important to note because it contributes to the discussion around paternal responsibility and companionship later, as we realise that where Alphonse committed himself to guiding Victor into adult life, Victor instead abandoned his creation, leaving the Creature to have to make his own misguided conclusions about the world. Also, in this chapter Caroline Beaufort visits the cottages of many poor families, at one point coming across a family who fostered a young girl who “seemed to shed radiance.” Having previously yearned for a daughter, Caroline Beaufort brought home Elizabeth Lavenza, labelling the child a “pretty present” for Victor. Not only does Elizabeth become a key character within the text, but the manner in which she is welcomed into the home (as if she is an object to satisfy Victor) reveals the patriarchal dominance that existed so strongly throughout the 19th century.
Chapter II
Whilst Victor continues to talk about the happiness of his childhood, he begins to elaborate more specifically regarding his relationships with Elizabeth, and his best friend Henry Clerval. That “harmony was the soul of [Elizabeth and Victor’s] companionship” demonstrates that Victor was dependent on Elizabeth to moderate his ambitions. Indeed, he states that whilst Elizabeth contemplated the “magnificent appearance of things,” he “delighted in investigating their causes” – this is our first insight into the interactions between Romantic and Enlightened ideals.
The same sort of complementary relationship is depicted between Victor and Clerval because whilst Victor was intrigued by the “physical secrets of the world,” Clerval preferred to explore the “moral relations” of society. Even this early in the text, Shelley is using these relationships to establish her view that in order to achieve a prosperous society, an equilibrium between Romantic and Enlightened perspectives should be reached. As well as this, Chapter II elaborates on Victor’s obsessive nature (the beginnings of his ultimately destructive ambition) as his desire to “learn the secrets of heaven and earth” leads him to the works of Cornelius Agrippa, and the ideas of galvanism and electricity. It is this desire for knowledge that Victor notes “decreed [his] utter and terrible destruction.”
Chapter III
At the beginning of this chapter, Victor recounts the death of his mother as a result of catching the Scarlet fever from Elizabeth. Following this, he departs from his home town of Geneva with the intention of studying at the University of Ingolstadt. This university provides major points for discussion, particularly given that Victor transitions from having been “surrounded by amiable companions” to sleeping in a “solitary apartment.” It indicates the beginning of his knowledge acquisition, but also marks his descent into becoming blind to the value of human relationships.
In this chapter Victor meets two professors, M. Krempe and M. Waldman. Whilst M. Krempe ridiculed Victor for his ardent study of Cornelius Agrippa and similar works, M. Waldman instead embraces Victor’s desire to learn and offered to further his learnings. This is another key turning point in the text, because it nurtures Victor’s hunger for knowledge beyond human bounds and, as he comments, it “decided [his] future destiny.”
Chapter IV
This chapter covers two years and delves into Victor’s growing interest in the development of life. In questioning “whence... did the principle of life proceed?” Victor becomes ensconced in horrible research which sees him dig up corpses from graveyards, collecting human body parts and analysing their decay. Shelley points to the incredibly perverse nature of Victor’s behaviour, depicting it as a betrayal of humanity as he “pursued nature to her hiding place” and often “turn[ed] with loathing” from his work.
This research is what inspires Victor to then attempt to create a human being, and the remainder of the chapter recounts how he went about doing this. Having originally planned to build a creature of normal size, Victor’s impatience prompts him to instead create a being of “gigantic structure.” This is the first indication of Victor’s incompetence and lack of responsibility when it comes to considering the consequence of his actions and also contributes greatly to the overall plot Frankenstein, because the size of the Creature contributes to his monstrous visage which clearly sets him apart from the rest of mankind.
It is critical to be able to separate Victor’s current self (who is talking to Walton), from his former self (who is building the Creature,) because his external narration emanates a sense of foreboding and regret. Shelley’s voice is clearly reflected as Victor urges Walton “learn from me... how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.” Therefore, Shelley establishes a certain perspective that she intends her readership to adopt in considering the rest of Victor’s story; one of caution and criticism around trying to achieve greatness beyond human bounds.
Chapter V
This is an incredibly important chapter in the text: the birth of the Creature! When Victor infuses his creation with the “spark of life,” he is horrified by the “catastrophe” he has created. Thus, out of a fear for his own life Victor abandons the Creature. In this chapter, Shelley makes use of pathetic fallacy to express nature’s disapproval of Victor’s actions, describing the night of his birth as a “dreary night in November,” where rain “pattered dismally against the panes.”
Further, Victor experiences a profound inability to sleep, and when he does finally sleep, has terrifying dreams. The loss of the ability to sleep can be seen to symbolise Victor’s concurrent loss of morality, or human essence. His subsequent dream where in kissing Elizabeth she became “livid with the hue of death” reflects Shelley’s belief that through his creation, Victor has made redundant the role of women in the act of creation.
Victor sets out from his house, refusing to go back for fear of being confronted by the Creature and in his wanderings, he is found by Henry Clerval, who had ventured to Ingolstadt with the purpose of checking in on Victor following two years of no contact between Victor and himself.
Chapter VI
Henry gives Victor a letter from Elizabeth Lavenza, who was motivated to write to Victor because she feared for his safety and health following two years of Victor having had no contact with her or the rest of his family. In it, Elizabeth essentially fills Victor in on the gossip he has missed from their hometown.
This leads to the introduction of Justine Moritz, who used to be a servant in the Frankenstein household, and who, Elizabeth says, has recently returned to their house. It is this letter that makes Victor decide he wants to head home to Geneva with Clerval, however prior to this, Clerval and Victor decide to explore their surroundings for a bit longer.
This time spent with Clerval allows audiences to gauge the value of companionship because where Victor was weak and sick following the creation of his Creature, Clerval’s presence restored him and gave him strength. In some respects, it could be said that the presence of another person restored Victor’s sense of humanity.
Chapter VII
Victor receives a letter from his father urging him to return to Geneva as soon as possible because Victor’s younger brother William had been murdered. Distraught, Victor heads for home immediately, but on his journey seeks out the mountains and lakes outside of Geneva as a means of recuperation. The fact that the “calm and heavenly scene” restored him, allows Shelley to once again endorse the powerful ability of nature to revive a sense of morality and humanness within individuals.
Yet, it is amongst the summits of the Alps that Victor spies a “gigantic structure... the deformity of its aspect more hideous than belongs to humanity” (i.e. the Creature). Victor is inclined to suspect the Creature as being responsible for William’s death. As a consequence, Victor realises the role that he played in his younger brother’s death and is overcome by guilt. However, when he arrives in Geneva, he receives news that the servant Justine Moritz has been accused of William’s murder, having been found sleeping nearby where William’s body was found, holding the necklace he had worn the night that he was killed.
This presents a challenge for Victor; he must grapple with the conflict between his moral obligation to relieve Justine of her unfair conviction, and the fact that in telling the truth, he would have to reconcile with his failure to take responsibility for his own ambitions.
Chapter VIII
This chapter recounts Justine’s trial, which Victor describes as a “mockery of justice.” There’s some irony in the fact that Shelley used the name ‘Justine’ for a character that meets an unjust fate – this forms part of her critique of the flawed justice system in the 1800s, and the unfair manner in which those on the lower rungs of the social hierarchy were so readily condemned and very rarely listened to. Despite Justine asserting how “entirely” innocent she was, and placing her faith in the “justice of [her] judges,” she is declared guilty and handed a death sentence.
Victor and Elizabeth were present in the stands as this conviction was laid down, yet Victor failed to testify against the decision. In her final hours, Justine calls Elizabeth and Victor into her cell and laments that she leaves “a sad and bitter world.” Through this, Shelley encourages her audience to consider the moral standards that shape the society they live in and re-evaluate the institutional prejudice that sees people unfairly excluded and poorly treated.
Importantly, Victor is consumed by an even greater sense of guilt, realising that William’s death was borne out of the Creature’s desire to seek revenge on the creator who abandoned him. Therefore, he reasons that Justine’s and William’s deaths must be the “first hapless victims to [his] unhallowed arts.” This is an indication that he is beginning to acknowledge his parental obligations and his failure to meet them. For the first of many times, Victor insinuates that his Creature is a reflection of his internal self, as he calls himself a “wretch,” drawing a direct likeness between himself and his monstrous creation.
