Letters 1-4:
We are introduced to Robert Walton, a 28-year-old sea captain who is embarking on a
journey to the North Pole region in order to find a passage from the Pacific to the
Atlantic. He writes the letters to his sister, Mrs. Saville, in London, England. He has
talked about making this expedition for six years it has been a favorite dream, and he is
pleased that he finally has a chance to make good on his promise to himself. Other
dreams, such as becoming a poet or a playwright, have not worked out. Therefore, this
vision must succeed. The writer of letters is thrilled that he will satisfy an "ardent
curiosity" by setting foot on a part of the world never visited by man. As he prepares for
voyage by taking practice trips in the North Sea of Russia, he is worried that he has no
friend on the trip who will be able to sustain his disappointment should the dream not
work out. He admits this is a romantic, emotional need, but it is there. Unfortunately he
does not connect at all with the other men, even though he is very fond of his lieutenant
and the ship's master. He is nevertheless extremely excited for his journey.
Once actually on the voyage, things are going well. But a strange thing happens. In the
middle of the ocean, on sheets of ice, they spy a sleigh pulled by dogs with a large figure
driving. He disappears, leaving the entire crew in puzzled wonderment. The next day,
another sleigh is at the side of the ship, on the brink of destruction amidst the ice. This
time, however, there is a regular-sized human there, asking to where the ship is bound.
He boards the ship, nearly frozen and completely fatigued. When he is a bit recovered,
Walton asks what he is doing up here. The stranger says he was tracking someone who
fled from him. Apparently, it was the large figure Walton and his men saw earlier.
Walton begins to spend time with the stranger. He is morosely unhappy, and when
Walton talks about how he might be sacrificing his life on this expedition for the sake of
knowledge, the stranger breaks down and decides to tell him the tale he has kept secret in
order to reverse that opinion.
Analysis:
The structure of the book is arranged: we know that the unnamed stranger will be the
general narrator, and Walton, substituting for all readers, will be the audience to whom he
speaks. Shelley is setting up a number of themes in this clever kind of introduction.
Walton's intense desire for discovery and the unknown, to the point that he would risk his
life at sea, molds him along the lines of the epic hero type. Diction such as "glorious" and
"magnificent" is used to describe his mission. Walton is consumed by the need to be
immortal by doing what has never been done previously. He suffers from hubris and
believes that he is invincible, destined to complete this dangerous journey. That this ultra-
confident attitude upsets the stranger so much (he likens Walton's curiosity to drinking
from a poisonous cup) is telling. The stranger believes that the quest for new knowledge
can lead to self-destruction. While the idea sounds strange, it is a key theme to remember.
Walton's undertaking of this journey is a comment upon the larger society as well as upon
his character‹it is the outside world that is constantly urging its members to leap tall
boundaries, that they might gain recognition and fame. Walton's values are definitely
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,questionable. It does not seem that he really belongs on this mission, with so little
experience, but he refuses to let this dream go. He is highly motivated and in his prime, a
younger version of the weathered stranger, who had the same ideals at one point but has
had to relinquish them. That Walton complains of not having peers to whom he can relate
illustrates the most basic human need of companionship. Anything with an iota of
humanness feels such a compulsion for friendship and emotional ties; anybody would be
justified in going great lengths to find these things.
Chapter 1:
Frankenstein begins his tale, sensibly enough, with his childhood: he is from a wealthy
and well-respected Swiss family. His parents met, he tells us, when his father went in
search of a dear old friend. This man, named Beaufort, had fallen into poverty and
obscurity; when the elder Frankenstein finally found him, he was entirely wretched and
very near death. His daughter, Caroline, attended to him with an almost religious
devotion. Upon Beaufort's death, Caroline turned to Master Frankenstein for comfort, and
the pair returned to Geneva together; a few years later, they were married.
During the first years of their marriage, the Frankensteins traveled constantly, for the
sake of Caroline's fragile health. They divided their time among Germany, Italy, and
France; their first child, Victor, was born in Naples, Italy. Victor was adored by his
parents, and he adored them in turn; his childhood, from the very first, was wholly
idyllic. Until he was five, Victor was an only child, and both he and his parents felt the
absence of other children strongly.
Caroline Frankenstein made a habit of visiting the poor: since she herself had been saved
from poverty, she felt it her duty to improve the lot of those who did not share her good
fortune. One day, she discovered an angelic girl-child, with fair skin and golden hair,
living with a penniless Italian family. As the girl was an orphan, and her adoptive family
lacked the means to care for her, the Frankensteins determined to raise the child as their
own. The child, whose name was Elizabeth Lavenza, became Victor's sister and his
constant companion, as well as the object of his unquestioning worship. For him, she is
his most beautiful, most valuable possession.
Analysis:
This chapter is primarily concerned with the theme of family and kinship. The absolute
necessity of human contact and emotional ties is stressed here: the elder Frankenstein
goes through great trouble to visit his impoverished friend, and Caroline, too, is selflessly
concerned with the needs of others (her father, her family, and the poor). It is important
to note that Beaufort's ruin is itself connected to his decision to cut himself off from his
former friends and live in absolute isolation; it is his isolation, more than his poverty,
which leads to his death.
Because Victor speaks in first person, the other characters are presented as they relate to
him ("my father, my mother, my sister"). At the beginning of his narrative, Victor is
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,deeply embedded within a traditional family structure, and we develop our first
impressions of his character in relation to it. His childhood is almost implausibly ideal;
the reader therefore expects Victor to reflect the love and beauty with which he was
surrounded as a boy.
A number of the relationships described in this chapter are structured as a relation
between a caretaker and a cared-for: that between Caroline's father and Caroline; Victor's
father and Caroline; the Frankensteins and Elizabeth; and between Victor and Elizabeth,
to name a few. In this way, Shelley suggests that human connection and, to state the case
rather more plainly, love itself is dependent upon one's willingness to care for another
person particularly if that other person is defenseless, or innocent, and thus unable to
care for themselves. The elder Frankenstein takes Caroline in after she is left penniless
and an orphan; similarly, the family takes in the orphaned Elizabeth Lavenza to save her
from a life of bitter poverty. Shelley subtly argues that there is nothing more wretched
than an orphan: one must care for one's children, since one is responsible for bringing
them into the world. This idea will become extremely important with the introduction of
the monster, in that Victor's refusal to care for his own creature will say a great deal
about the morality of his experiment.
Chapter 2:
The family ceases to travel after the birth of their second son they return home to
Switzerland, to their estate at the foot of the Alps. Young Victor prefers not to surround
himself with a great many casual friends; instead, he is very intimate with a select few.
These include a brilliant boy named Henry Clerval, renowned for his flights of
imagination, and, of course, his beloved Elizabeth. Though Victor says that there can be
no happier childhood than his, he confesses that he had a violent temper as a child. His
temper was not directed at other people, however: it manifested itself as a passionate
desire to learn the secrets of heaven and earth. Clerval, by contrast, was fascinated by
questions of morality, heroism, and virtue.
At Geneva, Elizabeth's "saintly soul" serves to soothe and temper Victor's burning
passion for study. Without her, his interest in his work might have developed an
obsessional quality.
Frankenstein is full of pleasure as he recounts these scenes from his childhood, since they
remain untainted by his recent misfortune. He can, however, see how his early scholarly
endeavors foreshadow his eventual ruin.
At the age of thirteen, he becomes fascinated with the work of Cornelius Agrippa (a
Roman alchemist who attempted to turn tin into gold and men into lions). His father tells
him that the book is pure trash; Victor does not heed him, however, since his father does
not explain why the book is trash. The system of "science" that Agrippa propounds has
long since been proven false; Victor, unaware of this, avidly reads all of Agrippa's works,
as well as those of his contemporaries, Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. Victor shares
their desire to penetrate the secrets of nature, to search for the philosopher's stone and the
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, elixir of life. The quest for the latter becomes his obsession. Though he acknowledges
that such a discovery would bring one great wealth, what Victor really longs for is glory.
Victor is also preoccupied with the question of how one might communicate with or
even raise the dead. He finds no answer in the works of his Roman idols, and becomes
entirely disillusioned with them when he witnesses a lightning storm. Since the Romans
have no satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon, Victor renounces them entirely
and devotes himself (at least for the time being) to the study of mathematics. Destiny,
however, will return him to the problems of natural philosophy.
Analysis:
The reader is gradually introduced to those aspects of Victor's character that will lead to
his downfall. He tells us that he possesses "a thirst for knowledge"
The narrator begins to pick apart and identify the aspects of his personality that will
eventually lead to his downfall. He possesses what he calls a "thirst for knowledge."
Thirst, of course, is a fundamental human need, necessary to one's very survival. Victor's
desire to learn, therefore, is driven by nothing so insubstantial as curiosity: it is instead
the precondition of his very being. Shelley thereby indicates that there is a compulsive
quality to Victor's scholarship: it is something very close to madness.
Elizabeth is positioned here, quite literally, as a "saint." It is her gentle, feminine
influence that saves Victor from his obsession during his time at Geneva. The influence
of women, and of femininity, is thus presented as offering hope of salvation it inspires
one to temperance and kindness.
Though both Victor and Clerval have passionate and creative characters, they express
them very differently. Henry does it openly, with songs and plays; Victor, by contrast,
does it privately, amidst books and philosophical meditations. His reading is directed
toward the learning of secrets of forbidden knowledge. This predisposition to secrecy
plays an essential role in Victor's scientific work and its consequences.
The question of the place of chance and destiny in Victor's fate also arises in this chapter.
Victor "chances" upon the volume of Cornelius Agrippa; he suggests that he would never
have become so fascinated with the alchemists if only his father had explained why their
work was worthless. He also says that "destiny" brought him back to the study of natural
philosophy: in this way, Victor attempts to absolve himself of culpability for his later
actions. The word "creation" is deployed for the first time here, in reference to natural
philosophy: Victor refers to it as "abortive creation." The idea of both creation and
abortion will become highly significant in later chapters.
Chapter 3:
When he is seventeen, Victor's family decides to send him to the university of Ingolstadt,
so that he might become more worldly. Shortly before his departure, Elizabeth falls ill
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