Summary:
Captain Robrert Walton serves a conduit through which the reader will hear the story of Victor and his abhorred creation.
Title of Work: Frankenstein
Author and Date written: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1818
Country of Author: London, England
Characters:
Major:
Robert Walton- A man of strong resolve, Walton is the captain of a ship sailing towards the North Pole. Absolutely amazed by its awesome power, Robert Walton makes it his objective to seek out the source of the magnetic field and he is not at all hesitant to sacrifice a few of his crewmembers to the harsh environment in order to make this discovery of a lifetime. However, misfortune strikes in the form of two frozen ice sheets and traps Walton and his crew. It is here that Walton meets the protagonist of our tale, Victor Frankenstein. Henceforth, Walton serves a conduit through which the reader will hear the story of Victor and his abhorred creation.
Victor Frankenstein- The ambitious and self-centered Victor Frankenstein our main protagonist in this story. He is first introduced in the beginning on the novel when Robert Walton finds him wandering the in vast ice fields of the North. His is a story of death, disaster and dismay, which he relates to Walton.
The Monster- Standing at a staggering 8 feet, with "yellow skin scarcely covering the work of muscles and arteries beneath", the monster of our tale is a repulsive-looking freak of nature. He is highly intelligent and tries to fit in with the society surrounding him, but his hideousness repulses all that see him. Desolate and alone, the monster seeks out his creator.
Minor:
Henry Clerval- Henry is the loyal and caring friend of Victor Frankenstein. He accompanies Victor to Ingolstadt. He is constantly caring after Victor when
Elizabeth- An orphan adopted by the Frankenstein family, Elizabeth is the quiet and passive sister of Victor Frankenstein. She is a caring individual, constantly worried about Victor's well being. She is killed by the monster after she marries Victor.
Alphonse Frankenstein- Alphonse is a benevolent and protective gentleman, father to Victor Frankenstein. He is also extremely perceptive as well, asking if Victor really wanted to go through with his planned marriage with Elizabeth. Although Alphonse greatly wishes for this marriage to take place, he is more concerned with the happiness of his children.
Caroline Frankenstein- Caroline is the mother of Victor Frankenstein. She is a selfless and compassionate woman, who dies after attending to her adopted daughter, Elizabeth, who had the scarlet fever.
5. Major settings, with a description of each and its effect on the reader:
Geneva- Home to Victor Frankenstein, Geneva plays an important part in the novel. This is where the first two victims of Victor's monster meet their deaths. Young William is strangled and Justine, a caretaker, is accused and hung. Geneva used to be a place of happiness, where Victor lived his youth, sheltered and protected. Later in the novel, it becomes a grim setting where death and despair occur.
North Pole- This is where our novel begins. Walton finds himself trapped between ice sheets. This is also where Walton finds Victor wandering the vast ice fields. This setting is lonely and desolate.
Ingolstadt- Ingolstadt is where Victor attends school. Here, he meets professors Krempe and Waldman, the latter who sparks Victor's desire to pursue natural sciences. Ingolstadt is also where Victor created his monster. The mood in Ingolstadt is primarily one of suspense.
6. Plot Outline, brief:
The story opens with the discovery of a man in the North Pole by the captain of a ship. The man's name is Victor Frankenstein and he recounts his story to the captain of the ship, Walton. As young Swiss student, Victor discovers the secret of animating lifeless matter and, by assembling body parts, creates a monster. The monster struggles to be accepted into society, but is spurned away because of his grotesque looks. The monster then vows revenge upon his creator. In the end of the novel, the monster has killed all of Victor's family and ends the novel by announcing his own suicide.
7. Major themes of the work (single words and phrases), with some elaboration of each:
Beauty- Victor first spurns the monster because its ugly monster. But if it here good looking, the whole story may have never taken place. Victor also disliked one of his professors because he was not aesthetically pleasing. However, Victor isn't the only character who portrayed unfair judgment of others based solely on their appearance. The reason Justine, whose name is constantly used in relation to her beauty, was adopted into the Frankenstein family is solely because she was attractive. Also, when Victor creates a female monster, he fears it reject the monster because he is ugly, so he destroys her before she can be created.
Danger of knowledge- This theme is also one of the pervading motifs of the novel. Victor's blind ambition leads him to play the role of god, which eventually led to the creation of the Monster. Had he never acquired the "secret of life", he would have never been the source of so much grief and despair. Victor constantly warns Walton of the dangers of knowledge, and Walton eventually gives in and heads home.
8. Symbols in the book, with at least 2 instances where each symbol appears and commentary on significance of each
Fire- Fire is introduced in the beginning of the novel as a way to keep the monster warm and alive. It is what sustains the life of the monster. Ironically, it is also what ends the life of the monster, as in the end of the novel, the monster promises to set himself on fire. Just as fire can sustain life, it can also take it away.
The characters themselves- Victor is a symbol for Waldman, both are ambitious and strong-willed men. Victor's monster symbolizes Waldman's question for the Earth's magnitude, which will eventually destroy Waldman's life, as the monster has destroyed Victor's.
9. Other significant imagery?
"The abrupt side of vast mountains were before me; the icy wall of the glacier overhung me; a few shattered pines were scattered around, and the solemn silence of this glorious presence-chamber of imperial nature was broken only by the brawling waves of the of some vast fragment, the thunder sound of the avalanche or the cracking, reverberated along the mountains, of the accumulated ice..."
Victor goes to Mont Montanvert to find peace in his hectic and chaotic life.
"His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath: his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriences only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips"
Description of the monster Victor has created.
10. Significance of title of work:
Frankenstein is merely the name of one of the main protagonists of the story. In it's earlier versions, the novel was called "The Modern Prometheus." Victor, like Prometheus, is fated to suffer a tragic punishment for an unintentionally criminal crime he had committed.
11. Author's techniques that are important to this work:
The most important technique use was the frame-story technique. The story is actually being told to Margaret Saville, who is hearing it from Walton, who hears I from Victor. Victor hears the monsters story, who also tells of a story of a family called the DeLacy's. All in all, the reader is the one who gets a recounting of the entire story. Another technique Mary Shelley used is foreshadowing. By the clues and hints dropped earlier in the novel, one can predict what will happen near the end of the novel.
This is the complete article, containing 1,250 words
(approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page).
