A Brief Summary Of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Decent Essays
While attending college at the University of Ingolstadt, Victor Frankenstein claimed he knew the secret to life. After putting together a creation and bringing it to life, he quickly realized it was a monster. One night, he ran out of his apartment and ran into his close friend, Henry Clerval. Returning to his apartment with his friend, he discovered the monster was gone. Feeling sick and full of fear, Victor was getting ready to return home. Before leaving the University, his father called and told him his little brother, William, had died of murder. Quickly, Victor suspected it had been the monster. A close family friend, Justine, had been accused and executed for William's murder. After William and Justine's death, Victor took a vacation

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In a world where everything must be donned “good” or “bad’, one has to ask the obvious question, is the science and experimentation in the novel Frankenstein good or bad? Victor Frankenstein sets a precedent of what not to do when you want to perform a science experiment. For this creature to be constructed out of absolutely nothing, Frankenstein must had to “desire it with an ardor that far exceeded moderation” which is unnecessary (p. 45). When someone wants something that bad, it needs to be planned out and organized, not thrown together with no regard to the safety of others. He wanted it more out of selfishness and didn’t realistically think about it and consider the consequences, thus resulting in a catastrophe.…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Mary Shelley cautioned that the risk that can come from hunting for knowledge is not solely from the subject of the information itself, but it is from the obsessive intentions of whoever is seeking it. Frankenstein and Walton began looking for knowledge as a way self enjoyment, however, in the end they developed a strong need for personal glory that had caused misfortune to be brought to them, and their friends, during the search of the knowledge which they had so eagerly…

    • 83 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Victor’s fickle opinion on the cause of his fate furthermore aids in demonstrating his internal struggle. As he explains his story to readers, he finds new culprits for his fate. He begins by attempting to blame his father, “ If… my father had taken the pains to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa… under such circumstances I certainly have thrown Agrippa aside and have contented my imagination, warmed as it was, by returning with greater ardour to my former studies.” (Shelley 22). Although Victor could have wholly blamed his father as his creator and therefore the reason for his problem he contradicts himself when he says: “it is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin”(23).…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Victor took off to college and attended a University at Ingolstadt and became fascinated with science. He had great professors who cared about his education and he soon managed to learn all of the courses that he had to take. He came up with the idea of creating the monster, Frankenstein. Little did he know of the horrible consequences that were to come with his creation. A part of the book shows consequences of what can happen when you really mess with something.…

    • 1942 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein takes the reader on a journey around countries in Europe, and brings you as far as the Arctic. The story involves one man 's desire to use his passion and love of science to create a living organism. The reader follows along as Frankenstein deals with the emotional stress from playing the hand of God. Shelley’s choice of setting plays an important role in connecting the audience with the story on an emotional level helping them feel the fear, stress, anger and joy felt by characters in the novel. It becomes evident that the author’s knowledge and choice of setting is vital to the theme and tone of the story.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The quest for knowledge, and the danger in the quest, is a main theme in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. The novel’s three main characters, Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the monster all relentlessly search for different kinds of knowledge. They each discover danger and even tragedy in their obsessive quests. Robert Walton is the captain of a ship on a very dangerous voyage. It’s his quest to be the first man to successfully navigate to the North Pole.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Victor brought the creature out of the town before everyone else was up and out in the town to make sure he did not frighten the people. He took him through the woods and brought him to a creek. Victor caught a couple of fish to show the creature. Victor made a fire next to the creek and cooked the fish for the monster to sample. The creature was fascinated by the fire.…

    • 1290 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Victor, from an early age, became interested in science and research and read many books on the subject. Soon he moved to Ingolstadt to continue his studies where he met his friend Henry Clerval. There Victor continued with his investigations and began to create a living being from corpses. Victor created a monstrous being from which he fled the moment he saw him.…

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I wonder if the monster wanted a female to love or a female to subdue his sexual desires; even though Mary Shelley never mentioned anything about the monsters sexuality. The Monster says that he is "...shunned and hated by all mankind..." including his creator. He cannot be accepted, therefore cannot be happy; unless, of course, Victor creates a companion for him, with whom he would live "...harmless and free from the misery I now feel." The Monster needs a being like himself to peacefully and contentedly live in a human's world.…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Narrative point of view, within Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, is used to shape the way readers derive meaning from within this text. The use of three narrators is used to show opposing views on events to allow readers to fully understand, and be able to interpret, characters, setting and pivotal events. Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s Monster are the three sets of eyes in which we view this text, and these three characters individual characteristics change the way we interpret characters, setting and pivotal scenes depending on who is narrating at any given point in the text. This use of multiple narrators influences my reading of Frankenstein to change the way I perceive all aspects of this text, and leaves me much better…

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Frankenstein, written by Mary-Ann Shelley, Shelley portrays Victor as the ultimate monster. Throughout the novel, Shelley tests Victor’s morals and concludes him to be arrogant and selfish. Shelley depicts his immorality through the creation of the creature, abandoning his creation, and his decision to uphold his reputation and sacrifice mankind. Shelley illustrates Victor’s immorality through the creation of the creature. When Victor attends university at Ingolstadt, he decides to pursue his studies in the Sciences.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Controversial Issues of ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley ‘Frankenstein’ is a Gothic Horror novel written by Mary Shelley. An ambitious scientist, Victor Frankenstein, creates a creature from…

    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Prior to that fateful night, Victor led a seemingly normal life with a loving family and an innocent curiosity to science. After the creation of the monster, Frankenstein falls into a deep depression that he does not overcome. The monster’s existence acts as a punishment to Victor for meddling with life and death with science. The Monster becomes an endless interference and threat not only to Frankenstein, but also to the people that he loves: Frankenstein’s younger brother William is murdered at the hands of the Monster in vengeance with the Frankenstein family’s young servant, Justine Mortiz wrongfully accused and then executed for the murder. Victor tormented by the guilt and falls into a deep depression.…

    • 2374 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    He would often yearn to dive into it to cleanse himself of the responsibility of Justine and William’s death. He would wish to become one within nature because it was beautiful and calm, opposite of what Victor thought of himself, a man riddled with guilt and fear. The creature, in a similar state of loneliness and depression, wandered throughout the forest regaining “pleasure, that had long appeared dead, revive within me…forgetting my solitude and deformity, dared to be happy” (Shelley 129). Nature affects the creature exceedingly, turning his emotions in a complete 180°, in spite of being lonely. The creature is in comfort of the beauty of nature.…

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 5 Works Cited
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Frankenstein, uses neglect, rejection, and the fact that the creature represents a shadow of Victor’s past to create a never ending conflict between Victor and the monster. This causes the death of Victor’s closest friends and family to be murdered by the creature who had suffered since the start of his life. Upon the creation of the monster, Victor flees his apartment to escape the horrors he had just witnessed. The creature was left alone without an explanation or knowledge of why Victor would leave. Not knowing what to do, the creature goes off to explore the world he was brought into.…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays