Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein, riassunto

Plot and comment “Frankenstein”

Plot: The story is structured as a series of letters, Robert Walton, the captain of a ship bound for the North Pole, who tells his sister Margaret how is travel is going. He has no friends and none to share his success, so he has to write it on paper. Successful early on, the mission is soon interrupted by seas full of impassable ice. Suddenly, Walton meets Victor Frankenstein, who has been traveling by dog-drawn sledge across the ice and got an illness caused by the cold. Walton helps him to cure and hears the story about the monster that Frankenstein created. Walton realized that he has finally found the friend he was waiting for. Victor first describes his early life in Geneva. He says that his parents were really nice and not so strict. He remembers that moment when he decided to read the Agrippa’s book and his father said to him that the science described by Agrippa wasn’t so developed as the modern one. He continued to read these books and it became a passion for him. He studied science, but realize that the scientists knew only a little of the nature and that immortality was still a mystery. When he was seventeen his parents decided that he would have studied at the university of Ingolstadt to study natural philosophy and chemistry. Victor discussed with one of his teachers and said to him that he has been studying these authors, and he replayed that he has wasted his time doing this. The teacher recommended him some books about natural philosophy. Victor didn’t lose hope and decided to explain to him his passion for the authors he has been studying, the teacher was surprised and encouraged him to continue, Victor was really happy. He continue to study these authors and decided to analyse body parts and their deterioration. He started to think to give life to a creature as similar as possible to a man. Victor decide that this creature had to be eight feet in height and really large. His project was starting and he felt excited as a father for his first child. During this period he has almost forget his friends, but he continue to work. One night he decide to give life to his creature, he saw his eyes open and his yellow skin starting living, he has black hair, very white teeth and dark lips. Seeing the monster he had created he felt the dread of his creation so he decide to go out. After some time he met Clerval, he forgot for a moment about his problems and asked him about his family. Victor met Henry and think that he had to see the monster. Then Victor became ill and Henry started to help him as a nurse. Victor adfirms that he didn’t feel so bad but the presence of his friend restore his heart. After have discovered that the monster had gone, Victor decided to return to Geneva, to his family, and to health. Just before leaving , he received two letters from his father and the second informs him that his brother, William, has been murdered. His father prayed him to come back home and try to console Elizabeth, who feels guilty about William death even if she is not. He decides to leave immediately for Geneva and bring Henry with him. The journey was really nostalgic and he decided to pass through the wood where his brother was killed and becomes convinced that the monster is his brother’s murderer. Arriving in Geneva, Victor discovers that Justine Moritz, a kind, gentle girl who had been adopted by the Frankenstein household, has been accused. Victor soon realized that the monster has caused the death of two innocent loved ones.

Hoping to stop his pain, Victor takes a vacation to the mountains. While he is alone one day, crossing an enormous glacier, the monster appears. The monster admits to have murder of William but wants to be understood. The monster said that he has became bad because of cruelty of humane beings. The monster told him his first sensation after became live and tha fact that human threw him stones because they were scared. But then he knew a family and started to spy them, listen to their music and started to fell emotions in his heart. To show his gratitude he started to give them wood while they are sleeping and to listen to their words, learning some of them. The monster wants to learn how to communicate and when an arab women came to the family and they started to learn to her tha language he listen and learn to talk. He asks himself how human beings can be so nice and cruel at the same time. He started to fell alone, wanted to know where is he from and why he exists. The monster also listen to the story of the woman and discovered that she was helped by De Lacey’s family and his son Felix, to free her father that was took prisoner for religious reasons. Her father to thank to De Lacey, promise his daughter to marry Felix and go to Turkey. Sofie refused and decided to marry Felix, the monster realized as a woman make a life happier and thinks he need one. The monster started to read some books found in the forest and became aware of his condition of loneliness. He decide to introduce himself to the family, but when they saw him, Sofie collapsed and Felix say to him to go away. He realized that the fault of his condition is his creator, Victor Frankenstein. He wanted to search him and in a wood met William, realizing that he is a sibling of Victor he killed him and took the necklace the he had on him and put it in the Justin’s pocket. After telling his story the monster begs Victor to create a mate for him, a monster like him, but a women. Victor refuses at first, horrified by the prospect of creating a second monster, but then he is convinced, because the monster said that he would have gone to south America and have let Victor in peace. After returning to Geneva, he promise to his father to marry Elizabeth, but first he wanted to create the second monster. When she is almost done he feels guilty for the generations of monster that would be created and destroys his new creation. The monster feels grieved, but 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. But a group of irish man seeing him accuse him of murder and he his arrested. 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. He decided to kill the monster. 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. The aim of Victor is now only to kill the monster. He started to follow the monster to kill him and arrived at the north pole where he met Walton 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. Walton thinks of killing him but he swears that he was going to leave for the northernmost ice to die. Comment: The thing that I like the most of this book is the psychology behind the character of the monster and the analysis of his behaviours, when he seems to have human features. The book shows how the brutality of the monster is caused by humans, but also as thank to human he learn to feel emotions. The end shows with the character of the monster the brutality of men. I think that the message behind this book is that sometimes overcoming limits of nature is something that can go against us and that glory is not always positive. The character of the monster represents this concept instead Victor is the man continue research of fame, that at the end oppresses him.