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Summary Frankenstein- character list and chapter summaries
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Character list and comprehensive chapter and volume summaries- perfect for A-Level or GCSE
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Summarised critical viewpoints from a range of sources including direct quotations which makes this perfect for use in an essay
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'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley - Quotation log with chapter summaries, AO3,AO4,AO5 included
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‘Frankenstein’ by Mary ShelleyCharacters The creature references:
‘The wretch’
● Victor Frankenstein ‘Miserable monster’
● Elizabeth Lavenza ‘Demoniacal corpse’
● Caroline Beaufort ‘My enemy’
‘Abhorred monster!’
● Alphonse Frankenstein ‘Fiend thou art’
● William Frankenstein ‘Abhorred devil’
● Ernst Frankenstein ‘Detested form’
● Robert Walton ‘Wretched devil’
● Justine ‘’Monster! Ugly Wretch’
‘You are an ogre’
● The creature
● Henry Clerval
● De Lacy
● Felix De Lacy
● Agatha De Lacy
● Safie
Chapter Summaries
Volume One
● Letter one: We are introduced to Robert Walton, an Englishman on an dangerous
expedition to the North Pole. He is writing to his sister Margaret Saville. He talks
about the preparations leading up to his departure and his ambition for seafaring and
desire for glory.
● Letter two: Five months later, another letter is sent to Walton’s sister Margaret. In
this letter he expresses his feelings of isolation and desire for a friend and how he
feels too uneducated to find someone to share his dreams with as he is ‘self-
educated’. This letter is quite morbid and hopeless but also references the Rime of
the Ancient Mariner ‘But I shall kill no albatross’
● Letter three: Four months later, Walton sends out a third but very brief letter. He tells
hi sister that his ship has set sail and how he feels confident yet aware of the
dangers that await him.
● Letter four: Just one month later, Walton sends his fourth and final letter to his
sister. This letter has a shift of form as there are the use of diary entries within this
letter. The ship has been trapped in ice and it is all foggy. The crew members spot a
large distant figure. The next morning they encounter a sledge where only one dog is
still alive and a weak and frail man who looks tired and refuses to board the ship until
Walton tells him that he’s heading north. As time passes, the stranger and Walton
become friends and exchange stories, where the narrative will begin the next day,
ending Walton’s frame narrative and commencing that of Victor Frankenstein’s.
● Chapter one: The stranger, Victor Frankenstein, begins his narration. He tells us of
how he came from a well respected family from Geneva and how his mother
Caroline, who’s father (also Alphonse’s friend) passed away leaving Caroline in
poverty. Two years later she and Alphonse got married and later had children. He
, also tells us about his cousin (1818 edition) /orphan (1831 edition) Elizabeth Lavenza
who was the daughter of Alphonse’s recently deceased sister. He receives a letter
from her husband asking for Alphonse to take in the child and care for her as his
own. Alphonse does just this and Caroline decides her and Victor should one day be
married. We also learn about Victor’s closest friend, Henry Clerval
● Chapter two: Aged 17 Victor Frankenstein decides to leave his family in Geneva to
attend a university of Ingolstadt. Just before he leaves, his mother catches scarlet
fever from Elizabeth who she had been nursing back to health and dies from it but
begged Victor to be wed to Elizabeth on her deathbed. After she passes away he
grieves before going off to ingolstadt. At the university he encounters some
professors of natural philosophy such as M.Krempe who he dislikes and M. Waldman
who he adores and after attending a lecture taught by him, he decides to pursue
natural philosophy.
● Chapter three: Victor is very enthusiastic about his studies, in awe and with a
burning desire to learn about science and natural philosophy. He starts to have ideas
about creating life and goes into graves at night to practice anatomy and learn about
how man decays. He is so obsessed that he ignores everything else in his life
growing pale and alone.
● Chapter four: In this Chapter, the creature is creature is created on ‘a dreary night of
November’ at ‘one in the morning’. Victor Frankenstein is so horrified with his
creation of whose features he so carefully selected that he ‘took refugee in the
courtyard’ abandoning the creature whom he had just brought into existence.
● Chapter five: In this chapter, Clerval has given Frankenstein a letter from Elizabeth
who updates Frankenstein. She tells him how Ernest is now better and nearly 16,
debating about what profession to go into later on. She also talks about Justine
Moritz, their servant they took in because of her horrid mother who felt repentant
after the death of all her other children that she called Justine home. She also talks of
William who has grown up into a charming young boy and gossip of the people of
Geneva who are getting married. Frankenstein introduces Clerval(who is studying
oriental languages) to professors at the university. This task if painful for him as even
the sight of instruments reminds him of the horrid creation that he made. He awaits a
letter from his father whilst walking through with Clerval, enjoying nature.
● Chapter six: Victor is returning from the University back home when he finds out his
youngest brother William had just been murdered through a letter from his father.
When he gets to Geneva the town gates are shut and he walks around the roads and
upon the street where William was murdered and sees the shadows of a creature-his
creature. The next day he learns that Justine Moritz had been accused of the murder.
● Chapter seven: Justine confesses to the crime thinking she will get salvation but VF
and Elizabeth know she is innocent and they critique the justice system and once she
is executed, Frankenstein is consumed by guilt with the knowledge that he was the
one who brought the creature that did this into existence.
Volume two
● Chapter one: VF goes to the family home in Belrive with the rest of his family and
from there wanders into Chamonix. The scenery cheers him up a bit.
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