Frankenstein Chapter Summaries

Question 1

Letter 1

Answer 1

Captain Robert Walton writes to his sister, Margaret Saville in England, from St. Petersburg, detailing his feelings about his upcoming expedition to the North Pole and his confidence in its success.

Question 2

Letter 2

Answer 2

This letter is written from Archangel, Russia, displayig the continuation of Walton’s journey, and the loneliness he is facing.

Question 3

Letter 3

Answer 3

Walton lets Maragaret know that the journey is underway and that they are getting nearer to the North Pole.

Question 4

Letter 4

Answer 4

In Walton’s next letters, he informs his sister of a very strange few days that have occured out at sea - seeing a man of “gigantic stature” and finding Victor.

Question 5

Chapter 1

Answer 5

Victor describes his childhood and upbriinging. He explains that he was born into a wealthu and distinguished Genevese family.

Question 6

Chapter 2

Answer 6

Victor describes his close relationship with Elizabeth and his blossoming interest in natural philosophy, which was the 19th-century term for modern ‘science’

Question 7

Chapter 3

Answer 7

Now that Victor is 17 years old, his parents decide he should continue his education at the university of Ingolstadt

Question 8

Chapter 4

Answer 8

Victor’s studies become his “sole occupation” and he begins to neglect his social life and his family in Geneva. He makes rapid progress, becoming more and more ambitious in his work

Question 9

Chapter 5

Answer 9

Victor finally finishes his creation, but he is horrified by the Monster’s vile appearance and quickly abandons it in his apartment

Question 10

Chapter 6

Answer 10

Victor reads the letter from Elizabeth and longs to return to Geneva, although this is made impossible by the winter weather, among other occurences

Question 11

Chapter 7

Answer 11

Victor recevies a letter from his father with the news of Williams murder. This news means he has to return to Geneva to see his family

Question 12

Chapeter 8 and 9

Answer 12

Justine’s trial goes ahead. Victor leaves with guilt and self pity.

Question 13

Chapter 10

Answer 13

While gazing at Montanvert and Mont Blanc, Victor encounters the Monster who is desperate to speak to him and implores him to listen to his tale of suffering a cruelty

Question 14

Chapter 11

Answer 14

Starts the Monster’s meta-diegetic narration, at the heart, or in the womb, of the novel. This is where he firsts encounters human cruelty at the village

Question 15

Chapters 12 and 13

Answer 15

The Monster observes the De Lacey familly members and their kindness to one another. He hopes one day to reveal himself to them and be acceped into their family

Question 16

Chapters 14 and 15

Answer 16

The Monster finds out about the history of the De Laceys and the relationship to Safie

Question 17

Chapter 16

Answer 17

Because of the cruel reception he’s got from all humans he has met, the Monster wages war on humanity, especially Victor. This is where he kills William and demands to Victor to make a female Monster

Question 18

Chapter 17

Answer 18

Starts Victor’s intra-diegetic narration again, recountng how the Monster eloquently but threateningly demands that Victor create a new female monster for him

Question 19

Chapter 18 and 19

Answer 19

Concerned by the task awaiting him, Victor procrastinates and instead surrounds himself with nature, this is when Victor vists the Orkneys

Question 20

Chapter 20 and 21

Answer 20

As Victor works on the female monster, he worries about the consequences of his aactions, thinking back to the fateful day when he first creates the Monster - he destorys the female monster, the monster threatens Elizabeth’s life and where he is arrested for the murder of Clerval.

Question 21

Chapters 22 and 23

Answer 21

On their journey, exhausted from broken sleep and too much laudanum, Victor admits to his father that he is responsible for all the deaths that have occurred but Alphonse just thinks he is going mad from grief - Elizabeth’s murder

Question 22

Chapter 24

Answer 22

Victor spends months chasing the Monster, spending nights in cemeteries, visiting Germany, the Medditerranean Sea, the Black Sea and Russia. The Monster, always one step ahead, leaves messgages and food for Victor in order to torment him and to keep him going

Question 23

Walton in Continuation

Answer 23

Shelley’s novel comes in full circle as the story ends with Walton’s framing, extra diegetic narration - Victor’s death and the Monsters implied suicide