Frankenstein Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis from LitCharts
He came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his care; and after the interment of his friend, he conducted her to Geneva, and placed her under the protection of a relation. His daughter, , attended him with almost-religious devotion. With this deep consciousness of what they owed towards the being to which they had given life, added to the active spirit of tenderness that animated both, it may be imagined that while during every hour of my infant life I received a lesson of patience, of charity, and of self-control, I was so guided by a silken cord that all seemed but one train of enjoyment to me. Her death was tough on Frankenstein, but he knew that his life would have to go on, so he headed off to college with little delay, ready to indulge in science. The Frankensteins Chapter 1 of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, introduces us to the Frankenstein family.
Frankenstein Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis from LitCharts
This indicates that Victor's capacity for altruism and benevolence has been utterly destroyed by his obsession; it also suggests that his character itself is deeply flawed. I am practically industrious — painstaking, a workman to execute with perseverance and labour — but besides this there is a love for the marvellous, a belief in the marvellous, intertwined in all my projects, which hurries me out of the common pathways of men, even to the wild sea and unvisited regions I am about to explore. There was a terrible thunderstorm, of which struck lighting to a tree with such force that once the lightning struck, nothing was left of the tree but a small charred stump. I wish you could see him; he is very tall of his age, with sweet laughing blue eyes, dark eyelashes, and curling hair. I felt the greatest eagerness to hear the promised narrative, partly from curiosity, and partly from a strong desire to ameliorate his fate, if it were in my power. I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery; I have pursued him even to that irremediable ruin. Natural philosophy and chemistry become Victor's sole occupations.
Some miracle might have produced it, yet the stages of the discovery were distinct and probable. Her mother was a German, and had died on giving her birth. Chapter 2 Summary As Frankenstein continues to narrate his early life, he explains his growing interest in science. In this house I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. The Adoption of Elizabeth For five years, Victor's parents hoped to give him a little brother or sister, but he remained their only child. A new chapter in life waiting to be written. His father tells him that the book is pure trash; Victor does not heed him, however, since his father does not explain why the book is trash.
When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance. I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. But I forget that I am moralising in the most interesting part of my tale; and your looks remind me to proceed. He had a good friend named Beaufort.
Chapter 1 » Frankenstein Study Guide from Crossref
The plot device of dashed expectation also serves to suggest that the course of destiny is unalterable. He starts to study the works of Cornelius Agrippa and became positive that the science he was to study was Natural Philosophy. Victor cannot quite believe that his beloved mother is gone; he is stricken with grief and delays his departure to Ingolstadt. Now I was led to examine the cause and progress of this decay and forced to spend days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses. I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, never before imprinted by the foot of man. Though both Victor and Clerval have passionate and creative characters, they express them very differently.
Victor's desire to learn, therefore, is driven by nothing so insubstantial as curiosity: it is instead the precondition of his very being. There, in Naples, they had their son Victor. It is not accidental that the reader now learns the narrator's last name  Frankenstein  for the first time. Miserable himself that he may render no other wretched, he ought to die. Caroline decides to adopt the girl. The child, whose name was , became Victor's sister and his constant companion, as well as the object of his unquestioning worship.
Frankenstein becomes progressively less human  that is to say, more monstrous  as he attempts to create a human being. As Frankenstein narrates and Walton records, we dive into great detail as we experience Frankenstein's family history, family values, and personal desires. We felt that they were not the tyrants to rule our lot according to their caprice, but the agents and creators of all the many delights which we enjoyed. The care for the poor and the uneducated was a theme in Mary Wollestonecraft's life. Two years after this event Caroline became his wife. As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump.
At the age of thirteen, he becomes fascinated with the work of Cornelius Agrippa a Roman alchemist who attempted to turn tin into gold and men into lions. In fact, Victor's mother tells him that Elizabeth belongs to him now. Chapter 9 When I reflected on his crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation… Elizabeth was sad and desponding; she no longer took delight in her ordinary occupations; all pleasure seemed to her sacrilege toward the dead; eternal woe and tears she then thought was the just tribute she should pay to innocence so blasted and destroyed. Victor Speaks Chapter 1 begins with the stranger taking over the narration of the book. My attention was fixed upon every object the most insupportable to the delicacy of the human feelings. My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash.
