Frankenstein's summary: Laa's Original Format

Laayla Muhammad
AP English 3rd Block

Letter 1
So basically, Walton is this guy trying to reach the North Pole. He's writing a letter to his sis Margaret and tellin' her about how bad he had wanted to do this all his life. He was rich and led an easy life but he just wanted fame all along. He talks about how he's gonna discover a shortcut as in a northern passage to the pacific and how he's gonna find out all about the magnetism of the earth and of course, be the 1st one to be walkin' all over north pole. See when his dad was dying, he ordered his bro to never let Walton go seafaring. So Walton is whinin' about that stuff to his sis and is tryin' to justify why he's goin' out on this "important journey" and how he rather walk round in his fur coat than sit still in the plane for hours. He has great confidence in what he's trying to do. Too much pride can hurt you though... Anyways, he has this ship where he's the captain and they're gonna sail up to the north pole and chill....literally.

Letter 2
Okay so Walton is really whining now. He tells his sis how no matter what happens, he's never gonna be "satisfied" because he has no friends to share anything with. If he succeeds, he can't have someone being superduper happy for him and if he fails, no one will be sad for him. He longs to have a friend and says how he's a "romantic" because he "desires" a man to feel sorry with him. I wonder if he's gay. Then he talks about how as a kid, all he did was read Uncle Thomas's books of voyages and that he can't help but be this way and that he feels stupider than 15 year olds. He keeps on ranting on about his lieutenant and how great of a man he is (envying a man...again?) because of his "courageous and glorious" ways and how he has made this one woman super jolly. The problem was that as he was about to get married to this one girl, she confessed how she loved another man, but he was poor. Then somewhere in there the father's consent to marriage becomes a big deal, like some typical low class bollywood movie. Knowing this, this lietenant gives parts of his wealth + this farm to this poor man and the father is still complaining about the wedding. Later on though, the couple does get married and at the end, the lieutenant is this big shot. In any case, I also think something is going between him and his sis because of the way he says "I love you very TENDERLY." He asks her to remember him with "affection". Maybe it's an incestuous gay fest. Who knows? What we should notice is that as he's ending this letter, he says "but I shall kill no Albatross; therefore do not be alarmed for my safety.." In the poem we analyzed in class "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," the mariner shot the albatross and committed the greatest sin of all for not appreciating God's creation and later was punished by being cursed. This is what Walton refers to in the text. Good analysis Laa! :)

Letter 3
Walton is in a bit of hurry and stops to write a few things to his sis again. He tells her how the crew is still doin' good and it has gotten to be a little warmer ("height of the summer") - the point of this letter is to show how convinced he is of his safety and is determined to continue with this journey and succeed.

Letter 4
Whoa, so something bad does happen. About time. On July 31st, (haha Billa's birthday) Walton's ship got surrounded by ice. As the fog cleared up, they saw this weird HUGE guy with a sledge led by dogs. Then he vanished and in a little while, the ice broke up and the path cleared up. They rested and such and then in the morning, they find another diff. guy with a similiar sledge. The dude's all weak and starving like a bum, and they get him on the boat. But see, they're surprised 'cause in his condition, he shouldn't give a care where they're going but he kept askin' -- and when they were like "it's headin' north," he finally got in. The whole crew was all curious to find out what's this guy been though and they kept questioning him except Walton 'cause he knew better and didn't wanna lose his pride. But in the book it says how he was being "considerate" of the fact that the guy has already been through so much. Hmm hmm. Sure. It's funny 'cause Walton is dying with curiosity about this dude so he helps him recover and get better and within 2 days after grubbin' on soup, he does get better. They both become buddies and all of a sudden, Walton is all "yay" 'cause he found a homie. They open up like two very sentimental men (homo?) and the man is all "alarmed" to hear what Walton is trying to do and why. So the dude finally agrees to tell Walton his side of the story and Walton's all excited like a little girl with a lollipop.

Chapter 1:
Okay so the speaker is Victor Frankenstein now and he's talking about his life from the very start. He continues to relate the story back to his childhood and his parents. Basically, his father's friend Beaufort was very unstable financially and later became sick and passed away, leaving his daughter Caroline by herself with no where to go. Victor's father, Alphonso, married the girl even when she was young as ever. The age difference WAS pointed out, but it does not hold a dramatic change to affect the story. They were "truly in love" I guess and he had actually taken her "under his wings" first before they married. But in any case, then they had Victor. After a while, as they were traveling and stuff, they saw these poor families. Caroline was touched by this everytime because it reminded her of the rough times she's been through. In one of the famlies, they noticed that while all the kids were dark haired like Italians are, this one little girl was blonde and had a lighter skin color. She thought of her as prettier and wanted to know about her and found out that she was this orphan to a Milanese nobleman and a german woman. The family that was takin' care of her at the moment was very poor so Caroline adopted her into the family and wow, she was to marry Victor in the future. I was right. I kept mentioning how I'm confused and that I suspect incestous actions but I guess in the book, since they weren't actually related by blood, it's aight? Hmm, important thing to notice. Anyways, Victor was real happy and actually refers to Elizabeth as his posession rather than a sister. It's weird because he finds posession to be a higher status than Elizabeth being his sister. Hmm.

Chapter 2
He starts off talkin' about how much his sister means to him and how even as kids, they always got along. He talked about growing up with this buddy Henry and how happy his surroundings were. He talks about how she was interested in subjects like nature, so I'm assuming she was a tree hugger? He becomes interested in natural philosophy when he comes across a random book and thus, he starts studying all these authors that relate to that subject. Some of these artists were Agrippa, Paracelus, and Albertus Magnus. But see, Victor liked nature too, but differently. He liked it when things got electricuted, like that one tree during a thunderstorm. Later he discovers information about electricity and he questions what he has learned about alchemy and other subjects. He starts to doubt about all he has learned and begins to wonder if all this knowledge in his head is unrevelent and outdated. Victor is a lot like me at this stage when I begin to doubt what I'm learning in MPS and assume that none of this crap is going to help me in actual life.

Chapter 3:
This is a real sad chapter as Victor starts talking about how sick his mother became at one point. He was all ready to go off to college so his sister Maggie ended up taking care of the mother. As his mother was laying in her death bed, she started doing what every dying mother does, which is making last demands and disaplaying them as wishes and such. She expressed how she wanted Maggie and Victor to marry one another and with that, Victor leaves to college finally. He ends up feeling really disappointed when one of the professions he meet tells him that he's been wasting his time reading up on alchemy and such, when these subjects aren't even updated. But of course, with his "pride" ... VIctor emphasizes how he already had doubts and needed those doubts to be confirmed. He starts paying attention to what he should have been, science. He attends a Chemistry lecture and begins to gain great interest.

Chapter 4:
So Victor basically becomes a nerd and he starts to isolate himself where it's just him and education. One can only imagine the thirst in him for nature. It's like that thirst that nothing can quench except sprite? or mountain dew? or was it Sierra Mist? AH! It was. Anyways, he ends up being what this generation... or any generation would call a loser. He has no friends and he doesn't talk to his family back in Geneva. He basically becomes the first official emo kid in Europe. What should be noticed is the fact that his modest desire to obtain knowledge is stronger than ever at this phase. The subject he concentrates the most on is anatomy, the make up of the human body. He emphaizes learning about how a body decays once after death and he basically tires himself out from studying all day and night. His priorities shift from family to education as #1. He becomes that "teacher's pet" and impresses all his professors and even yet he still want to obtain great knowledge. He ends up fnding the secret of life, you know, that thing, I'm still searching for. And basically, this is the point where he begins to create his OWN life as an experiment. He's alone in his little home and he hides himself from the public for privacy. He becomes paranoid and goes off in greath lengths with his plans. He is pretty optimistic abot what he is about to do and thinks himself of this great being. He's basically playing the role of God. And we all know what happens when we imitate God... don't we? There should be like omnious music playing in the background, honestly.


Chapter 5:
So Victor finally finishes his creation and it has taken him some time to achieve that. The only problem is, what he has composed is not something attractive or appealing, in fact, it's hideous. It's in fact, SO scary looking that he refuses to look at it and rushes to another room for safety. He lays there and soon enough falls asleep. The next morning he wakes up and finds this hideous lookin' thing staring right at him. This scene frightened him to a large extent and forced him to leave to the yard in fear. He pondered all night and began to develop almost regretting thoughts. He got SO scared that he started walking away, randomly, saying he'll never go back to that place. He runs into his friend Henry who is all jolly to see Victor finally. Victor was actually relieved to finally see a recognized soul around him, he felt safer. Henry notices how pale and sick Victor is and they both go back to the Victor's home. Victor's panicking because he thinks the monster is going to be just standin' there waitin' for him like how wives wait on their husbands all the time. -sigh. Anyways, they go back and they don't find the monster, but Victor falls into sickness. Luckily for him, Henry is there to take care of him. This is mainly because he doesn't want to stress Victor's family back at home by bringing him back to them when he's sick. Instead, he helps Victor recover and writes to Elizabeth, reporting him of Victor' s progress. Later, Henry informs victor of a letter Elizabeth, his cousin, has wrote for him.

Chapter 6:
Victor begins to read Elizabeth's letter that basically informs him about everything that has been happening back at home. She explains how they have been worried sick about him and that they wish to hear from him. She tells him about individual family members, basically keepin' him up to date with everything. She tells him how Justine is this girl living with their family now because her mother has passed away. I guess she used to live with them before, but her mother stopped her, but now since she has passed away, she has come back. She also tells him about all these gossips around the town. Victor writes her back, assuring her that he's going to write back to her all the time now and that he does care. Victor, at this stage, can't stop thinking about the monster. He is trying very hard to avoid any sort of confrontation about it. He introduces Henry to his studies and his professors. Every time he does this, he goes through this own personal moment where he's dreading every moment of it because the monster comes to his thoughts. Later on, Victor goes back to Geneva and he waits on a letter from his father with the date of the him leaving. Both friends roam through the city and basically try to hold positive aspects on life and appreciate the beauty of nature.

Chapter 7:
As Victor and his friend Henry are coming back from the university, they find a letter stating how his brother William was murdered. He is startled and shocked by this and decides to return back to see what is going on. The problem occurs when he realizes that the gates has been shut down because of the time it took him to get back. Therefore, he stupidly decides to just randomly walk through the woods, something I wouldn't EVER do because I'm ..uh sane? And so he goes to the spot where his bro's dead body was found and he notices something even more shocking. He sees the monster, the one he created and fled from. Random thoughts go through his mind and he assumes the worst, that it was his monster that killed his brother. He is too afraid to come out and say this, even when he realizes that Justine is the one who is being blamed for William's death. Supposedly, a picture of Caroline was found in her pockets, and William was the one who last had it. Even with this as evidence, Victor has a mind of his own to conclude to his assumptions. He just doesn't want people to think he's some lunatic, because it's obvious at first, no one will believe him.

Chapter 8:
The chapter starts off by Justine actually admitting to the murder. She had entered the court with guilt and all the proof against her innocent was presented. Even though Justine goes through such confession, she modestly informs Victor and Elizabeth that it wasn't her who killed William. Even though they do believe her word and realize she is innocent, the court finds her guilty of murder and she is given the death penalty. This enraged Victor, who is positive that his monster is responsible for his brother's death. He finds the monster responsible for not one, but of two deaths, William and Justine. They both mourn and grieve over the unfortunate deaths that occurred. Victor states, "Tuhs, spoke my prophetic soul, as, torn by remorse, horror, and despair, I behalf those I loved spend vain sorrow upon the grabs of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to my unhallowed arts."

Chapter 9:
There is a sudden change in Victor, and he experiences depressive thoughts due to proceeding events. He reaches a phase where he says his heart's been overflowed with kindness, and that he did have benevolent intentions and a thirst to make himself useful to other people. What he feels now, is just guilt, regret, for what he has caused to happen. His mind fills with remorse and he states that solitude is his only consolation-- deep, dark, deathlike solitude. Remorse has extinguished every hope that he had in his heart for the future. Victor's thoughts lead him to become suicidal and he contemplates about death and his existence's benefits to humanity. Yet, he feels that he has a duty to be there for Elizabeth and his father. Alphonse basically takes his children on a trip to the family home in Belrive. Victor decides to just roam on his own and he disappears toward the valley of Chamounix. The scenery is beautiful and he begins to become cheerful even though his respite from grief is not for long. An important thing to notice is the fact that nature itself, is a main factor in always changing Victor's mood around. He always becomes more sensitive and joyful when he surrounds himself with nature and its beauty. Similarly, when him and Henry were spending some time together, they began to feel happiness and less stress as they walked together and observed nature's beautiful views.


Chapter 10:
In this chapter, Victor's feelings begin to change back. The weather is cloudy and rainy, and he decides to travel to the summit of Montanvert. He hopes to view the pure, eternal, and beautiful natural scene so he can feel joy again. He wants his spirits to be uplifted, and like mentioned earlier, nature and its beauties reflect joy and hope to Victor. As he begins to reach the highest point, is he momentarily consoled by the sublime view. He walks to the opposite side of the glacier and sees nothing else but that awful monster he created, coming towards him really fast. He fills up with rage and threatens the monster. Luckily for the monster, he was quick enough to escape from Victor, who begins to curse him and orders him to stay away. A dramatic change occurs when the monster actually starts speaking to Victor himself. He tells Victor that he wants to hold a conversation with him so they go to an icy cave and sit around the fire. Like a story, within a story, within a story, now it's the monster who begins to tell his life experiences. It's important to notice that as soon as an individual's side is presented in the book, its character's reputation also shifts. The monster is pointed out to be the villain so far, but this takes on a change as he takes his chance to justify his actions, just like Victor is doing in that ship actually.

Chapter 11:
As they sit down around the cozy fire, the monster begins his story. He tells Victor how confused he has been after being created. He talks about how he left Victor's home and ran into the woods to discover things on his own. He discovered a lot about the world, with only confusion and rejection though. He learned about light, dark, hunger, thirst, and the cold weather. He talks about how he learned about the uses of fire and the advantages it provides, such as keeping one warm and making more food. The monster tells Victor that even though the fire had great benefits to it, it burned his hand when he touched it. He grew in fear of it, yet he began to relax and use it to his benefits only. He discovered that if he added more wood to it, the fire would increase. The monster had to feed himself so while searching, he came across a small hut. He entered it and happened to scare the heck out of the old man that was inside the hut. The man started to yell and shout in fear and ran away. The monster walked out of the hut to the actual village, where he experienced high amount of rejection. People shrieked and kept their distance. They did not recognize a hideous creature like him and did not give him a chance. Everyone thought of their best interest, which was to not interact with the monster. This lead him to make a decision to stay away from people. On one of the nights, he decides to stay at a small hovel next to a cottage and in the morning, he notices a crack. When he sees through that crack, he concludes that he spots an old man, a young woman, and a young man chillin' in there.


Chapter 12:
While it is creepy, the monster begins to observe these three certain people for a while. He notices that these people are not joyful, and most of the time, they are sad and their emotional distress is shown upon their actions. He states that he wasn't sure why they were so sad, but he assumed they were. Later on, he notices that they are sad because they experience poverty, mainly HIS FAULT. He had been stealing their food, and it was bad enough they were experiencing financial difficulties. The monster instantly, feels bad and fills up with guilt so he starts to compensate for their loss. At nights, he would gather the wood and anonymously leave it at their door for "convinency." Analyzing their actions and the way they speak day by day, the monster finally picks up the language and teaches himself how to speak. He notes down the name of the young man to be Felix and the young woman to be Agatha. It's sad to realize that the monster finally grows to understand his ugliness. He looks at their faces and their physical structure and begins to admire them. After catching a glance of his own reflection from the water, he gets startled and is speechless. As time went on, winter arrived, and the routine became his daily life style. He observed the three individuals and began to like them for how much they taught him, without even knowing it.

Chapter 13:
Seasons begin to change as winter turns into spring. Note: Nature, once again, is very important because this setting leads the reader to understand why certain events are taking place. Nature is used to reflect emotions and vice versa. Except surprisingly, it's spring, but Felix is saddened. Supposedly a beautiful woman in a dark dress & veil comes by the cottage on a horse to see him. He becomes super happy as he sees her and she moves into the cottage with them. Everyone becomes happy and the monster notices that she does not even speak the same language as them. Her name is Sofie, and later she picks up the usual spoken language, just like the monster. He also teaches himself how to read, after analyzing Felix as he used Constantin-François de Volney’s Ruins of Empires to instruct Safie. The monster begins to "educate" himself by picking up facts about world history. He improves his speaking skills and learns about the human society by listening to the people speak. He relates his own situation and realizes that he has no friends. Human nature is to always juxtapose sadness with isolation, which the monster experiences at this stage. “Was I then then a monster,” he asks, “a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned?” He considers himself deformed and begins to grow doubts. He also learns about the pleasures and obligations of the family and the process/structure of relationships between people. This saddens him because, nor is he accompanied with humans, he also lacks that family and happiness they feel at times. Anyways, I personally think the monster needs a hug. A hug can fix everything. Okay, not everything, but in this case, it WOULD kind of help, after considering the fact people think he's hideous and they point and run away from him.

Chapter 14:
From days of analyzing and observing these individuals, the monster begins to learn about the past life's experiences of these people. The old man was supposedly this respectable successful citizen in Paid and the two young individuals are his children. Safie's father was a Turk and he was accused of a crime and sentenced to death even though he was innocent (just like Justine). Felix visited the father in prison and from there, he met Safie and they fell in love. It's important to notice, that the author held that "love at first sight" concept in this novel. Whether he believes in it or not, is not justified. Felix tried to get the father out of prison and Safie let him know she was thankful for his intentions. The monster even had the copies of the letters to justify his story. The letters included the fact that Safie's mom was a Christian Arab who had been enslaved by the Turks, which stopped when she married Safie's father. Wow, so religious does come within Frankenstein and another stab at Islam is revealed. Supposedly, Safie's mother claimed Safie to be "free" from becoming a victim of being prevented from cultivature and intelligence, what Islam is responsible of (to women). This general stereotype is even portrayed in a story written by a young lady in a school. Disappointing. Anyways, so Safie wished to marry Felix because he was European and she wanted to escape from being a slave. The probem occured as Felix's family including him were exiled from France and their wealth was taken. They moved into this cottage while seeking for shelter. Safie's father was forcing her to go back with him, but she ran away and took refuge in this cottage, with her love.

Chapter 15:
One day the Monster was looking for good and he found a bag with some books and clothes. He took the books because he, too, had a thirst to obtain knowledge and know as much as he could. Victor should be able to relate to him. The books include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Sorrows of Werter, a volume of Plutarch’s Lives, and John Milton’s Paradise Lost, the last of which has the most profound effect on the monster. The monster does not realize that Paradise Lost is a fictional book and he reads it as true factual happenings. He finds the happenings in the story as reflections to his own situation. As the monster looks through his own pockets, he finds papers from Victor's diary and discovers how he was created and how Victor felt about him. This hurt him a lot, and it made him want to reveal himself to the cottagers with hopes that they would past see his ugliness and accept him for who he is, like that ever happens in this world now. The first individual he tries to confront is the old man, who could convince his children and Safie of what the monster wants him to, which is how past his exterior, he's a loving caring soul inside. One day he finds the old man by himself and starts to talk to him. But before he could even get to the main point, the children return and Felix scares the monster away.


Chapter 16:
The monster begins to become rageful and gets real hurt. He becomes tired of being rejected and hated without being given a chance to justify himself and speak for himself most importantly. Therefore, he swears to take revenge against all human beings and Victor mainly, his creator. For months, he kept on traveling and finally reached Geneva. On the way, he found a girl by herself and she seemed to be drowning. Acting out of the kindness in his heart, he rescues her, only to find that the man who was with her, shot him. He must've thought that the monster was attacking her. And this is where, in the woods, the monster finds William and discovers that he shares the same father as Victor. The monster gets so mad, that he basically chokes William to death and takes a picture of Caroline and puts it in Justine's pocket, who was supposedly sleeping in the barn. The monster tells Victor this whole story and tells him that he needs a friend. "Even Frankenstein wanted to be loved" - Laa. He tells Victor that he wants him to create a mate for him.

Chapter 17:
The monster justifies reasons of why he should have a female friend. Victor is persuaded to help him when the monster convinces him how all the bad happenings occured mainly due to the fact that the monster was lonely and didn't have a friend to spend time with. He assures Victor that he will not cause any more harm and live in South America in the jungles with his new mate. The monster becomes real happy and tells Victor that he will track him down when Victor is finished with this task. Victor is now burdened and taking a risk by creating another monster. OMG!! FINALLY DONE!! yay!! Frankenstein was a very interesting book to read, especially for the 2nd time.