Resumo de Frankenstein - Mary Wollestonecraft Godwin Shelley

There are three
narrators of this story.

Firstly, there is
Robert Walton, a sea Captain on a mission to find a passage via the Arctic
between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. His letters appear at the start
and the end of the novel, and thus frame Victor Frankenstein?s main narration,
which is the second narrator. Thirdly, in the middle of the book, the monster
narrates his tale from his creation until his confrontation with Victor.

Walton?s ship discovers
Victor Frankenstein adrift on an ice flow and close to death. Walton
cares for the man, who slowly tells his tragic story, and Walton gives an
account of this in letters he sends to his sister, Margaret Saville.

Victor starts his story
by giving details of his childhood and how his parents doted on him, meeting
his every need, and also adopting a girl of similar age to be a playmate.
He is an intelligent child and has an inquisitive nature, and is keen to learn,
particularly in the field of science.

He attends University
at Ingolstadt, and using a mix of information obtained from early alchemists
and contemporary scientists, he conducts an experiment to bring life back to
dead tissue. His work becomes an obsession and he decides to recreate and
re-animate a dead body, obtaining parts from cemeteries and the local
morgue. The construction and resurrection of the dead body are not
explained in detail, but clearly there is a link that Victor has found between
life and electricity. He succeeds in bringing to life ?the creature? and
the being he has created immediately repels him and he leaves his rooms in
Ingolstadt in disgust.

He meets a close
friend, Henry Clerval, who has come to enroll at the University. Henry is
alarmed at Victor?s poor state of health, and when they return to Victor?s
apartment, Henry decides to care for him and return him to full health. The
monster has disappeared.

Some time elapses and
Victor receives a letter from his father, Alphonse, saying that his youngest
brother, William, has been murdered. Victor returns immediately, and
suspects that his creation may have something to do with this crime. He finds
that the Frankenstein housekeeper, Justine Moritz has been falsely accused of
the murder. She
is found guilty and goes to the gallows.

Victor now has the
burden of two innocent deaths on his hands. He decides to take a holiday to try
and obtain peace. On Mount Montanvert, he meets with the monster, which
eloquently tells Victor his story since leaving Ingolstadt. He threatens
Victor that unless he constructs a mate for him, he will inflict misery on
Victor and his family. In the monster?s tale, he describes how he was
rejected by his ?adopted? family, the De Laceys, whom he had helped secretly
over many months, but when they see his ugliness, they beat him and drive him
away. He suffered similar rejections by villagers when he had saved a
child from drowning. He takes an oath to avenge against mankind, the injuries
he has suffered.

Eventually Victor
agrees to create a second monster. Before he begins his work, he undergoes a
grand tour of Europe, and England, obtaining the most recent scientific
knowledge along the way. His close friend, Henry, accompanies him and he
promises to marry Elizabeth on his return. He eventually sets up his laboratory
on a remote island off the coast of Scotland. In this experiment he does
not have the drive that had possessed him in Ingolstadt, and his work is slow. Half
way through his work, he decides he cannot go through with it and he destroys
his work.

The monster has
followed him all the way from Geneva, and when he sees that Victor will not
keep his promise, he vows that he will be with him on his wedding night. Victor
decides to return as soon as possible to Geneva, but he must first dispose of
the body parts in the sea. His boat is caught in a storm and he is
eventually blown ashore in Ireland. Henry Clerval?sbody has been found
nearby, and Victor is accused of his murder, as he is a stranger in the
neighborhood. Victor, of course, has an alibi for the time of the murder, which
was committed by the monster, and the local magistrate, Mr. Kirwin, pleads on
his behalf and he is found innocent.

Victor?s health is very
poor, and his father comes to Ireland in order to bring him home and nurse him
back to health. Eventually, Victor makes it back home to Geneva and he marries
Elizabeth. Despite taking necessary precautions, the monster gains access
to Elizabeth while Victor is absent, and strangles her.

Victor is now consumed
with revenge, and he pursues the monster through Europe and Russia, and it is
only when they reach the Arctic Ocean that he comes close to catching the
monster. This is when he is discovered by Walton, near to death once more, and
the novel concludes with Walton?s narration.

Victor asks Walton to
continue his quest and destroy the monster, and then he dies.

The monster boards
Walton?s ice-bound ship, telling him that he will remain in the Arctic wastes
until he dies, and that he will burn on his own funeral pyre. The monster
disappears into the mist and is never seen again.

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