I am using the Penguin Classics edition for my chapter references. In some editions, the chapters are numbered differently, or wrongly, as I like to call it.
Letters:
At the begging of the novel, there are four letters; all authored by the fictional Captain Robert Walton to his sister, Mrs Saville. The letters concern:
1. Introducing Walton’s character as an
explorer who is writing from St. Petersburg on his way to Archangel. This first
letter also shows Walton’s obsessional characteristics such as his obsession
with finding the mythical North Passage and deliberately enduring hardship such
as “cold, famine, thirst and a want of sleep” in order to realise his dream,
despite being a rich man who could have had a comfortable life. As we will see
later, this mirrors Victor Frankenstein…
2. Walton complains about his want of a
friend and tells his sis about how great his First Lieutenant (LEF-TENANT, ‘K!?!)
is. He also manages to sneak in a reference to, and afterwards, mention
explicitly, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In Chapter 5, page 60, Frankenstein
also quotes the Rime.
3. The voyage has begun! Captain Walton
is on his way to the North Pole. The “floating sheets of ice” are written
about. Walton has nothing significant to
say, he’s just writing to say that he is successfully sailing.
4. The longest letter by far: First the
ship gets stuck in some ice, then we get our first description of the creature (“a
being which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature”), then
we get our first description of Victor Frankenstein as he floats, “emaciated”
on a sheet of ice in a sledge. He speaks with a “foreign accent” his limbs are
“nearly frozen” and Walton says that “I never saw a man in so dreadful a
condition” but Victor still feels the need to ask “wither are you bound” to him.
This is the first time we see Victor and we get to witness his obsessional
character up close and personal. There is no way that an emaciated man floating
in the middle of the Arctic Ocean on an iceberg with just a sledge and one dog
could make it after the Creation that he is chasing… This establishes the main
character in the story as an obsessional romantic as he has sacrificed
everything, including his health for the pursuit of his dream; catching up with
his mistakes/the creature. After Frankenstein is introduced, Walton writes of
his admiration for the man . It seems probable that he has found that friend he
was complaining about not having in letter 2. The last thing to be established
in letter 4 is that the rest of the story is going to be told to Ms Saville by
Robert Walton using the words of Victor Frankenstein which have all, of course
been written by Mary Shelley.
The point of this episological opening is to establish various themes that run like veins behind the tight yellow skin of the story. These include:
- Descriptions of nature in which it is a destructive force of evil (the opposite, but no less apparent theme of nature being a restorative is established in chapter one)
- A general mood of romanticism, which is appropriate, considering this is a Gothic which is a sub-genre of romantic fiction.
- Ambition and obsession. These come across from both Walton, who has been obsessed with finding the Safe Passage since he was a child and Frankenstein, who would rather die than give up on his chase of the creature. Later in the volume, however, it becomes apparent that running away is a major theme, such as when Victor runs after he achieves his life's work; creating life and when he doesn't tell the judge that he believes his creation to have murdered William. Having only read volume one, I don't know if this is a theme yet, but fruitless ambition seems to be a vein through the book at this point, what with Walton trying to find the non-existent North Passage.
- Frankenstein seems to love beautiful things and abhor ugly ones, as seen with his hatred of his creature, but also with his deification of Elizabeth
- Both Walton and Frankenstein are in need of a friend. Just like when Frankenstein is nursed back to health by his buddy Clerval after two years of nocturnal loneliness and the creature after Victor runs away from him.
- Victor is described (by himself, no less,) as a "helpless creature", like the being which Frankenstein runs away from
- Victor's parents have a "deep consciousness of what they owed towards the being to which they had given life" 35 (Victor himself, natch). If only Victor had had that same level of consciousness towards HIS being to which HE had given life and not ran away because it was ugly.
- Elizabeth is said to be of "a different stock" to the poor family to which she was entrusted. This would have a Marxist interpreter fuming, as would the power that Victor's mother uses to have Elizabeth's carers hand her over to her just because she "wanted a daughter".
- A Feminist reader, on the other hand would get their knickers in a twist over the way in which Elizabeth is described as a "pretty present" for Victor. A human: objectified. Victor is very much like this throughout the book, treating people as objects, as well as means to an end. This attitude would explain the abandonment of the creature, as Victor just thinks of him as a thing rather than a sentient life, capable of reason and emotion. Also, when at University, Victor neglects to correspond with his family and friend. When he needs them, he'll use them, but when he doesn't he can just forget about them, like an object.
- "No human being could have had a happier childhood than myself" Sez Victor. Just a shame about his adult life then... Also, this is what Walton said in his letters
- Henry Clerval is introduced. He is Chivalrous and Romantic. Being chivalrous means not running away from any challenge, so that's kinda the opposite from our dear old Victor, but the Romantic element could very much apply to the protagonist, with his love for Elizabeth and study. See also for Romanticism: Walton.
- Victor lives in a remote area with few people around. This could explain his lack of friends and his childish demeanour.
- "The first misfortune of my life occurred-an omen, as it were, of my future misery". Poor old Frankenstein's mother dies after saving Elizabeth's life. On her deathbed, her dieing wish is that Victor and Elizabeth should get married. All of this happens just before Victor is due to start University, that poor guy...
- And when he does start University, he is told that "You have burdened your memory with exploded systems and useless names" by Krempe.
- Victor works out how to create life!
- He has a romantic obsession with the origin of life.
- Destructive nature, Victor's emotions are a "Hurricane"!
- "I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of some crime" such as collecting body parts under the cover of darkness?
- "It was a dreary night in November". This is how chapter five starts. Originally Ms Shelley planned the story to start like this. It creates a feeling that this isn't going to end well. Also, the fact that it is set at one in the morning helps to set the scene too.
- The creature is referred to as "the accomplishment of my toils" by Victor
- Victor calls the creature a "wretch". Quick turnabout...
- When the creature moves, "The beauty of the dream vanished"...
- Victor dreams about Elizabeth who then turns into his mum's corpse. Psychoanalysis wasn't around in 1818 when the book was written, but the fact that it was written shows that this dream is somehow significant. Love will turn to grief? Now that he has lost the love of his dream to create life, he has to grieve about the consequences? Or is it that you can't hide from your own grief? Whatever it is, "the dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now to become a hell for me"
- Victor calls the creature "the miserable monster". It is, after all, a "demonical corpse to which I had so miserably given life". In chapter one, Victor says of his parents that they had the "future lot" of their child to "direct to happiness or misery, according to how they fulfilled their duties". It would seem that Victor didn't fulfil his duties to his creation...
- Victor just wants to go to sleep to forget about THE BIGGEST MOMENT IN NATURAL PHILOSOPHY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Life is created, but Victor thinks it's ugly, and so runs away.
- The creature is "A thing as even Dante could not of conceived". This is a slight overreaction, lets be honest
- Frankenstein doesn't tell anybody about the creature. This shows a large degree of irresponsibility, as it could hurt someone!
- Letter. Sent by Elizabeth to Victor, imploring him to write to his family... Also introduces Justine as a character.
- Victor goes for a walking tour up a mountain. Running away from the creature again!
- Clerval is a good friend of Victor! Nurses Frankenstein back to health!
- Ends on the ironic note of Victor be in in spirits of "unbridled joy and hilarity". His Bro, William has probably already been murdered at this point by the life he created and abandoned.
- Letter tells Victor that William has been murdered and the necklace he was wearing with a picture of his mum on stolen. Elizabeth blames herself for allowing him to wear the necklace... The necklace is found in the possession of Justine, who, for some reason, makes a false confession to the charges. Victor KNOWS the creature is to blame after seeing him in the vicinity, but he can't prove it...
- Justine is executed after Victors appeal is revoked... There is no evidence to back up the appeal and Justine has confessed. Victor says nothing about his creation.
- Does he feel ashamed that he made something so hideous and so is unable to admit to it even with the threat of death for a family servant/friend... What a selfish so-and-so.
- Or is that he wants to protect his creation, if only on a subconscious level, from harm. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF THIS!
Good question! It could be about not taking responsibility for your actions or the perils of playing God... The church of Ingolstat is seen by Victor as he enters the University town and after he abandons the creature. Is the white of the church meant to represent or is it that the Church is good or something.
