Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Annotations:

• Robert Walton: The ship captain whose voice opens the story. He writes to his sister of how he found Victor Frankenstein on a dog-drawn sled in an ice storm and nursed him back to health. He is the first "frame" of the frame within a frame (three times) set up of the story

Annotations:

• Victor Frankenstein: The unfortunate protagonist of the story, Victor tells Robert Walton the story of how he ended up where the captain found him. He went to study in Ingolstadt, and while there, found the secret to creating life. He created a hideous but intelligent monster, and then fled the scene in horror. "Victor keeps his creation of the monster a secret, feeling increasingly guilty and ashamed as he realizes how helpless he is to prevent the monster from ruining his life and the lives of others." (As seen in Spark Notes) He is the second frame of the frame within a frame set up, as he tells his story within the letter of the ship captain.

Annotations:

• The Monster: Frankenstein's gentle yet grotesque looking monster, who tries to assimilate himself in regular human life. Everyone who sees him ostracizes him, leading him to feel alone and angry. This ultimately causes him to wreak havoc on Victor's life, in an attempt to exact revenge. He is the final frame within the other two, as he tells his story of tragedy and loneliness to Victor within Victor's story to Robert Walton.

Annotations:

• Alphonse Frankenstein: Victor's father, who loves and supports him, and reminds him often of the importance of family.

Annotations:

• Elizabeth Lavenza: An orphan three or four years younger than Victor that the Frankenstein's adopt. She waits patiently for Victor's affection, and ends up being the woman he cares for and marries.

Annotations:

• Henry Clerval: Victor's friend from childhood who finds him in Ingolstadt in a sickly state right after Victor created his monster, and nurses him back to health. He is inspired by Victor, and goes on to study science like him. While Victor is rather morose, Henry is cheerful.

Annotations:

• William Frankenstein: Victor's youngest brother; the monster strangled him in an effort to hurt Victor for abandoning him. Victor feels vastly guilty after his youngest brother's death for ever creating the monster.

Annotations:

• Justine Moritz: A young girl that gets adopted into the Frankenstein household. She gets blamed for William's death, and is executed. Victor feels terrible about this because he knows it was his monster, and that she's innocent.

Annotations:

• The peasant family: A family of peasants, including the blind old man De Lacey, from which the monster learns to speak and how to interact with others through observing them. De Lacey's son and daughter, Felix and Agatha, and a woman named Safie live with him. When the monster reveals himself, they try and beat him up and chase him away

Annotations:

• Waldman: The professor that sparks Victor's interest in science

1. The monster

   Annotations:

   • Monstrosity: The monster is obviously the most pervasive and obvious example of monstrosity.  He is created not in an "enlightening" and scientific manner, but rather in a dark and supernatural one, causing everything about him from his giant stature, to his ugly appearance, to be the epitome of "unnatural".
2. Victor

   Annotations:

   • Monstrosity: It can be said that Victor is the real monster of this story, for becoming alienated from society by maintaining his creation a secret, for abandoning his creation out of disgust and fear, and for becoming consumed with hatred, obsessed with revenge through the destruction of the monster.

1. "The Modern Prometheus"

   Annotations:

   • Modern Prometheus: Mary Shelley's full title "Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus" displays the importance of light and fire in the story. Prometheus was a character in a Greek mythological story that stole the secret of fire from the gods, and shared his secret with man. He was later punished harshly. Science can be seen as finding the light or becoming enlightened, thus, making Victor a Prometheus of sorts in his finding the secret of life. He is also punished, but his secret remains a secret.
2. Light = becoming enlightened

   Annotations:

   • Light (becoming enlightened): In Frankenstein, science represents the lighting of the darkness that is the natural world. Science illuminates, in a way, how the natural world works. The monster's first encounter with fire displays the duality of this "light"; on one hand, light can clear the darkness (he notices it lights up the dark). On another, it can hurt whomever gets too close (he gets hurt from touching it).

Annotations:

• Dangeours Knowledge: Victor Frankenstein's pursuit of knowledge leads to everyone he holds near and dear dying, and his ultimate demise. Walton learns from Victor's mistake, and ends up pulling back from his own treacherous endeavors in an effort to avoid making Frankenstein's mistakes. This theme ties in with the theme of light and fire. Science represents light/fire; Victor ended up "burning" himself through his tireless ambitions, and he destroyed his life all in the pursuit of "light".

1. FINAL PART TOLD BY WALTON: Walton tells the remainder of the story in another series of letters to his sister. Victor, already ill when the two men meet, worsens and dies shortly thereafter. When Walton returns, several days later, to the room in which the body lies, he is startled to see the monster weeping over Victor. The monster tells Walton of his immense solitude, suffering, hatred, and remorse. He asserts that now that his creator has died, he too can end his suffering. The monster then departs for the northernmost ice to die.