Frankenstein Writing and Thinking (chapters)
- Rosie Jayde Uyola
- Apr 9
- 11 min read
Letters 1–4
Narrator: Robert Walton Structure: Epistolary (letters to his sister, Margaret Saville)
Summary:
Letter 1: Walton writes from St. Petersburg about his dream of discovering a northern passage and contributing to scientific knowledge.
Letter 2: He reflects on his loneliness, longing for a friend who shares his ambitious spirit.
Letter 3: Brief note assuring his sister that his voyage continues safely.
Letter 4: Walton describes the sighting and rescue of a mysterious man (Victor Frankenstein) on the ice. Victor begins telling his story. The frame narrative begins.
Key Themes:
Ambition and the pursuit of knowledge
Isolation and the human need for connection
Foreshadowing of tragic consequences
Frame narrative structure establishes story-within-a-story
Narrative Function:
Introduces Victor Frankenstein through Walton’s eyes
Sets up thematic parallels between Walton and Victor
Establishes mood: awe, mystery, and danger of scientific overreach
Writing and Thinking:
Compare Walton’s ambition to Victor’s (pre-reading writing prompt)
Close read: “I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path”
Possible loop writing: “What would you risk for knowledge?”
Chapter 1
Narrator: Victor Frankenstein
Summary:
Victor recounts his family history: his father Alphonse marries Caroline Beaufort, the daughter of a disgraced friend.
They adopt young Elizabeth Lavenza, whom Victor refers to as his “more than sister.”
Victor’s early childhood is full of love, comfort, and a sense of destiny.
Key Themes:
Fate and determinism
Idealized family structures
The construction of identity and affection
Ownership over others (Victor’s possessive language about Elizabeth)
Narrative Function:
Romanticizes Victor’s origins, setting up a fall from innocence
Introduces Elizabeth as a key emotional anchor and future narrative device
Writing and Thinking:
Analyze Victor’s language about Elizabeth: “mine to protect, love, and cherish”
Use for Socratic seminar: How do ideas of family and gender roles appear here?
Chapter 2
Summary:
Victor becomes fascinated with alchemy and outdated science (Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus).
A lightning storm changes his worldview, introducing him to modern science.
His interest in the “secrets of heaven and earth” intensifies.
Clerval, his best friend, is introduced as a foil—interested in ethics and humanities.
Key Themes:
The thirst for forbidden knowledge
Scientific discovery vs. moral responsibility
Enlightenment vs. Romantic views of science
Destiny and individual will
Narrative Function:
Shows Victor’s intellectual development
Builds tension as he shifts toward dangerous ambition
Foreshadows moral consequences
Writing and Thinking:
FFW (5 min, 10 sentences): “Describe a time you became obsessed with an idea”
Close read: Victor’s reaction to Agrippa and lightning—“the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness…”
Chapter 3
Summary:
Elizabeth falls ill and recovers; Caroline nurses her and dies of scarlet fever.
Victor leaves for Ingolstadt to attend university.
At university, Victor is dismissed by one professor but mentored by another, M. Waldman, who encourages his interest in chemistry and galvanism.
Key Themes:
Grief and loss as motivators
The allure of scientific power
Mentorship and shaping of intellectual identity
Romanticizing science
Narrative Function:
Marks the turning point from curiosity to dangerous inquiry
Introduces institutional validation of Victor’s ambition
Shows the beginning of Victor’s emotional isolation
Writing and Thinking:
Discussion: Should Waldman have warned Victor more explicitly?
Primary source comparison: 19th-century science (Galvani’s experiments)
Chapter 4
Summary:
Victor isolates himself to pursue secret research on life, death, and anatomy.
He studies decomposition in charnel houses and graveyards.
Begins constructing a creature from stolen human remains.
He becomes consumed, describing his work with awe and horror.
Key Themes:
Monomania and obsession
Violation of nature
Creation and responsibility
The grotesque and sublime
Narrative Function:
Builds suspense toward the creation scene
Shows the moral blindness of unchecked ambition
Marks the loss of Victor’s human relationships
Writing and Thinking:
Analyze Victor’s language: “How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge…”
Loop writing prompt: “What is the line between discovery and destruction?”
Compare to Prometheus myth: who is punished, and why?
Chapter 5
Summary:
Victor finishes the creature and animates it during a stormy night. Immediately horrified, he flees from it.
Victor collapses mentally and physically, plagued by guilt and disgust.
Clerval arrives and nurses Victor back to health, unaware of what has occurred.
Victor avoids explaining the true cause of his illness.
Key Themes:
The horror of creation without responsibility
Rejection and parental failure
Consequences of scientific ambition
The grotesque body and psychological trauma
Narrative Function:
This is the climax of Victor’s scientific project and the beginning of his downfall.
Highlights his irresponsibility: he abandons the creature moments after giving it life.
Introduces a Romantic critique of the Enlightenment’s faith in reason and science.
Writing and Thinking:
Close read: “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath…”
Discuss: What makes the creature terrifying—its physical form or Victor’s reaction?
FFW: “What does Shelley want us to fear—the monster or the man?”
Chapter 6
Summary:
Elizabeth writes to Victor, concerned about his long silence.
Victor spends time recovering with Clerval and reconnecting with nature and books.
The contrast between Clerval’s interests in languages and ethics and Victor’s dark obsession is clear.
Victor chooses to avoid telling Clerval about the creature.
Key Themes:
Nature as healing force
Secrecy and denial
Friendship and moral grounding
Gendered expectations in letters and emotions
Narrative Function:
Provides temporary relief and tension before the creature’s violence begins.
Develops Clerval as Victor’s moral foil.
Emphasizes Victor’s choice to remain silent about his actions.
Writing and Thinking:
FFW: Write a letter in Elizabeth’s voice after reading Chapter 5: what might she suspect?
Discuss: How does Shelley use Clerval to reveal Victor’s moral failures?
Chapter 7
Summary:
Victor receives news that his youngest brother William has been murdered.
He returns home and sees the creature in the woods near the crime scene but tells no one.
Justine Moritz, a servant and family friend, is accused of the crime.
Victor is certain the creature is responsible but remains silent, fearing disbelief.
Key Themes:
The cost of secrecy
Injustice and scapegoating
Guilt and moral cowardice
Nature as reflection of inner turmoil
Narrative Function:
The creature’s indirect vengeance begins here, symbolizing Victor’s failure to take responsibility.
Justine’s arrest raises moral questions about justice, truth, and silence.
The theme of guilt begins to dominate Victor’s character arc.
Writing and Thinking:
Pair reading: Compare Victor’s internal thoughts to his public behavior—what do we learn about him?
Discussion prompt: “Is Victor responsible for Justine’s arrest? Why or why not?”
Visible learning: Role-play trial scene with Victor, Justine, and the creature.
Chapter 8
Summary: Justine’s trial ends with her public execution. She falsely confesses to murdering William, hoping for absolution. Victor remains silent, knowing the creature is responsible. He begins to fully grasp the cost of his secrecy.
Key Themes:
Power and powerlessness
Injustice and coercion
The psychological toll of guilt
Complicity through silence
Narrative Function: Concludes Volume I’s courtroom tragedy and signals Victor’s descent into inner torment. Connects personal guilt with systemic injustice.
Writing and Thinking:
Loop Write—“Who bears the blame for Justine’s death?”
Close read: Justine’s confession—how does Shelley portray manipulation by religious and legal systems?
Socratic seminar: “What is the moral cost of Victor’s silence?”
Visible learning: Students annotate the trial scene in pairs and then physically map power dynamics among characters on poster paper.
Chapter 9
Summary: Victor contemplates suicide but restrains himself out of loyalty to his family. He isolates himself emotionally and seeks comfort in the grandeur of nature, eventually traveling alone to the mountains.
Key Themes:
Despair and internal exile
Nature as mirror and balm
Responsibility vs. escape
Narrative Function: Transitions from outer tragedy to inner reckoning. Begins Romantic engagement with the sublime as a site of healing and confrontation.
Writing and Thinking:
FFW: Where do you go when you feel overwhelmed?
Close read: “The sight of the awful and majestic in nature…”
Visible learning: Students select one description of the landscape and illustrate it, annotating for mood and emotional symbolism.
Chapter 10
Summary: Victor confronts the creature in the Alps. To his shock, the creature speaks eloquently and appeals to Victor’s conscience, asking to tell his side of the story. Victor reluctantly agrees.
Key Themes:
Confrontation with one’s consequences
Eloquence and humanity of the creature
The ethics of listening
Narrative Function: Marks a structural and moral turning point. Begins embedded narrative and complicates the notion of monstrosity.
Writing and Thinking:
Dialectical Journal (Paired dialogue writing): Each student writes Victor’s or the creature’s inner monologue during the confrontation.
Discussion: “Does Victor owe the creature a hearing?”
Visible learning: Use a T-chart to track rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) in the creature’s speech.
Chapter 11
Summary: The creature narrates his awakening and first sensations. He describes hunger, fear, and the discovery of fire. He begins observing the De Lacey family and learning by imitation.
Key Themes:
Sensory learning and discovery
Isolation and innocence
Formation of identity through observation
Narrative Function: Humanizes the creature and frames him as an abandoned child rather than a monster. Begins second embedded Bildungsroman.
Writing and Thinking:
Loop write: What does it mean to grow up with no guidance?
Close read: The creature’s discovery of fire, symbolism of knowledge and pain.
Visible learning: Students storyboard the creature’s first five discoveries using quotations and reflection captions.
Chapter 12
Summary: The creature continues learning language and social behavior by watching the De Lacey family. He secretly helps them, feeling emotionally connected despite their unawareness.
Key Themes:
Education and moral development
Emotional attachment and invisibility
Socialization from the margins
Narrative Function: Reinforces the creature’s moral sensibility and yearning for connection. Builds tragic irony... he is human in all but appearance.
Writing and Thinking:
FFW: What would you learn if you watched a family without them knowing?
Visible learning: Annotate the creature’s observations for values he learns implicitly (e.g., kindness, sacrifice).
Peer work: Students create lists of “unspoken lessons” from the creature’s perspective and share.
Chapter 13
Summary: Safie, a Turkish-Arabic woman, arrives. The creature learns faster with her around and begins reading Ruins of Empires. He reflects on justice, inequality, and his own exclusion from society.
Key Themes:
Race, culture, and gender
The shaping of ideology through literature
Outsidership and social critique
Narrative Function: Widens the creature’s intellectual world. His moral sense now includes injustice and exclusion. Safie provides a contrast to Elizabeth—active, independent, cross-cultural.
Writing and Thinking:
Primary source connection: Students read excerpts from Ruins of Empires or research Volney.
Writing and Thinking: Reflective write—“What text or media shaped your view of fairness?”
Visible learning: Group poster: “What does the creature learn from watching Safie?” backed by textual evidence.
Chapter 14
Summary: The creature recounts the history of the De Laceys’ exile, showing how noble their intentions were. Safie’s father betrayed them, and she fled to join Felix in defiance of her culture’s gender roles.
Key Themes:
Honor, exile, and betrayal
Female agency (Safie as foil to Elizabeth)
East vs. West, cultural prejudice
Narrative Function: Parallels the creature’s moral disappointment with the De Laceys’ fate. Safie’s independence introduces the possibility of ethical resistance.
Writing and Thinking:
Creative Writing: Write a letter from Safie to her father explaining her decision.
Visible learning: Create a character map connecting Safie’s story to Victor and the creature’s arcs (exile, injustice, identity).
Discussion: “What makes someone heroic in this novel?”
Chapter 15
Summary: The creature finds three books (Paradise Lost, Plutarch’s Lives, The Sorrows of Werter) and Victor’s journal. He identifies with both Adam and Satan. He decides to introduce himself to the De Laceys, beginning with the blind father.
Key Themes:
Literature and self-conception
The fall from innocence
Identity through reading
Narrative Function: This is the creature’s symbolic fall. He becomes fully conscious of his position as an outsider. The rejection is now inevitable.
Writing and Thinking:
Text-to-text analysis: Compare Paradise Lost passages with the creature’s interpretation.
Writing and Thinking: Loop write—“Which literary character do you identify with, and why?”
Visible learning: Small groups analyze each of the three books’ impact on the creature using textual quotes and discussion.
Chapter 16
Summary: The creature is violently rejected by the De Laceys. He flees, disillusioned. After a failed attempt to save a girl, he is shot. He vows revenge. He strangles William Frankenstein and frames Justine. He demands a companion from Victor.
Key Themes:
Rejection, rage, and retribution
Corruption of the innocent
The right to companionship
Narrative Function: Marks the creature’s moral break. Sympathy gives way to fear. Frames his violence as a response to systemic and emotional abuse.
Writing and Thinking:
Creative Writing: Write a defense speech for the creature’s actions. How would he justify them to a jury?
Close read: Creature’s confrontation with the child. What does he expect? What changes?
Visible learning: Students create a cause-and-effect timeline showing the creature’s descent from rejection to violence.
Chapter 17
Summary: The creature ends his story and begs Victor to create a female like himself. He argues that he was made good, but turned evil by rejection. Victor, moved by this logic, agrees.
Key Themes:
Conditional morality
The ethics of creation
Hope, despair, and negotiation
Narrative Function: Closes Volume II with a moral dilemma: if the creature deserves a mate, does Victor owe him creation? The question of second creation introduces Volume III’s central conflict.
Writing and Thinking:
Socratic seminar: Should Victor create a female creature? Why or why not?
Paired point-of-view writing: students write from Victor and the creature’s opposing perspectives about the same scene.
Visible learning: Class debate with written position statements scored on reasoning and textual evidence.
Chapter 18
Summary: Victor delays making the female creature. His father encourages him to marry Elizabeth, but Victor insists he has a task to complete first. He travels to England with Clerval, feeling increasingly isolated.
Key Themes:
Delay, doubt, and moral ambiguity
The shadow of guilt
The limits of obligation
Narrative Function: Begins the arc of avoidance and dread. Victor’s physical journey mirrors his moral hesitation. Clerval’s joyful presence sharpens Victor’s detachment.
Writing and Thinking:
Loop write: Have you ever delayed something difficult out of fear?
Close read: Victor’s reasoning for leaving Elizabeth
Visible learning: Timeline exercise: students map Victor’s lies, omissions, and evasions and their consequences
Chapter 19
Summary: Victor and Clerval tour England and Scotland. Victor secretly separates from Clerval to begin his work on the female creature. He is filled with dread, guilt, and disgust.
Key Themes:
Secrecy and deception
Scientific fear and self-loathing
Isolation
Narrative Function: Parallels Victor’s earlier scientific work but with added moral resistance. The horror of repeating his mistake begins to outweigh the fear of the creature’s threats.
Writing and Thinking:
Creative Writing: Victor’s internal monologue: Should I build her?
Visible learning: Compare journal entries from Volume I and this chapter: what has changed in Victor’s mindset?
Discussion: Can guilt be more powerful than fear? Use evidence from the text
Chapter 20
Summary: Victor destroys the half-finished female creature. The monster vows revenge, promising, “I shall be with you on your wedding night.” Victor disposes of the remains at sea, is discovered by strangers, and imprisoned for murder.
Key Themes:
Destruction vs. creation
Promises and threats
Accountability
Narrative Function: Climactic rupture. Victor breaks his promise, and the creature’s vengeance shifts to its final stage. Sets up tragic spiral of deaths.
Writing and Thinking:
Close read: “The idea of an immediate union with a being of my own species… was one which could not fail to impress itself deeply…”
FFW: What does it mean to unmake a mistake? Is it ever too late?
Visible learning: Students act out a dramatic reading of the confrontation and annotate the emotional shifts
Chapter 21
Summary: Victor is arrested for Clerval’s murder. The body shows signs of strangulation—the creature’s signature. Victor falls ill again and narrowly escapes execution. He is released after his father arrives.
Key Themes:
The collapse of moral and physical health
Friend as victim
Justice system failure
Narrative Function: Marks the lowest emotional point. Clerval’s death completes the creature’s revenge against Victor’s joy and human connection.
Teaching Notes:
FFW: How does grief affect your sense of identity?
Visible learning: Compare Victor’s treatment in prison to Justine’s: what power differences are evident?
Discussion: Why is Clerval’s death the most devastating?
Chapter 22
Summary: Victor returns home, still planning to marry Elizabeth. He tells no one about the creature’s threat. Elizabeth is joyful but senses Victor’s anxiety. The wedding is planned hastily.
Key Themes:
Fatalism and secrecy
False peace
Gendered vulnerability
Narrative Function: Builds unbearable suspense. Readers know more than Elizabeth. Victor continues a pattern of withholding information that places others at risk.
Writing and Thinking:
FFW: Write Elizabeth’s inner monologue the night before the wedding
Close read: How is Victor’s silence both protective and selfish?
Visible learning: Students use split-page notes to track irony and foreshadowing in Victor’s narration
Chapter 23
Summary: On their wedding night, the creature murders Elizabeth. Victor realizes the threat was never to him but to his bride. His father dies from grief. Victor vows revenge and pursues the creature across Europe.
Key Themes:
Ultimate revenge
The loss of love and family
Self-destructive obsession
Narrative Function: Victor’s tragedy is now complete. The shift from guilt to vengeance repositions him closer to the creature in purpose and isolation.
Writing and Thinking:
FFW: Why didn’t Victor understand the threat?
Loop write: What do you do when you realize your actions have hurt someone you loved?
Visible learning: Create a two-column empathy chart: Victor vs. the Creature. What do they lose, and how do they respond?
Chapter 24
Summary: Victor chases the creature northward, narrating his obsessive pursuit. He collapses in the Arctic, where Walton’s ship finds him. Victor tells Walton to seek knowledge wisely. Victor dies. The creature appears, mourns Victor, and vows to kill himself.
Key Themes:
Obsession, vengeance, and finality
The duality of creator and creation
Death as release
Narrative Function: Brings the frame narrative full circle. The creator and creation destroy each other. The final word belongs to the creature, not Victor.
Writing and Thinking:
Socratic seminar: Who is more tragic, Victor or the creature?
FFW: How should we remember Victor Frankenstein?
Visible learning: Final creative synthesis: students write an obituary for either Victor or the creature using evidence from the text