A tale of horror and romance, Frankenstein has become one of the nineteenth century’s most popular texts and has made its way into popular culture. However, unlike the “Frankenstein” monster from film adaptations, the original Frankenstein is actually the scientist, who embarks on his ambitious quest to obtain the power of God and bestow life upon an inanimate being. Thus, the “monster,” or the creature (as I prefer to call him), is born. Born a rational and feeling being, the creature seeks kindness and affection, but he is shunned and repulsed by all with whom he comes into contact with on account of mankind’s prejudice towards his gigantic stature and deformity – his physical difference. Gaining knowledge, the creature realizes that he has not been given his rightful due from his maker, and consequently sets upon a quest of revenge.
The narrative, however, begins with Robert Walton. Like Victor Frankenstein, Walton embarks on an ambitious quest. Walton seeks to explore the North Pole and obtain the esoteric knowledge of that region. As he sails further north upon the ice, he and his crew see a strange and large figure sledging across the ice in the distance where no man inhabits. The next morning, they find a different man floating adrift and pull him on board the ship. This is Frankenstein, who then tells Walton his terrific tale in order that Walton may learn from it.
Victor recounts how he grew up in Geneva with his two brothers – Ernest and William – along with his father Alphonse, and his mother Caroline. A friend named Henry Clerval and a cousin named Elizabeth Lavenza soon join the family circle with the addition of a servant girl name Justine Moritz. The parents encourage a future union between Victor and Elizabeth. Meanwhile, Victor describes how he was drawn to the natural philosophies of archaic and occult philosophers such as Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus. He becomes interested in bringing life back from the dead, and desires to help humanity by rendering it immortal to disease. He is also motivated by the glory that he would obtain from achieving this.
Victor sets out to Ingolstadt to pursue his studies. His mother dies just before after catching scarlet fever from Elizabeth, who managed to survive. The professors tell Victor that what he has been studying has been surpassed by modern science, and direct him in his studies. Victor soon becomes the most accomplished student in the school. However, he becomes anti-social the more that he isolates himself in crypts and graveyards in order to carry on his studies on the principle of life. Eventually, he discovers the secret to reanimating the dead, and constructs an enormous creature to be his first test subject. Aiming to create a beautiful man, Frankenstein creates an ugly creature instead. He is horrified by it, and abandons it in flight. He then spends many months ill, but is nursed by his friend Henry who appears in Ingolstadt.
Victor then returns home to his worried family, to whom he has hardly written during his scientific pursuit, after receiving a letter from his father stating that little William has been murdered. Back in Geneva, Victor discovers that Justine is the accused perpetrator of the act because some servants discovered a picture in her clothes that Elizabeth had let William borrow just before he was murdered. Victor instantly knows that it must have been his horrid creature who killed William, but says nothing for fear of appearing crazy. Justine’s trial commences, and the townspeople are already prejudiced against her despite her long history of a good character. The verdict is determined and she is sentenced to death, to the dismay and horror of Victor and his family.
During a retreat vacation to help cheer the family’s woes, Victor encounters his creature again while hiking through the snowy mountains. The creature tells him what has happened to him: how he has been shunned and hated by every human that he has come into contact with, how he learned knowledge of the world and of language by secretly watching a group of cottagers that would not even give him a moment’s hearing after he spent a year in secretly helping them, and how all of this made him bitter to the point that he killed William and framed Justine. He demands that Victor give him what is his due, and asks for a female companion as Eve was to Adam. Otherwise, the creature threatens to make Victor’s life miserable.
Victor complies, and sets off to England and Scotland with his friend Henry in order to accomplish the task. However, he changes his mind and destroys the female creature before the creature’s eyes, and before she is even given the chance to live. The creature threatens to be present during Victor’s wedding night, and then finds Henry and kills him. Victor becomes accused of the murder. He falls ill and goes raving mad for months, but eventually his father appears and Victor is cleared of the crime by his alibi. At Geneva once again, they determine to finally enact the marriage between Victor and Elizabeth in order to cheer everyone’s spirits. Victor believes that the creature will try to kill him, but the creature kills Elizabeth instead. Upon hearing the news, Victor’s father dies too after a nervous fit. Victor swears to obtain revenge by killing the creature, and a long pursuit follows into the northern regions beyond Russia, where Victor meets Walton.
Walton’s ship becomes stuck and is threatened to be crushed by the ice. The crew becomes scared and decides to return home at the first chance that is possible. Victor dies aboard the ship, and Walton discovers the creature lamenting the death of his maker while standing over Victor's body. The creature asks for pardon and states that he did not want to kill anyone, and then escapes out into the darkness to put an end to his own miserable existence.