Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist. She is
best known for writing the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern
Prometheus, which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also
edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher
Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Robert Walton the captain of a ship bound for the North
Pole, writes a letter to his sister, Margaret Saville, in which he says that
his crew members recently discovered a man adrift at sea. The man,Victor
Frankenstein, offered to tell Walton his story.
Victor’s whole family destroyed by the
monster so, Victor decides to leave Geneva and the
painful memories it holds behind him forever. He tracks the monster for months,
guided by slight clues, messages, and hints that the monster leaves
for him. Angered by these taunts, Victor continues his pursuit into the ice and
snow of the North. There he meets Walton. He entreats Walton to continue his
search for vengeance after he is dead.
Walton
then regains control of the narrative, continuing the story in the form of
further letters to his sister. In the
August 26th letter, he tells her that he believes in the truth of
Victor’s story. He laments that he did not know Victor, who remains on the
brink of death, in better days. On September 2, Walton again writes a letter to
Margaret, disclosing that his ship and crew are in grave danger. The ship is
now surrounded by ice. He blames himself for their fate and says they may all
die as a result of his madness. In a letter on September 5, Walton says that
his crews have demanded that he should turn the ship around the head for home
as soon as the ice frees them. Victor speaks up, however, and convinces the men
that the glory and honor of their quest should be enough motivation for them to
continue toward their goal. They are momentarily moved, but two days later they
again entreat Walton, who consents to the plan of return. In the letter on
September 7, Walton says that he has agreed to the crew’s demand to turn back. In
the final letter on September 12, Walton says that he has turned back, his
hopes of glory and utility crushed. Just before the ship is set to head back to
England, Victor dies. Several days later, Walton hears a strange sound coming
from the room in which Victor’s body lies. Investigating the noise, Walton is
startled to find the monster, as hideous as Victor had described, weeping over
his dead creator’s body. The monster begins to tell him of all his sufferings.
He says that he deeply regrets having become an instrument of evil and that,
with his creator dead, he is ready to die. He leaves the ship and departs into
the darkness.
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