Victor Frankenstein, driven by a desire to transcend natural limits, assembles a humanoid creature from dead matter. Horrified by his creation, he abandons it, prompting the being to seek revenge for its isolation. The narrative follows the catastrophic fallout of this broken bond, moving from the icy Arctic to the serene Swiss Alps, as creator and creation are locked in a mutual pursuit of ruin.
Despite his frail health, Victor urges their immediate departure. They sail from Ireland, and Victor hails the darkness that hides the shore. He reflects on his past, the death of his mother, and his creation of the hideous enemy, weeping bitterly at the memory. To secure rest, he takes a double dose of laudanum and falls into a profound sleep. His dreams are tormented, and he is seized by a nightmare in which he feels the fiend’s grasp on his neck. His father wakes him, and for a moment, the reality of the sea and sky brings a sense of security and a calm forgetfulness of the disastrous future that awaits him.
Victor’s acquittal brought no relief from the torment that haunted him, and as he and his father journeyed homeward through Paris, the prospect of his long-awaited marriage forced him to confront the creature’s chilling wedding-night threat.
The voyage ended in Paris, where Victor, utterly exhausted, was forced to repose before continuing to Geneva. Though his father cared for him with indefatigable attention, he could not understand the origin of his son’s suffering and sought erroneous remedies, urging Victor to seek amusement in society. Victor, however, abhorred the face of man, feeling he had no right to share their intercourse after unchaining an enemy among them whose joy was to shed blood. He confessed to his father that he was the murderer of William, Justine, and Henry, but Alphonse dismissed these assertions as the offspring of delirium and changed the subject, wishing to obliterate the memory of the scenes in Ireland. Victor remained silent, fearing that to disclose the secret of the creature would make him seem mad and fill his father with unnatural horror.
As they prepared to quit Paris, Victor received a letter from Elizabeth. She expressed her deep affection but offered him a way out of their long-planned marriage, fearing that he felt bound by duty to his parents rather than love. She assured him that she would only marry if it were his free choice, desiring his happiness above her own. This letter, however, revived in Victor’s memory the creature’s fatal threat: he would be with Victor on his wedding-night. Victor realized that a deadly struggle was inevitable. If the monster were victorious, Victor would be at peace; if vanquished, he would be free, though such liberty would be hollow. He reasoned that delaying the marriage would not save him, as the monster had murdered Clerval immediately after making the threat. Therefore, he resolved to hasten the union to secure happiness for his father and Elizabeth, deciding to face his fate.
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