Chapters 20-23

Chapters 20 and 21

As Victor works on the female monster, he worries about the consequences of his actions, thinking back to the fateful day when he first created the Monster.

Victor's doubt

Victor fears that by creating another creature, he would be dooming humanity and can’t fully trust the Monster in his promises that he would leave humanity alone if he had a companion.
As he is considering his choices, Victor sees the Monster staring in at him through the window, and in a moment of fury, he destroys the female creature and flees from the laboratory.

The Monster's threat

Later, the Monster enters Victor’s room and confronts him with the broken promise.
After being betrayed again by Victor, the Monster makes a new promise: "I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding-night."
Victor, being so self-centred, believes this threat is levelled at him and worries about what Elizabeth would do without him.

Exhaustion

Victor receives a letter from Henry asking to meet in Perth in order to go and travel to India.
He packs up his laboratory and the parts of the female monster and takes a boat from the island, throwing the body parts into the sea as he rows.
Exhausted from the drama of the previous days, he falls asleep in his boat and wakes up having drifted far on the rough waters, close to the shore of Ireland.

Arrest

As he lands on shore, he is greeted by an angry group of locals and is swiftly arrested and taken to the magistrate M. Kirwin, who charges Victor with the murder of a young man.
He finds out that the man has been strangled and to his horror discovers it is Clerval.
Due to this shock, he falls ill and has to have a nurse watch over him for two months whilst he recovers in prison.

Not guilty

During his recovery, he becomes delirious and is heard to ramble about being the murderer and dreams about the Monster finding him.
Kirwin sympathises with Victor and informs Alphonse about his son’s plight.
In front of a grand jury, Victor is cleared of the murder after he proves he was in Orkney when the murder happened.
Alphonse takes his son back to home, via France.

Greater implications

"Had I the right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting Generations".
It is now that Victor starts to to think about others and how his actions affect them rather than thinking solely about himself.

On their journey, exhausted from broken sleep and too much laudanum, Victor admits to his father that he is responsible for all the deaths that have occurred but Alphonse just thinks he is going mad from grief.

Elizabeth

Victor receives a letter from Elizabeth whilst in France asking if he has fallen in love with someone else and tells she loves him and wishes to marry.
He replies saying he loves her too but is haunted by the words of the Monster in Orkney.
On return to Geneva, Victor assures Alphonse he wants to marry Elizabeth, even though he secretly thinks he doesn’t have much time left before the Monster enacts his revenge.

Honeymoon

Elizabeth and Victor marry and honeymoon, admiring the sublime landscape of Mont Blanc.
In the evening they arrive in Evian (which is naive backwards - a coincidence, or Shelley criticising Victor?)
After a romantic stroll along the shore, Victor convinces Elizabeth to go to sleep. He intends to guard her room with the gun he secretly brought along with him.

Death

Suddenly he hears two screams and enters the bed-chamber to find Elizabeth strangled to death.
He faints and when he awakens, he finds the Monster outside, grinning, pleased with his revenge.
Victor shoots at the monster but misses and he and the townspeople of Evian go searching for the murderer.

Insanity

Victor fears that his father and family back in Geneva will become a target for the Monster, so he rushes back to Geneva.
Upon hearing about Elizabeth’s death, Alphonse falls critically ill and dies.
Victor falls into a fit of insanity and is locked in a cell for a month.
After many weeks, Victor regains sanity and convinces a magistrate that he is sane. He tells the tale of the Monster.
The magistrate does not fully believe the story or Victor’s claims of sanity but he lets him leave.

Elizabeth's death

"Elizabeth alone had the power to draw me from these fits; her gentle voice would soothe me when transported by passion’".
Elizabeth is mirrored with nature, offering Victor comfort but essentially pushed into a submissive role.
Her death at the hands of the Monster is symbolic of the death of nature by man-made means.
Perhaps it could even be seen as an allegory for the Romantic reaction against industrialisation.

1Narrative Structure

1.1Narrative Structure

1.1.1Narrative Structure

1.1.2Narrative Distancing

1.1.3End of Topic Test - Narrative Structure

2Character Summaries

2.1Walton & Frankenstein

2.1.1Walton

2.1.2Victor Frankenstein

2.1.3End of Topic Test - Walton & Frankenstein

2.2The Monster

2.2.1The Monster

2.2.2The Monster 2

2.2.3End of Topic Test - The Monster

2.3Elizabeth, Justine & Henry

2.3.1Elizabeth Lavenza

2.3.2Justine Moritz

2.3.3Henry Clerval

2.3.4End of Topic Test - Elizabeth, Justine & Henry

2.4Families & Other Characters

2.4.1The Frankenstein Family

2.4.2The De Lacey Family

2.4.3Other Characters

2.4.4End of Topic Test - Families & Other Characters

3Intertextuality & Allusions

3.1Intertextual References

3.1.1The Modern Prometheus

3.1.2The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

3.1.3The Bible

3.1.4Mutability & Tintern Abbey

3.1.5End of Topic Test - Intertextual References

3.2Philosophical & Scientific Theories

3.2.1Edmund Burke

3.2.2Thomas Paine

3.2.3John Locke

3.2.4Jean-Jacques Rousseau

3.2.5Historical Figures

3.2.6End of Topic Test - Philosophy & Science Theories

4Biographic Context

4.1Biographic Context

4.1.1Shelley's Parents

4.1.2Loss & Maternal Anxiety

4.1.3Literary Legend

4.1.4End of Topic Test - Biographical Context

5Chapter Summaries

5.1Letters

5.1.1Letters 1 & 2

5.1.2Letters 3 & 4

5.1.3End of Topic Test - Letters

5.2Chapters

5.2.1Chapters 1-2

5.2.2Chapters 3-4

5.2.3Chapters 5-6

5.2.4Chapters 7-9

5.2.5Chapters 10-11

5.2.6Chapters 12-15

5.2.7Chapters 16-19

5.2.8Chapters 20-23

5.2.9Chapter 24 & Walton’s Last Letters

5.2.10End of Topic Test - Chapters 1-6

5.2.11End of Topic Test - Chapters 7-15

5.2.12End of Topic Test - Chapters 16-23

5.2.13End of Topic Test - Chapter 24 & Walton's Letters

6Key Themes

6.1Key Themes

6.1.1Curiosity & Knowledge

6.1.2Science & Society

6.1.3Loss & Companionship

6.1.4Connection to Nature

6.1.5Injustice

6.2Key Locations

6.2.1Extreme Landscapes

6.2.2Industrialised University Cities

6.2.3End of Topic Test - Key Themes & Locations

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