45 pages • 1 hour read
Mary ShelleyGris Grimly's Frankenstein
Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | YA | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Volume 1, Prologue-Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Volume 1, Prologue Summary
Robert Walton writes to his sister, Margaret, about his journey to the North Pole. His words are filled with anticipation and wonder as he awaits what he believes will be amazing discoveries. Walton describes the never-ending sunlight, the attraction of a compass needle to the North Pole, and the chance to explore uncharted land. In his second letter, he assures Margaret he is safe and has arranged a ship and crew for his journey. Walton is both excited and afraid, not knowing what is to come but recognizing there is a good chance he will die. His only wish is that he had a friend with him to share in the joy of discovery.
In Walton’s third letter, he and his crew are at sea. They pass by massive glaciers, but nothing horrible has befallen them. Walton assures his sister he is still safe and will continue to be careful. In Walton’s fourth letter, he writes about being surrounded by ice and seeing a gigantic figure, who appeared man-like, being pulled on a sled by a pack of dogs. The sight suggests that Walton and his crew are not as far from land as they believed.
A couple of hours later, the crew finds a man named Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein is starving, cold, and being pulled on a sled by only one dog. The crew persuades him to board their vessel and helps him to recover, warm up, and eat. When Frankenstein tells Walton that he was pursuing another man who was also traveling by sled, Walton tells him that the crew saw that man just hours before. Frankenstein refers to the man as a “demon” and says his only focus is on finding him. Frankenstein keeps to himself, staying in the cabin and saying little, but Walton becomes fond of him and starts to think of him as a brother or the friend he needs.
In the next letter, Frankenstein is spending more time above deck and talking with Walton. Walton observes that Frankenstein is often sullen and silent but that when he speaks he is eloquent and wise. Frankenstein notes that he himself lost everything but has hope for Walton’s future. In his next correspondence, Walton explains that Frankenstein decided to reveal his secrets to Walton. Frankenstein hopes that his experiences will warn Walton against the unthinking pursuit of knowledge. Walton records what he hears Frankenstein tell him as best as his memory allows.
Volume 1, Chapter 1 Summary
Frankenstein, a pale and dark-haired brooding man with a sharp chin, begins telling the story of his upbringing. Frankenstein’s family has been in Geneva, Switzerland, for generations. When Frankenstein’s father’s close friend became ill and died, Frankenstein’s father discovered his friend’s daughter lying over her father’s coffin. He took her in and eventually married her. Frankenstein’s father gave up many of his professional duties to spend his days educating his children and was passionate in doing so. When Frankenstein’s aunt died, his family adopted her daughter, Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Frankenstein were arranged to be married and thus spent most of their childhood together.
At age 13, Frankenstein discovered the works of Cornelius Agrippa, an occult philosopher who wrote about the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life. Frankenstein’s father told him that the works were nonsense and unreliable, but Frankenstein nevertheless read as far into the topics as he could in the hopes of one day ridding the world of disease. On one formative day, lightning struck an oak tree near the home, and Frankenstein’s father taught him about the concept of electricity.
Volume 1, Chapter 2 Summary
When Frankenstein was 17, Elizabeth caught a mild case of scarlet fever. She recovered, but she infected Frankenstein’s mother, who soon died from the illness. Frankenstein mourned the loss severely, and Elizabeth did what she could to raise his spirits. Eventually, Frankenstein realized he needed to move on and live while he could, so he went to university in Ingolstadt. Leaving Elizabeth and his family behind for the first time was difficult, but Frankenstein soon became wrapped up in the pursuit of knowledge.
At first, Frankenstein found modern science to be dull and trivial. This changed when he was introduced to a chemistry professor named M. Waldman. Waldman explained that modern science, unlike the old sciences, had produced real results and had practical uses with grand implications. Frankenstein became Waldman’s pupil, and Waldman allowed Frankenstein access to his laboratory. There, Frankenstein learned all he could of chemistry and physics.
Volume 1, Chapter 3 Summary
Frankenstein excelled at university and became immersed in the study of physiology. He was curious about the nature of life and how life came from inanimate materials. To discover the secrets behind this age-old question, Frankenstein began studying the death process and the way that bodies go from living to dead and decomposing. He eventually figured out how to create life from death by reanimating a dog, and he next determined to find a way to apply these principles to a human form in the hopes of one day resurrecting lost loved ones. Frankenstein became totally consumed by this pursuit, sure he would someday succeed. He began stealing bones from graveyards and acquired organs from a nearby slaughterhouse. Frankenstein toiled over his work, spending all of his time and energy sewing together a human-like form. In a black hooded cloak, Frankenstein worked until his creation was finished and, in doing so, forgot his family and friends. He became obsessed with the possibility of such power and knowledge.
Volume 1, Prologue-Chapter 3 Analysis
Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein begins as Shelley’s novel does: with the writings of a man who discovers Frankenstein on the ice and then retells the story to his sister. The decision to introduce Frankenstein through a character who is on his way to the North Pole to discover new lands creates an atmosphere of risk, danger, and looming death. Walton’s language in his letters to his sister implies that he knows he could die on this voyage; he writes, for instance, “should you never hear from me again” (7). It is clear from his letters that he cares about his sister, but The Need for Purpose and the pursuit of discovery are more important to him than remaining close to his family. Walton hopes to be the first to step on new land and to uncover the secret of magnetism, and these goals cloud his mind about what is truly important in life. This aspect of Walton’s characterization is critical in establishing the work’s themes because it is this same flaw that leads Frankenstein to lose everything and learn, in the most difficult way, The Cost of Unthinking Ambition. In fact, it is Walton’s mission that prompts Frankenstein’s confession: Frankenstein planned to take his secret to his grave, but seeing Walton causes him to relent and reveal his truth.
Though the setting of Shelley’s Frankenstein would have been roughly contemporaneous with the time of its writing, Gris Grimly is adapting the work for a modern audience. In this context, Walton’s letters also serve to set the novel’s time period; Grimly presents them as handwritten letters on tattered, yellowing paper, just as if they were real documents. This brings life to the story, in keeping with Grimly’s desire to ensure novels like Frankenstein remain relevant in the modern era.
Frankenstein’s story begins in his youth, where the reader is introduced to his family and it is made clear that there are two main priorities in Frankenstein’s life: his education and his loved ones. The two initially align with one another, as Frankenstein’s father provides his early education. However, Frankenstein soon grows more isolated, educating himself in unconventional philosophies and becoming tempted by the prospect of creating life. Even at this stage in his life, Frankenstein is a brooding and totally focused person, and his focus is misdirected. When his cousin Elizabeth becomes ill and his mother dies soon after, Frankenstein believes it is “an omen, as it were, of [his] future misery” (25). This early loss only propels Frankenstein to distance himself more from his family rather than to bring him closer to them: He does not carry grief well, and it takes its toll on him. This is the beginning of his slow degradation into a broken version of himself, and it helps to explain How Misery Makes a Monster. This process is already well underway by the time he is at university: Frankenstein compromises his own dignity, morality, and character by digging up graves and dealing with the mangled remains of dead things he finds. Moreover, his motives become increasingly blurry as the need for power and success begins to eclipse altruism. Illustrations of this time in Frankenstein’s life emphasize the extent of the horror that he experienced, and it is clear that being exposed to death on such a constant basis changes who he is.
The duality of Frankenstein’s character mirrors other dualities at the heart of the work. When Frankenstein witnesses an oak tree struck by lightning and burned, it alerts him to the prospect of using a destructive force for creative purposes. Creation and destruction, as well as life and death, are twinned throughout Shelley’s novel, and Grimly’s illustrations underscore the motif. For instance, Frankenstein takes on an ironically grim reaper-like appearance as he creates life from death, blurring the boundaries between the two and foreshadowing the destructiveness of Frankenstein’s creation.
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