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 3, Chapters 5-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Volume 3, Chapter 5 Summary
Frankenstein was unable to face the death of Henry and went to Paris with his father. Along the way, Frankenstein tried to tell his father that the deaths were all his fault, but his father dismissed it as grief-stricken ramblings. While in Paris, Frankenstein received a letter from Elizabeth that outlined her concerns that he did not love her romantically and requested that he be honest about it. Frankenstein wrote back assuring her that he did indeed love her; he also promised to tell her of his mistakes and misfortunes after they married.
Returning home to Elizabeth was a comfort, but Frankenstein could not escape the sense of doom and dread that filled him. He tried to cover it with humor, but Elizabeth saw through it and knew that something was wrong. Frankenstein and Elizabeth were married a few days later, but Elizabeth could not enjoy the honeymoon due to the overwhelming feeling that everything they just gained was about to be lost. The Swiss Alps surrounded the couple as they rode a carriage into the sunset, unable to shake the feeling of dread.
Volume 3, Chapter 6 Summary
When night fell, a massive storm erupted, and Frankenstein could not calm himself. Darkness surrounded him; he knew that the monster had promised to appear on his wedding night, so he stalked the house with a pistol in his hand. Suddenly, Frankenstein heard a scream and returned to the bedroom to find Elizabeth dead. His father died in his arms, of a sorrow-induced stroke, shortly thereafter. Following these losses, Frankenstein spent several months chained up in a psychiatric hospital. He has little memory of this time; what he knows is that upon his release, revenge became his only motivation.
Volume 3, Chapter 7 Summary
Frankenstein visited his family home one last time on a dark night with the full moon lighting his way. He kissed the earth and prayed for the help of the spirits to aid his revenge against the monster. When the monster appeared, Frankenstein aimed his pistol, but the monster dashed away at an unimaginable speed.
Frankenstein began a long journey of wandering in search of the monster, cloaked in darkness and aging rapidly. Along the way, he found carved warnings that the monster left for him, as he planned to drag Frankenstein far into the north and cause him to feel the pain of the cold. Frankenstein thought of all his lost loved ones and carried on, eventually acquiring a sled and a pack of dogs. The sled soon crashed, and Frankenstein lay on the ice accepting his defeat. That was when he spotted Walton’s vessel and made his way over to it. In the present, Frankenstein asks Walton to avenge his death by seeking out the monster and killing him.
Walton writes to his sister Margaret after relaying Frankenstein’s entire story. He believes Frankenstein is telling the truth about everything, and when he asks to know how exactly Frankenstein created life, Frankenstein warns him never to indulge such curiosities. Frankenstein has dreams in which his loved ones visit him, and it is this that keeps him alive as he succumbs to illness, remaining in bed and losing strength. Walton marvels at the person that Frankenstein must have been in his youth, noting that he is “noble and godlike [even] in ruin” (182). Frankenstein feels that he must stay alive until his task of killing the monster is complete, but he becomes more ill every day.
In Walton’s next letter, he writes about the ship’s impending peril as it becomes more and more trapped in the ice. He believes he and his crew are doomed and worries about a mutiny. In the letter following, he writes that his crew gave him only one choice: He must turn south and abandon the voyage. Hearing this, Frankenstein insisted that bravery in the face of a dangerous foe is what defines the men on this voyage. He encouraged them to press forward for the sake of human advancement and their own honor. In the moments before his death, Frankenstein changes his mind, asking Walton not to take revenge on his behalf, and to “seek happiness in tranquility” rather than succumb to ambition (188). Frankenstein dies, and Walton mourns the loss of a friend.
Soon after, Walton finds the monster hovering over Frankenstein’s body. The monster expresses a feeling of guilt and regret for everything he did and begs for the forgiveness of his dead creator. The monster admits he fell prey to jealousy and revenge and claims that his violence is over. Walton accuses the monster of being a deceiver who only mourns the loss of his enemy, but the monster insists that he only ever wanted “happiness and affection” (191). He holds Frankenstein in his arms, admitting to killing the innocent and driving a man to ruin. The monster walks away, carrying Frankenstein with him and intending to travel north to die peacefully and alone.
Volume 3, Chapters 5-7 Analysis
The story’s conclusion marks the culmination of The Cost of Unthinking Ambition as Frankenstein loses the last of his loved ones as well as any remaining hope he had of a better future. He marries Elizabeth knowing she is likely to die, and this is exactly what happens. Even Elizabeth can sense that something is not quite right: “What is it that agitates you, my dear Victor? What is it you fear?” (164). Grimly devotes an entire page to the moment that Frankenstein finds his wife dead, indicating the gravity and finality of the moment. Following this, Frankenstein becomes a shell of his former self and shifts his focus to revenge. When Walton finds Frankenstein on his way to the North Pole, he appears severely ill, starved, and exhausted. Frankenstein’s death is the final price that he pays for his hubris.
Whether Frankenstein ever recognizes his mistakes is ambiguous. Shelley does not grant Frankenstein the privilege of dying knowing he has fulfilled his final purpose, as he fails to exact his revenge on the monster. He initially asks Walton to do this for him, ostensibly to rid the world of a dangerous creature. However, Frankenstein’s quest to destroy his creation has been as obsessive and all-consuming as his quest to create it was, implying that The Need for Purpose—and the desire to be humanity’s savior—may still drive his actions. Moreover, Frankenstein at first encourages Walton and his crew to continue their journey in the face of likely death, despite the many parallels between their pursuit of scientific advancement and his own (in Grimly’s illustrations, both the machine Frankenstein uses to reanimate the dead and Walton’s ship are constructed of copper-colored metal, heightening the association). Up until his last moments, Frankenstein suggests that the purpose of life is to succeed in one’s pursuits. It is not until Frankenstein is about to die that he finally sees the error in excess ambition and counsels Walton to find happiness in friends and family instead. However, he immediately tempers even this advice: “Yet why do I say this? I have myself been blasted in these hopes, yet another may succeed” (188).
Though Walton decides to return to England, it is unclear whether he will heed Frankenstein’s words regarding human companionship. Rather, the narrative closes on a note of profound isolation. When Walton first finds Frankenstein, he wonders if he has found the friend he always longed for and wants to do what is necessary to keep Frankenstein alive. Unfortunately, Frankenstein is already dying when Walton finds him, and all that can be done is to listen to his tale of warning. Walton grieves for Frankenstein deeply and laments his own loneliness, creating an ironic parallel to the monster, who returns after Frankenstein dies and likewise grieves his only real human connection. He decides that since his creator is dead, it is his time to die as well. Though he continues to insist that he was evil by necessity rather than choice, developing the theme of How Misery Makes a Monster, he nevertheless seeks to rid the world of the curse that his life began as: “He is dead who called me into being; and when I shall be no more, the very remembrance of us both will speedily vanish” (193). Grimly gives literal meaning to his words in the work’s final panels, which depict the monster disappearing into the distance, surrounded by nothing but ice and snow.
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By Mary Shelley
