Frankenstein - Analysis of Volume 3 Chapter 2

Plot Summary

Victor and Clerval spend time in London gathering knowledge and Victor obtains “materials” for creating a female creature. He finds company “irksome” whereas Clerval is happy gathering information needed for his voyage to India, so he can help develop “the progress of European colonisation and trade”. In March they leave London to travel around the rest of the UK. They visit Windsor, Oxford, Matlock, and the Cumberland lakes before visiting Scotland. Both Victor and Clerval enjoy the history and sightseeing, but Victor can’t help but feel trapped in his situation. He also feels incredibly paranoid and worried about whether or not the Creature has actually followed him or has stayed in Switzerland terrorising his family and friends. In Perth he tells Clerval he wishes to continue alone. Clerval wishes to stay with Victor but doesn’t hold him back, simply asking him to be as quick as he can be. Victor makes his way to a virtually uninhabitable island that was “hardly more than a rock”. He works there “ungazed at and unmolested”. He hates the “filthy process”, often being unable to work for days at a time, and is afraid of the creature coming before he is ready. He looks to the future with mixed feelings of hope and fear.

Key Ideas

·         Being trapped/Imprisonment

o    “embittered both by the memory of the past and the anticipation of the future”

·         Consequences of…