Summaries of Chapters 11-13
Chapter 11 Summary
The monster of Frankenstein has been exposed to the world, and as he travels through the forest near his birth spot in Ingolstadt college he begins to master the basic skills for survivals. The monster travels through the forest encountering with the use of food and shelter, heat and shade. As the monster continues to wander in the forest he comes upon a hut, a great place for shelter. When he enters the hut he encounters with his first human (besides Frankenstein). The humans reaction was horrifying, the man screaming and running with the mere sight of the poor monster. Confused, the monster eats what he can from the residence and moves on in the forest. As the monster reaches his second encounter of civilization, a urban town, he sees the behaviors of humans. He saw that they were mostly kind, and were interacting with each other in affection. Wanting a part of this beautiful scene, the monster intruded the humans play, but was immediately rejected from horror struck humans. They threw rocks, swung brooms, and screamed at the poor monster until he was forced to leave. This made the monster angry and upset, mentally noting that humans were cruel, awful people. Then he wanders to a nearby shed of a home and decides it would be a safe place to rest. As he stays in this shed he observes the interactions of the family living in the house, and falls confused when he sees the affectionate interactions the humans have, while he is left alone. The chapter ends with the monster extending his stay to observe this family, learning more of the human’s nature and behavior with each other. Chapter 12 Summary Through chapter 12 the monster continues to observe the family, becoming more aware of the beautiful actions expressing compassion and devotion the humans show each other. The monster began to desire such love and compassion for himself, and wondered how such seemingly loving creatures could be so cruel to him. One day while the monster was getting water he noticed, for the first time, his own reflection. The monster was taken aback, shocked but the utter ugliness in his own image. The monster had not taken into account before that he could be so drastically different. He had become so used to the beauty of humans that his own appearance was almost frightening. This drove him to believe that it was not the people who were rejecting his true self, but his own image that was pushing them away with disgust. How awful he felt, how alone and upset he came with himself. This self pity soon turned into self disgust. The monster began to disgrace the works of society, and started his own theory of unchangeable misfortunes society has put upon him. |
Chapter 13 Summary
Feeling self destructive after the recent sight of his own reflection, the monster becomes shocked when he sees another outsider, another different human interacting with his observed family through love. How could it be? I thought people hated me because of my differences? Confused by this new discovery, the monster starts continues to observe in hope of finding a new answer to his question. While observing, the monster discovers it is not only the mere appearance of one that decides its acceptance in the world, but also its possessions of which makes one desirable. This leads the monster to conclude that since he has “no father (that) had watched my infant days, no mother (that) had blessed me with the smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy of which i distinguished nothing,” (Shelly, Frankenstein, pg. 65). So this is why, the monster had finally concluded, no one had loved him, no one would show him such compassion and devotion as those who had had possessions of value. |