The Monster (Frankenstein 1818)

The Monster is the main antagonist of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, Frankenstein.

Creation
The Monster was 'born' in Ingolstadt, Germany. Details of its creation are few, as its creator, Victor Frankenstein refused to share exact details, in fear of someone attempting to recreate his work. Although some papers detailing Frankenstein's expirements were discovered by The Monster itself, the contents of these are never revealed, and the fate of these papers is unknown. Frankenstein spent 2 years in the creation of The Monster, mostly in chemical research.

Early Life
After The Monsters innitial, It escaped from Frankenstein's appartment, and ran into the woods. Its early experiences with humans were not good. It was driven out of a town by a crowd of terrified villagers when it stumbled into a cottage. At this point The Monster had the mental capacity of a young child, and thus could understand very little about itself, or why people were afraid of It. The Monster refrained from decided to refrain from human contact, until it came upon a small village.

Interaction with the De Lacy family
The Monster, after its previous human encounter, spent the night in a hovel, across from a cottage. Eventually it discovers that it can view the inside of the cottage via a crack in the wall. The Monster begins to become attached to the family, learning their names, and eventually how to speak French. The Monster even helps the family by leaving out piles of firewood gathered in the night. At some point, the son in the family marries a foreign bride, who, to The Monsters benefit, did not speak French. Peering through the wall, The Monster took advantage of the lessons given to the woman, and thus learns how to read and write French, and also learns religious and world history. Later, while walking through the woods, The Monster happens to stumble upon a satchel containing three books, and a pile of papers. It reads tho books, and eventually, looks at the papers. They are revealed to be notes written by Victor Frankenstein detailing its creation, of which it had no prior knowledge. The Monster is somewhat depressed by the knowledge suddenly thrust upon it, but continues to watch the De Lacys, and finally resolves to talk to make an attempt to communicate with them. The father in the family, known only as De Lacy, is a blind man, so The Monster waits until his daughter, son and his wife leave the house on a walk. It introduces itself to the blind man, but very soon afterwards his children walk through the door. Terrified by its appearance, the son drives it out of the cottage. Upon returning later, The Monster sees that the family has been irreperably traumatized by the expirience (De Lacy being on the point of death), and have moved out of the cottage. The Monster promptly burns the house down.

Murders and meeting Its Creator
Shortly after the expirience with the De Lacys, The Monster came upon the town of Geneva, Victor Frankenstein's hometown. Walking through the woods along the outskirts it spied a small boy. It thought to itself that this boy would be of the age that its appearance would not cause him to think of it as a monster, and that the boy could be his companion. It grabbed the boy, and tried to take it away, but the boy mentioned that he was of the Frankenstein family, so, in an act of retaliation against its creator, The Monster kills the child. Taking a chain from around the dead boy's neck, it slipped it into the pocket of a woman passing by, and thus causing the execution of a close friend of the Frankenstein's for the murder of Victor Frankenstein's youngest brother. The Monster hung close to the scene of the murder for some time, and once briefly seeing Victor Frankenstein himself. It then followed Frankenstein as he and his family took a vacation to the mountains. Meeting him when he was alone The Monster forced Frankenstein to listen to his story, and then asked him to recreate his original experiment and make a female companion for it. At first Frankenstein refused, but when The Monster told him that it would forever refrain from human contact, he reconsidered. So, Frankenstein went to begin his experiments, under the guise of a tour through Europe with a friend. The Monster followed him closely wherever he went, until, on a small island off the coast of Scotland Frankenstein began constructing his second Monster. As he was piecing it together, Frankenstein looked out the window to see The Monster watching him. Suddenly, he changed his mind and destroyed the form. The Monster walked through the door and told him to explain his action. Frankenstein said that he now refused to create a second monster, as he feared that in doing so he would be responsible for the creation of a race of monsters that could not be controlled. The Monster warned him that there would be repercussions for this, and that he would "be with him on his wedding night". The Monster returned to shore, and somehow, killed Frankenstein's best friend, with whom he had made the journey, and left his body on shore. A few months later, The Monster returned to Geneva, and fulfilling his promise, killed Victor Frankenstein's new wife.

The Chase
Frankenstein then began a quest of revenge in an effort to destroy what he had created. He chase The Monster all the way from Geneva to the arctic, with The Monster purposely keeping him alive by leaving him food, and provoking him by leaving messages scratched into rocks and trees. The Monster was seen passing on a dog sled by the ship captained by Robert Walton less than a day ahead of Frankenstein. Captain Robert Walton picked up Frankenstein before he froze to death a few days later, and kept him on his ship until his death of pneumonia.

Last Sighting of The Monster
After the death of Frankenstein, Captain Walton walked in to the room were his body lay, and was suprised to see The Monster standing there. It expressed sympathy towards Frankenstein, and regret at his death. He refrences commiting suicide on the northernmost ice, and leaps out of a porthole, never to be seen again. Some argue that It lived on, but other say that it died, possibly somewhere in Antarctica.