Frankenstein: Character Analysis and Key Players
Frankenstein: Character Analysis
Here’s a look at the key characters in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein:
Victor Frankenstein
The protagonist and narrator of a significant portion of the story. Studying in Ingolstadt, Victor discovers the secret of life and creates a sentient but grotesque creature. He recoils from his creation in horror. Victor keeps the monster’s creation a secret, feeling increasingly guilty and ashamed as he realizes he is powerless to prevent the monster from destroying his life and the lives of others.
Read an in-depth analysis of Victor Frankenstein.
The Monster
The eight-foot-tall, hideously ugly creation of Victor Frankenstein. Intelligent and sensitive, the monster attempts to integrate himself into human society, but all who see him shun him. His sense of abandonment drives him to seek revenge against his creator.
Robert Walton
The Arctic seafarer whose letters open and close Frankenstein. Walton rescues the broken Victor Frankenstein from the ice, helps nurse him back to health, and hears Victor’s story. He records the incredible tale in a series of letters addressed to his sister, Margaret Saville, in England.
Read an in-depth analysis of Robert Walton.
Alphonse Frankenstein
Victor’s father, exceptionally sympathetic toward his son. Alphonse comforts Victor in moments of pain and urges him to remember the importance of family.
Elizabeth Lavenza
An orphan, four to five years younger than Victor, whom the Frankensteins adopt. In the 1818 edition of the novel, Elizabeth is Victor’s cousin, the offspring of Alphonse Frankenstein’s sister. In the 1831 edition, Victor’s mother rescues Elizabeth from a destitute peasant cottage in Italy. Elizabeth embodies the novel’s theme of passive women, as she waits quietly for Victor’s attention.
Henry Clerval
Victor’s childhood friend, who nurses Victor back to health in Ingolstadt. After working unhappily for his father, Henry begins to follow Victor’s example as a scientist. His cheerfulness counters Victor’s gloom.
William Frankenstein
Victor’s youngest brother and the darling of the Frankenstein family. The monster strangles William in the woods outside Geneva in order to hurt Victor for abandoning him. William’s death deeply saddens Victor and burdens him with immense guilt about having created the monster.
Justine Moritz
A young girl adopted into the Frankenstein family while Victor is growing up. Justine is wrongly accused and executed for William’s murder, which is actually committed by the monster.
Caroline Beaufort
The daughter of Beaufort. After her father’s death, Caroline is taken in by, and later marries, Alphonse Frankenstein. She dies of scarlet fever, which she contracts from Elizabeth, just before Victor leaves for Ingolstadt at age seventeen.
Beaufort
A merchant and friend of Victor’s father; the father of Caroline Beaufort.
Peasants
A family of peasants, including a blind old man, De Lacey; his son and daughter, Felix and Agatha; and a foreign woman named Safie. The monster learns how to speak and communicate by watching them. When he reveals himself to them, seeking friendship, they beat him and drive him away.
M. Waldman
The professor of chemistry who sparks Victor’s interest in science. He dismisses the alchemists’ conclusions as unfounded but relates to Victor’s interest in a science that can explain the “great mysteries, such as the source of life.”
M. Krempe
A professor of natural philosophy at Ingolstadt. He dismisses Victor’s study of the alchemists as wasted effort and urges him to begin his studies anew.
Mr. Kirwin
The magistrate who accuses Victor of Henry’s murder.