Frankenstein Chapter 5 Summary

Volume 1, chapter 5
• On a dreary November night, Victor had beheld the accomplishment of his toils.
• After many sleep deprived and compulsive months of hard work, the monster is brought to life. “I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open.”
• Victor immediately rushed out of the room and began to ponder on the demoniacal corpse to which he had infused life into. Here, he beings to have disturbing dreams, one of which Elizabeth was seen walking in Ingolstadt and he also saw himself holding his mother’s corpse.
• The wretch follows Victor into the room. “He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me”
• Again Victor rushes down and takes refuge in the courtyard belonging to the house he had inhabited. Here, he spent the rest of the agitated night.
• The next dismal and wet morning, with fear of every turn, Victor dared not to return to the apartment but rather run away as far as possible.
• The physical exercise of walking for some time without a destination eased the load that weighed upon his mind.
• With Victor’s eyes fixed on a coach that was driving towards him, the unexpected appearance of Victor’s best friend, Henry Clerval gave him a calm and serene joy. Clerval came to university to embark on “ a voyage of discovery to the land of knowledge”
• Henry Clerval was a breath of fresh air and a reminder of his family after so many months of isolation and ill health he brings him back to his apartment.
• Victor enters first and is relieved to find no sign of the monster. But, weakened by months of work and shock at the horrific monster he has created, he immediately falls ill with a nervous fever that lasts several months.
• Henry nurses him back to health and, gives him a letter from Elizabeth that had arrived during his illness.