Guide to Frankenstein

Frankenstein Characters: Victor, Elizabeth, Clerval and Walton

The scientist, the people he loves, the friend who listens and the family in the cottage

By Tori BooksUpdated November 20266 min readContains spoilers

Mary Shelley

Frankenstein has a small cast for such a famous book, and Mary Shelley arranges it like a set of rings. On the outside is Walton, writing letters from the Arctic. Inside his story is Victor's. Inside Victor's is the creature's own account, and at its very centre is a poor family in a cottage who never learn they changed everything.

Follow the rings inward and every character turns out to be tied to the next.

Who is Victor Frankenstein?

Victor is the eldest son of a respected family in Geneva. As a boy he devours old books about alchemy, and at university in Ingolstadt he throws himself into chemistry until he discovers how to give life to dead matter. He works in secret for nearly two years, builds a giant body and brings it to life, and then runs from it in horror.

The rest of his life is spent paying for that night. He keeps the secret even when it costs other people their lives, and he finally pursues the creature across the frozen north, where Walton finds him half dead on the ice.

Who is the creature?

The being Victor builds is never named. He wakes up gentle and confused, teaches himself to speak and read by secretly watching a poor family, and longs to be accepted. Every human he approaches recoils from him. When Victor refuses to make him a companion, he takes revenge on the people Victor loves. Our separate guide covers his name, his looks and whether he is truly a monster.

Who is Elizabeth Lavenza?

Elizabeth is raised alongside Victor and is meant to marry him from childhood. In the first edition of 1818 she is his cousin. In Mary Shelley's revised edition of 1831 she becomes an orphan the family adopts from a poor home in Italy. She is warm, patient and loyal, and she defends Justine when no one else will. The creature warns Victor that he will be with him on his wedding night, and he keeps that promise.

Who is Henry Clerval?

Henry is Victor's oldest friend, the son of a Geneva merchant, a lover of poetry, languages and travel. He nurses Victor back to health after the creature first appears and later travels with him to England and Scotland. He is everything Victor is not: open, cheerful and curious about people rather than secrets. The creature kills him, and Victor is arrested for the murder when he is washed ashore in Ireland, until a kind magistrate, Mr. Kirwin, helps clear him.

Who is Robert Walton?

Walton is an English explorer trying to reach the North Pole. The novel opens and closes with his letters to his sister, Margaret Saville, in England. He rescues Victor from the ice, listens to his story and writes it down. Walton is ambitious in exactly the way Victor once was, and Victor's warning seems to reach him: when his crew begs to turn back, he agrees. He is also the last person to see the creature.

Who are William, Justine and Victor's parents?

Victor's father, Alphonse, is a kind and steady man who suffers every blow of the story and dies of grief after Elizabeth's death. His mother, Caroline Beaufort, dies of scarlet fever while Victor is still young. William, the cheerful youngest brother, is the creature's first victim, and a younger brother, Ernest, survives.

Justine Moritz is a servant raised almost as a daughter of the house. When William is killed, the creature hides evidence on her, and she is tried and executed while Victor, who knows the truth, stays silent.

Who are the De Laceys?

While hiding in a shed beside their cottage, the creature watches the De Lacey family: the blind old father, his son Felix and daughter Agatha, who were wealthy in France before they were driven into exile. Later Safie, the young woman Felix loves, arrives, and as Felix teaches her his language, the creature learns it too. When he finally speaks to the blind father, the others return, panic and drive him off, and the family leaves for good. It is the moment his hope dies.

Who are the minor characters?

At Ingolstadt, Victor studies under two professors: the scornful Krempe and the encouraging Waldman, who sets him on his path. Margaret Saville, Walton's sister, never appears but receives every letter. And the magistrate Mr. Kirwin treats Victor kindly during his imprisonment in Ireland.

Who's who at a glance

More about Frankenstein

Books Like Frankenstein

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr HydeRobert Louis StevensonLes Liaisons dangereusesPierre Choderlos de LaclosThe Heart of the MatterGraham GreeneJane EyreCharlotte BrontëThe Sheltering SkyPaul BowlesCatch-22Joseph HellerA High Wind in JamaicaRichard HughesDraculaBram Stoker

This guide discusses the whole plot, including the ending.