Frankenstein · Chapter
Chapter XXIII explained
Victor returns to Geneva to find his father Alphonse dies of grief after hearing the news of Elizabeth's murder.
What happens
Victor returns to Geneva to find his father Alphonse dies of grief after hearing the news of Elizabeth's murder. Victor is imprisoned for madness, then released and consumed by revenge. He recounts his story to a magistrate, who is skeptical and refuses to act. Victor then describes the night of Elizabeth's murder: he arms himself, she retires, he hears a scream, finds her dead, and sees the Creature jeering at the window. The magistrate dismisses his tale as madness, and Victor vows to pursue the Creature himself.
Themes in this chapter
Revenge and Destruction
Victor's consuming passion for revenge drives him to pursue the Creature, even as it destroys his family and his own sanity.
Isolation and Loneliness
Victor is left desolate after the deaths of Elizabeth and Alphonse, and his obsession isolates him from society.
Monstrosity and Otherness
The Creature is depicted as a fiendish, inhuman monster, yet his actions are a direct result of Victor's abandonment.
Characters to notice
- Victor Frankenstein
Returns to Geneva, loses his father to grief, is imprisoned for madness, and becomes obsessed with revenge against the Creature.
- The Creature
Murders Elizabeth on her wedding night and is seen jeering at the window; Victor vows to destroy him.
- Elizabeth Lavenza
Murdered by the Creature on her wedding night; Victor finds her lifeless body.
- Alphonse Frankenstein
Dies of grief after hearing the news of Elizabeth's murder.
- Ernest Frankenstein
Mentioned as still living at the time of Victor's return to Geneva.
Key passages
“Cursed, cursed be the fiend that brought misery on his grey hairs, and doomed him to waste in wretchedness!”
Victor curses the monster for causing his father's grief and death.
Victor's rage and guilt over his father's death.
“I was possessed by a maddening rage when I thought of him, and desired and ardently prayed that I might have him within my grasp to wreak a great and signal revenge on his cursed head.”
Victor's rage consumes him as he longs to capture and exact revenge on the Creature.
Victor's obsession with revenge after his release from prison.
“She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down, and her pale and distorted features half covered by her hair.”
Victor finds Elizabeth's dead body on the bed, her face pale and twisted.
The moment Victor discovers Elizabeth's murder.
“I saw at the open window a figure the most hideous and abhorred. A grin was on the face of the monster; he seemed to jeer, as with his fiendish finger he pointed towards the corpse.”
Victor sees the Creature at the window, grinning and pointing mockingly at Elizabeth's body.
The Creature's taunting appearance after the murder.
“My revenge is of no moment to you; yet, while I allow it to be a vice, I confess that it is the devouring and only passion of my soul.”
Victor admits to the magistrate that revenge is his sole, consuming passion, even though he knows it is a vice.
Victor's declaration of his all-consuming desire for revenge.