Victor Frankenstein (no idea where the later “von” came from, maybe people conflated him with Doctor Doom) of Geneva goes to Ingolstadt for further studies in Natural Philosophy, and quickly surpasses his tutors. Swept up in religious fervour, he spends the next few years creating his Monster (built out of German body parts), whom he immediately rejects out of extreme ugliness.
His Monster is naturally not too pleased about this, and after going through several further rounds of rejection (by some villagers, the guardian of a girl he saved, and the De Lacey family - the blind patriarch being the exception), decides to become a serial killer. He offs Victor’s youngest brother William (and frames their servant Justine for the crime) just to show he means business, and makes Victor an offer he can't refuse - make him a bride, and he will depart for the jungles of South America, never to return.
Accompanied by his best friend Henry Clarval, Victor goes on a sojourn through England and Scotland, picking up English and Scottish body parts along the way. At Orkney, he has an epiphany and realizes that maybe being the progenitor of an entire race of supermutants might not be such a good idea after all. The Monster watches in horror as he rends his nearly finished work asunder, and swears bloody vengeance.
Henry Clarval is swiftly dispatched, followed by Elizabeth Lavenza on their wedding night. A heartbroken Father (Alphonse) Frankenstein dies a few days later. Victor is not too pleased about this and, left with no purpose in life, pursues the Monster to the ends of the earth - across deserts, the Mediterranean, Russia, and eventually ending up at the North Pole, where he meets a marooned Robert Walton and his crew.
Captain Robert Walton obtains the friendship and inherits the will of a dying Victor, who manages to avert a mutiny with forceful words before drawing his final breath. The Monster appears and goes into a soliloquy about how being forced to do all these base things made him the basest of animals, and because one-upmanship is important, how sad he is compared to Victor. He declares that he will set himself upon a funeral pyre and departs, never to be seen again.
Random notes -
- The Monster : “Boo hoo hoo, look at me! I’m so erudite and talented and clever! I’ve read so many books (The Sorrows of Young Werther, Plutarch’s Lives, Paradise Lost)! If only you’d give me a chance to impress you! You superficial lot! Die!”
- Also the Monster : “Look what you made me do! I’m such a gentle soul, overflowing with the milk of human kindness! Don’t you know how remorseful I feel every time I steel my heart to do these evil and devious things? Do you think I like taunting and framing and murdering?”
- The Monster is a self-absorbed narcissist who blames the world (and his parents) for making him do all the nasty things he does. You empathise with him for a short while after his inception, when he has an appreciation for the elements of the natural world, when he is bullied by various representatives of mankind, and before he goes on a self-righteous killing spree.
- Victor’s creation is an Ubermensch - Superhuman strength, speed, agility, intelligence, and ugliness (so basically an 8 feet tall ninja, or Beast from X-men). Nuclear weapons, as dangerous as they are, have no autonomy beyond that granted of their users.
- The obvious correlation today is AI
