Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Annotated) characters

Appears from the start

An English explorer writing to his sister from a voyage toward the North Pole. Ambitious and lonely, he hopes to make a great discovery but longs for a friend who can understand him. After his crew finds an exhausted traveler on the ice, Walton records the stranger's history.

Also known as Frankenstein

Appears from the start

A Genevan scientist rescued from the Arctic ice while pursuing an unknown figure. Gravely ill and disturbed by Walton's hunger for glory, he offers the explorer the account of his own ruin as a warning about ambition pursued without restraint.

Appears from the start

Victor's father, a respected Genevan devoted to his family. He provides Victor with a secure childhood and later tries to comfort and protect him through a succession of family crises.

Appears from the start

Victor's mother, the daughter of Alphonse's impoverished friend Beaufort. Compassionate and attentive to those in distress, she builds a close household around Victor, his brothers, Elizabeth, and their companions.

Also known as Elizabeth

Appears from the start

Victor's beloved childhood companion, raised in the Frankenstein household and regarded as part of the family. Gentle, perceptive, and loyal, she values affection and domestic happiness more than the intellectual ambitions that increasingly occupy Victor.

Appears from the start

Victor's youngest brother, a lively child cherished by the Frankenstein family. His place in Victor's early account establishes the innocent domestic world Victor leaves behind when he goes to university.

Appears from the start

A young woman taken into the Frankenstein household after hardship in her own family. She is especially close to Elizabeth and is treated as a trusted companion rather than simply a servant.

First appears in chapter 2

Victor's closest friend from childhood, warmhearted, imaginative, and interested in languages and human culture. His humane curiosity contrasts with Victor's secretive fascination with natural philosophy, and he later joins Victor at Ingolstadt.

First appears in chapter 3

A professor at Ingolstadt who dismisses Victor's early reading in obsolete natural philosophy. His harsh manner embarrasses Victor, though his criticism helps redirect the young student's education toward contemporary science.

First appears in chapter 3

A chemistry professor at Ingolstadt whose courtesy and enthusiasm impress Victor. He respects earlier thinkers while explaining how modern experiment has expanded human knowledge, encouraging Victor's scientific ambitions.

Also known as the creature, the monster

First appears in chapter 5

The enormous living being Victor secretly constructs from dead matter. Victor selected features he imagined would be beautiful, but when the being opens its eyes the result horrifies him, and he abandons it without attempting to understand or care for it.

First appears in chapter 12

An elderly blind man living in poverty with his adult children in a rural cottage. The creature observes his gentleness and hopes that, because De Lacey cannot see his appearance, the old man may listen without immediate prejudice.

First appears in chapter 12

De Lacey's son, living in exile with his father and sister. The creature secretly watches Felix labor for the family's survival and learns from the tenderness and sorrow within the cottage household.

First appears in chapter 12

Felix's sister and De Lacey's daughter, a compassionate young woman sharing the family's exile and poverty. Her everyday speech and conduct are among the creature's first sustained lessons in human language and feeling.

First appears in chapter 13

A young woman from Turkey who arrives at the De Laceys' cottage to reunite with Felix. As Felix teaches her French, the hidden creature follows the lessons and learns language, history, and the customs of human society alongside her.