Walton and his crew rescue a starving Victor Frankenstein from the Arctic ice after his sled crashes.

Frankenstein's mother dies of scarlet fever, inspiring his obsession with conquering death and reanimating the dead.

Frankenstein leaves his family and Elizabeth behind to pursue natural philosophy at the university in Ingolstadt.

Frankenstein successfully animates a living creature assembled from stolen bones and organs collected over many months.

Horrified by his creation's grotesque appearance, Frankenstein flees his laboratory and collapses into a debilitating illness.

Frankenstein receives a letter from his father revealing that his youngest brother William has been murdered.

Justine is convicted of William's murder based on evidence planted by the monster and sentenced to death.

The monster confronts Frankenstein on an isolated mountainside and demands that Frankenstein listen to his story.

The monster reveals he killed William and framed Justine, then demands Frankenstein create a female companion for him.

Frankenstein destroys the nearly complete female creation after spotting the monster watching through the cabin window.

The monster kills Henry Clerval in Ireland, and Frankenstein is discovered near the body and accused of murder.

Frankenstein is proven innocent of Henry's murder and released from the Irish prison as a prematurely aged man.

Frankenstein and Elizabeth are married, and the monster kills Elizabeth in their room on the wedding night.

Frankenstein's father dies of grief after Elizabeth's death, leaving Frankenstein entirely alone and consumed by revenge.

Frankenstein dies aboard Walton's ship after warning Walton against the reckless pursuit of knowledge and ambition.

Walton's Arctic expedition leads to the rescue of Victor Frankenstein, who is found near death on the ice in pursuit of a monster he created. Frankenstein traces his downfall to the moment he successfully animated a creature from stolen bones and organs, then fled from the horror of his own creation. After the monster kills William and frames Justine, Frankenstein makes a doomed bargain to create a female companion, which he ultimately destroys, triggering a fresh wave of retaliation. The monster murders Henry Clerval and then Elizabeth on her wedding night, reducing Frankenstein to a hollow, grief-consumed man. His father dies of sorrow, and Frankenstein dedicates the rest of his failing life to hunting the monster northward into the Arctic. He dies on Walton's ship having lost everything, offering one final warning about the cost of unchecked ambition.

The landmark events that drive Frankenstein's tragic arc from beginning to end.

Walton writes to his sister Margaret expressing a deep longing for a trusted companion on his Arctic voyage.

Frankenstein discovers the occult works of Cornelius Agrippa and becomes captivated by the promise of everlasting life.

Frankenstein meets chemistry professor Waldman, who argues that modern science produces real results and grants Frankenstein lab access.

Frankenstein steals bones from graveyards and collects organs from a slaughterhouse to construct his human-like creation.

Henry Clerval arrives in Ingolstadt and nurses Frankenstein through several months of debilitating nervous fever.

Frankenstein and Elizabeth attend Justine's trial together, and Elizabeth testifies to Justine's strong moral character.

Frankenstein's father takes the family on a trip to the Chamounix Valley mountains to try to lift their spirits.

The monster secretly gathers stacks of wood and harvests food to help the struggling family he has been observing.

The monster learns to read and grows increasingly troubled by his monstrous appearance and his unknown origins.

The monster saves a woman from drowning in a lake but is shot by bystanders who find him with her.

Frankenstein travels to England to gather knowledge for his project and reunites with a cheerful Henry in Strasburg.

Frankenstein sets up a secret laboratory in an isolated, nearly abandoned cliffside town in Scotland to begin the second creation.

Frankenstein loads the destroyed female creation's remains into a basket and dumps everything into the sea from his boat.

Frankenstein's father arrives to visit him in the Irish prison, a relief after Frankenstein feared the monster had come.

The monster hovers over Frankenstein's body expressing guilt and regret, then carries him away northward intending to die alone.

Long before Frankenstein's tragedy fully unfolds, a series of smaller events set the stage for everything that follows. Walton's longing for companionship echoes the monster's own need for connection, and Frankenstein's early fascination with alchemy points toward the hubris that will define his life. His friendship with Henry Clerval and his education under Professor Waldman shape the man he becomes, while the monster's secret acts of kindness toward the family he observes reveal the compassion buried beneath his fearsome exterior. As Frankenstein sets up his remote Scottish laboratory and eventually dumps the remains of his destroyed second creation into the sea, the consequences of his choices quietly escalate. After Henry's murder and the Irish imprisonment, it is Frankenstein's father's loyal appearance at his cell that briefly restores his will to live. The story closes with the monster standing over Frankenstein's body, voicing regret before carrying his creator northward into oblivion.

The supporting events that flesh out Frankenstein's world and the monster's humanity.

Lightning destroys an oak tree near the family home, and Frankenstein's father explains the nature of electricity to him.

Frankenstein successfully reanimates a dog, proving his theories about reversing death before attempting to animate a human form.

Frankenstein dreams of embracing Elizabeth, but her face turns into a decomposing skeleton when he looks at her.

Frankenstein catches a glimpse of the monster near William's murder site during a dark and stormy night, recognizing who is guilty.

Frankenstein and Elizabeth visit Justine in prison, where Justine kneels before Elizabeth begging her to believe her innocence.

The monster's earliest days are depicted in wordless black-and-white panels as he discovers fire, sunlight, and sensation for the first time.

The monster enters the cabin while the couple is away and tells the blind elderly man about his loneliness and wish for friendship.

The husband returns home, finds the monster inside, and violently attacks him, driving him away from the only family he loved.

In a fury of rejection and loneliness, the monster burns the family's cabin to the ground before fleeing into the night.

Frankenstein reluctantly agrees to create a second monster, acknowledging for the first time that a creator has duties to his creation.

After Frankenstein destroys the female creation, the monster confronts him and vows to return on Frankenstein's wedding night.

Traveling to Paris with his father, Frankenstein tries to confess that all the deaths were his fault, but his father dismisses it.

Elizabeth writes to Frankenstein asking him to be honest about whether he truly loves her before they proceed with the wedding.

After losing Elizabeth and his father, Frankenstein is committed to a psychiatric hospital for several months with little memory of the time.

In his final moments, Frankenstein reverses his dying request and urges Walton to seek happiness in tranquility rather than dangerous ambition.

A series of charged moments, each more consequential than the last, steers every major character toward their ultimate destiny. From Frankenstein's earliest experiments with electricity and reanimation to the nightmare vision of Elizabeth as a skeleton, the seeds of tragedy are planted long before the monster even speaks. The monster's own turning points mirror Frankenstein's, moving from innocent wonder to violent rage the moment the family he loved drives him away. A failed attempt by Frankenstein to confess his guilt to his father, an unanswered letter from Elizabeth, and a prolonged stay in a psychiatric hospital all illustrate how completely Frankenstein's world has collapsed by the time the wedding night catastrophe arrives. Across both narratives, each turning point is a moment where a different choice might have changed everything, yet neither creator nor creation finds the wisdom to make it in time. The story ends on Frankenstein's deathbed, where he finally articulates the lesson his life was too consumed by ambition to learn sooner.