During his time in Ingolstadt city, Victor Frankenstein wanted to prove that science didn't prove the finality of death and it was possible to resurrect a deceased body. His ideas were considered blasphemous by the professors and majority of the students. Victor Frankenstein was fanatic in his ideas, and only two people, Henry Clerval and Professor Waldman, stood by him because Professor Waldman had actually concocted such experiments himself only for them to end in "abominations." However, Victor was certain his way would be a success, and he assembled his equipment including glass pipes and electrical conductors, and set about stealing from cemeteries and used the body of a violent man who had killed Professor Waldman as the base for his experiments. Frankenstein sliced into the dead man's head, and took Professor Waldman's brain to make the creation intelligent. He also took from cemeteries, "bits of thieves, bits of murderers" giving the Monster a lust for violence.
One night, Victor Frankenstein deliberately put his experiment into action, and summoned lightning from the roof to run down his pipes and inject the inert body with life. The experiment seemed to work, prompting him to yell "IT'S ALIVE!" but suddenly the Monster went limp. Assuming it was dead, Frankenstein walked away miserably, but suddenly his creation jerked awake. It began writhing, and soon smashed out of its box. Frankenstein restrained the eight-foot tall creature and hoisted him on chains hanging from the ceiling.
That night, the Creature (as he was named, because Frankenstein had carelessly forgot to name him) approached the sleeping Victor, and startled him into awakening, and then the Creature smiled, being very friendly at first, but then grew shocked when Frankenstein beat him with a rifle and kicked him out of the apartment. The saddened Creature dressed himself in a black cloak and hood, and got to roaming the streets of Ingolstadt.
The Creature went to a wagon, and then smelt bread, and he got hungry. But a woman yelled at him to get away, and ripped off his hood, and thinking he had cholera, she beat him and drove him away. The whole street ganged up on the Creature, believing him to be a plague carrier, and drove him out, but he put up a fight, showing his superhuman strength and roaring at them. He fled, and took refuge in a mountain river.
The Creature later found a poor family in the Alps, who were desperate for food and he decided to use his powers for good, and the Creature pulled up vegetables at night, seeing how they were too weak to do it and that the earth was frozen. The Creature then put the food on their table overnight. The delighted family thanked the "Good Spirit of the Forest" for giving them food, but the Creature had been spotted by the blind grandfather, who knew someone was helping them. Finally the grandfather called the Creature into his house when the Creature killed the evil landlord, who threatened to kick them out. The Creature was welcomed by the grandfather who said "a man shouldn't have to hide in the shadows." The grandfather said that the Creature could trust him, and he felt the Creature's face, and wondered if he had no friends. The Creature said there were some people (the family) but they didn't know him. The grandfather then said why didn't he go to them but the Creature said "they are so beautiful and I am so ugly."
However, the son and his family ran in and saw the Creature. Horrified, they kicked the poor Creature out, who was rejected when he was trying to do good. He was left sobbing in the woods, but then suddenly found Frankenstein's journal and then he learned that his master had made him. The Creature ran back to the cabin but found the family had run off. So, angered, he stopped being the Creature, became Frankenstein's Monster, and roared his vengeance, as he burned the cabin.
Setting out to Geneva, the Monster soon found young Bill Frankenstein, Victor's brother, in the woods, and realizing he was related because he saw Victor's locket in Bill's hands, the Monster set off angrily after him, strangling him in the dark.
The maid, Justine, was hanged for the crime. So, Victor was remorseful and approached by the Monster in the dark, who said he would meet him on the mountain the next day. The Monster was lurking on the mountain when Victor approached and the Monster threw Victor into his icy cavern, where they conversed. Victor was amazed he had made such an intelligent yet deadly creation, and he realized that he could grant the Monster his wish: to have a female like him to live as outcasts together. The Monster forced Victor into saying that he would obey.
Victor had no choice but to accept. When the Monster and him discussed what corpse to use, Victor said he wouldn't do such an evil thing, to which the Monster said they were just "raw materials - your words." When Victor refused, the Monster roared that if he was denied a wedding night, he would be at Victor's.
Victor tried to warn his bride Elizabeth, but she wouldn't listen, however they got married. True to form, the Monster showed up on the night, playing a lute, however, he smashed through the ceiling and grabbed Elizabeth's heart and yanked it out of her chest. Telling Victor he had fulfilled his promise, the Monster ran out evading gunshots.
The Monster was determined to have his bride, and when Victor resurrected Elizabeth as a disgusting monster, the Monster appeared and demanded his prize. However, Victor tried to get her to be with him, but she burned herself upon realizing she was created. The Monster then fled to the Arctic, with Victor close behind him. Victor came upon Captain Walton's ship, and told the captain his tale, before dying of pneumonia.
The captain met the Monster, who was lamenting the loss of his master, and the Monster attended Frankenstein's pyre, where the men said farewell to him. Suddenly the ice broke, and the sailors all ran to board the ship. Walton begged the Monster to come with them, but the Monster said he was "done with man" and he swam off to the ice pack, taking the torch with him. He got on Frankenstein's pyre, stood beside his deceased master, and dropped the torch on himself, dying as the flames consumed him.