Frankenstein Chapter 23 Summary: The Wedding Night. Elizabeth's Murder

Eight o'clock. They walk the shore and go in. The wind rises in the west; a heavy storm of rain. Victor's right hand is on a pistol in his bosom. Elizabeth asks what he fears. This night, and all will be safe; but this night is dreadful. He sends her to the bedroom so she will not see the combat. He walks the passages. No trace. Then a shrill scream.

The whole truth rushes in. She is thrown across the bed, hair half covering the face, the murderous mark on her neck. The shutters are back. At the window the creature grins and points at the corpse with a fiendish finger, then leaps into the lake. Victor fires and misses. Boats and nets find nothing. Most of the searchers think it a form conjured by fancy.

No horses. He rows for Geneva in the rain and throws down the oar. The fish play as they did when she watched them. Alphonse and Ernest still live. The tidings take the springs of existence from the old man; in a few days he dies in Victor's arms. Chains and darkness; they have called him mad; months in a solitary cell. Liberty returns with revenge. He tells a Genevan magistrate the whole history, dates marked, no invective. The man listens as one listens to a tale of spirits, then will not act. Who can follow an animal through ice caves. Victor's rage looks like the old martyr frenzy. The magistrate soothes him as a nurse soothes a child. Victor breaks from the house to think of some other mode of action.