Frankenstein Chapter 5 Summary: The Monster Awakens

It is on a dreary night of November, at one in the morning, that Victor infuses a spark of being into the lifeless thing at his feet. Rain patters dismally against the panes. The candle is nearly burnt out. By the glimmer of the half-extinguished light he sees the dull yellow eye open. The creature breathes hard. A convulsive motion agitates its limbs. The person he had selected as beautiful is now yellow skin, watery eyes, and straight black lips. He rushes from the workshop.

He tries to sleep and dreams that he kisses Elizabeth, that she turns livid in his arms, and that he holds his mother's corpse, grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel. He wakes. The creature is at the bedside, one hand stretched out, the jaws opened, inarticulate sounds coming from it. Victor flees into a black and comfortless rain and walks without knowing where he is.

In the morning Henry Clerval finds him at an inn. The familiar face undoes him. For months Clerval nurses a fever Victor cannot explain. When Victor can sit up, Henry mentions the long silence that has frightened Geneva, then holds out a letter that has lain some days. It is from his cousin.