In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, the scientist who creates the creature is named Victor Frankenstein.
Victor Frankenstein is a Swiss natural philosopher from Geneva who becomes obsessed with discovering the principle of life. He assembles a body from human remains and succeeds in animating it, but immediately recoils from the being he has made. The novel then follows the destructive consequences of Victor’s secrecy, abandonment, and refusal to accept responsibility.
The title Frankenstein belongs to the creator, not to the creature. The creature is never given a personal name in Shelley’s novel, although later adaptations and popular speech often call the creature “Frankenstein.” This is one of the best-known literary naming mix-ups.
Victor’s friend Henry Clerval and his younger brother William are separate characters. Robert Walton, the Arctic explorer who records Victor’s story, provides the novel’s outer narrative framework. Shelley’s book was first published anonymously in 1818 and is widely regarded as an important early work of science fiction and Gothic literature.