Frankenstein Ending Explained: What Happens to Victor and the Creature?

Spoiler warning: This article discusses the ending of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, including the deaths of major characters.

At the end of Frankenstein, Victor dies aboard Robert Walton’s ship after his pursuit of the Creature leaves him gravely ill and exhausted. The Creature appears over Victor’s body, expresses grief and remorse, and announces that he intends to destroy himself. He then leaves on an ice raft. Shelley never shows his death.

That distinction makes the ending especially unsettling. Victor’s story reaches a definite conclusion, while the being he created disappears beyond the narrator’s sight.

The final pages also leave readers with a difficult question: what has either character gained from revenge?

This explanation focuses on Shelley’s novel, with references to the 1831 text, rather than any particular film adaptation. For a broader introduction, read our Frankenstein book review.

What Happens Before the Ending of Frankenstein?

The final pursuit follows the destruction of Victor’s family and closest relationships.

Earlier in the novel, the Creature kills Victor’s younger brother William and frames Justine Moritz, who is executed. He later demands that Victor create a female companion, promising that the pair will withdraw from human society.

Victor begins the work but destroys the unfinished female creature. He fears that she might reject the arrangement, become violent, or help produce a new population that threatens humanity.

The Creature retaliates. He murders Victor’s friend Henry Clerval and then Elizabeth on her wedding night.

Victor has misunderstood the threat against his wedding night, expecting an attack on himself. His failure to recognize Elizabeth as the intended victim makes her death particularly devastating.

After Victor’s father dies from grief, Victor devotes himself to pursuing the Creature. Their journey eventually takes them into the Arctic, where Walton’s expedition finds Victor near death.

The novel’s opening rescue and its closing events belong to the same framing story: Victor has been telling Walton how he arrived there.

How Does Victor Frankenstein Die?

Victor dies from the physical collapse that follows his punishing pursuit of the Creature. Walton rescues him, but his health continues to deteriorate aboard the ship.

Shelley describes exhaustion, worsening illness, fainting, and difficulty breathing. The text does not establish a precise modern medical diagnosis.

The Creature does not arrive and kill Victor in a final confrontation. Victor dies while his enemy is still beyond his reach.

That is part of the tragedy. Victor has sacrificed his remaining life to a pursuit he cannot complete. Even rescue cannot persuade him to accept a future without revenge.

When Walton decides to return to England, Victor tries to rise from his bed and continue the chase. His body can no longer support his determination.

Does Victor Regret Creating the Creature?

Victor’s final reflections are contradictory.

He recognizes that creating a rational, feeling being gave him responsibilities toward it. Yet he also defends his refusal to create a companion, arguing that his obligations to humanity took precedence.

He continues to believe that the Creature should die, and he renews his request that Walton destroy him if the opportunity arises. However, he also admits that his judgment may still be distorted by passion.

His advice about ambition is equally unsettled. He urges Walton to seek a peaceful life and avoid the ambition associated with scientific distinction, then immediately entertains the possibility that someone else might succeed where he failed.

My reading is that Victor understands the cost of his obsession more clearly than he understands his own responsibility. He can describe the wreckage, but he never fully escapes the thinking that helped create it.

Shelley gives him moments of recognition without turning his death into a complete moral transformation.

Why Does the Creature Cry When Victor Dies?

After Victor’s death, Walton discovers the Creature grieving over his creator’s body.

The scene seems surprising because the Creature has spent so much of the novel trying to make Victor suffer. But revenge has not erased his desire for connection.

Victor is his creator, his enemy, and the person most directly bound to the mystery of his existence. Losing Victor ends that relationship permanently.

The Creature also acknowledges what his vengeance has made him. He once wanted love and companionship; he has instead murdered innocent people and helped destroy the only person who could answer for bringing him into the world.

His grief can therefore be read as both mourning for Victor and horror at himself.

Walton challenges him, accusing him of lamenting destruction that he deliberately caused. That response matters: the novel allows the Creature to describe his suffering without requiring readers to excuse his violence.

Does the Creature Die at the End of Frankenstein?

The Creature says he intends to die, but his death is not confirmed.

He tells Walton that he will travel farther north, build a funeral pyre, and burn his body. He also explains that destroying his remains would prevent another experimenter from using them to create a being like him.

He then leaves the ship through the cabin window and steps onto an ice raft.

The novel ends:

“He was soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness and distance.”

Those final words describe his disappearance. They do not establish that he reaches his destination or carries out his plan.

It is reasonable to interpret the speech as his sincere intention. It is inaccurate to summarize the novel as though Walton witnesses him burning.

The difference is central to the ending: Victor’s death is observed, while the Creature’s future remains outside the surviving narrator’s knowledge.

What Does the Final Line Mean?

The final line gives physical form to the Creature’s isolation.

Throughout the novel, he struggles to find someone willing to recognize his feelings and accept his presence. His last appearance places him beyond human contact once again.

The darkness also limits what Walton, and therefore the reader, can know. The story stops when its witness can no longer see the Creature.

One way to read this choice is that Shelley denies us the comfort of a neatly resolved punishment. We have heard the Creature confess, accuse, mourn, and promise to end his life, but we cannot follow him into that final decision.

The result is an ending that closes the pursuit while leaving the Creature’s fate uncertain.

Why Does Walton Turn Back?

Walton’s decision gives the ending a possibility that Victor’s story largely lacks: someone can stop.

Like Victor, Walton longs for distinction through an extraordinary achievement. His Arctic expedition exposes other people to danger in pursuit of that ambition.

When his sailors demand a return south if the ice releases them, he eventually agrees.

This is not an effortless change of heart. Walton resents the loss of his hopes, while Victor urges the men to persevere. Nevertheless, Walton accepts that he cannot force his crew into further danger.

His choice can be read as the novel’s strongest practical answer to Victor’s example. Recognizing an obligation to other people means allowing that obligation to change what you do.

Walton survives to record the story because he accepts a limit that Victor repeatedly refuses.

Who Is the Real Monster in Frankenstein?

The ending complicates this question rather than assigning all the blame to one character.

Victor abandons a vulnerable being immediately after creating him. The Creature suffers rejection and violence, but he also chooses to murder people who are not responsible for his creation.

Their suffering does not make their responsibilities disappear.

What makes the final scene so powerful is that the Creature can understand the horror of his actions. His remorse reveals a capacity for moral judgment, even after he has repeatedly acted against it.

To me, the ending works best when both truths remain visible: the Creature has been treated cruelly, and he has committed terrible acts.

Victor’s failures help explain the tragedy. They do not absolve the Creature, just as the Creature’s crimes do not erase Victor’s neglect.

Frankenstein Ending FAQs

Does Victor kill the Creature?

No. Victor dies before he can complete his pursuit. The Creature is still alive when he leaves Walton’s ship.

Does the Creature kill Victor?

He does not directly kill Victor in the final scene. However, his murders and the prolonged pursuit contribute to Victor’s collapse, and he claims responsibility for destroying his creator.

Does Victor forgive the Creature?

The novel does not show a reconciliation. Victor dies before the Creature appears over his body, and the Creature’s request for forgiveness receives no answer.

Does Walton kill the Creature?

No. Walton confronts him and listens to his final speech, but the Creature leaves alive.

Is Frankenstein the scientist or the Creature?

Frankenstein is Victor’s surname. The being he creates has no personal name in the novel.

Is Frankenstein’s ending happy?

It is tragic for Victor and the Creature. Walton’s decision to return home offers a limited hope that someone can learn from their destruction before repeating it.

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