Chapters 23–24: the creature kills Elizabeth on the wedding night, Victor loses his remaining family, and the final pursuit north leads back to the Arctic frame and the story’s bleak conclusion.

In Chapters 23–24, the story reaches its final tragedies. On Victor and Elizabeth’s wedding night, the creature’s threat is fulfilled—not by attacking Victor directly, but by murdering Elizabeth, destroying Victor’s last hope for happiness. After his father also dies from grief, Victor dedicates himself to hunting the creature across countries and climates, eventually pursuing him north into the ice. The story loops back toward Walton’s frame narrative as Victor’s health fails, setting up the final scenes on the ship and the creature’s last appearance.

The 1818 and 1831 editions tell the same essential story here, though the 1831 text tends to ...