The chapter opens with a second-person perspective story about visiting a gallery of cells in which “lunatics” are housed. People visit the gallery to laugh at the “lunatics,” and the porter expects a tip.

A heading announces the setting: Bedlam, 1818.

Mr. Wakefield muses on the asylum in which he works, known as Bedlam, a shortening of Saint Mary of Bethlehem hospital in London. He notes how the original Bedlam building was magnificent, but people deemed “mad” are shackled and caged like animals. He sees all people as struggling in their minds and bodies, and he thinks people donate to mental health efforts to appease the madness they feel in themselves.

Captain Walton appears at Wakefield’s door with two assistants and an unconscious man. Walton explains that the unconscious man is Victor Frankenstein. Out at sea, Walton’s men saw a huge man driving a sledge and dogs, and Victor seems to have been chasing him. Victor awakes with a start and claims he needs to catch the one who flees from him. Walton tells Wakefield that Victor claims to have made life from discarded limbs, and Wakefield wonders if Victor is making up a story out of madness or being driven mad by the truth of the story.