Frankenstein chapter 2, excerpt 2
by mary shelly

victor frankenstein continues recounting the influences that lead to his great experiment:

an accident again changed the current of my ideas. when i was about fifteen years old we had retired to our house near belrive, when we witnessed a most violent and terrible
thunderstorm. it advanced from behind the mountains of jura, and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. i remained, while the storm
lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight. as i stood at the door, on a sudden i beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards
from our house, and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. when we visited it the next morning, we found the tree
shattered in a singular manner. it was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. i never beheld anything so utterly destroyed.

what does the author do for the reader in this passage?

tell a story about the future
bring in several new characters
tell a story about the past
create an unexpected twist