15 - Chapter 17. Frankenstein by Mary W. Shelley.

15 - Chapter 17. Frankenstein by Mary W. Shelley.  
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, Gothic horror novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley that was first published in 1818. The epistolary story follows a scientific genius who brings to life a terrifying monster that torments its creator. It is considered one of the first science-fiction novels. An international sensation, the story has been adapted hundreds of times in different media and has influenced pop culture at large.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information, please visit LibriVox dot
blogsom dot com. Today's Reading by Gordon mackenzie Frankenstein by
Mary Shelley, Chapter seventeen. The being finished speaking and fixed

(00:22):
his looks upon me in the expectation of a reply.
But I was bewildered, perplexed, and unable to arrange my
ideas sufficiently to understand the full extent of his proposition.
He continued, You must create a female for me with
whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies
necessary for my being. This you alone can do, and

(00:46):
I demanded of you as a right, which you must
not refuse to concede. The latter part of his tale
had kindled anew in me, the anger that had died
away while he narrated his peaceful life among the cottagers.
And as he said this, I could no longer suppress
the rage that burned within me. I do refuse it,

(01:08):
I replied, And no torture shall ever extort a consent
from me. You may render me the most miserable of men,
but you shall never make me base in my own eyes.
Shall I create another like yourself whose joint wickedness might
desolate the world begone? I have answered you. You may
torture me, but I will never consent. You are in

(01:32):
the wrong, replied the fiend, And instead of threatening, I
am content to reason with you. I am malicious because
I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by
all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces
and triumph. Remember that, and tell me why I should

(01:55):
pity man more than he pities me. You would not
call it murder if you could precipitate me into one
of those ice rifts and destroy my frame the work
of your own hands. Shall I respect man when he
condemns me, Let him live with me in the interchange
of kindness, and instead of injury, I would bestow every

(02:18):
benefit upon him, with tears of gratitude at his acceptance.
But that cannot be. The human senses are insurmountable barriers
to our union. Yet mine shall not be the submission
of abject slavery. I will revenge my injuries. If I

(02:38):
cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you,
my arch enemy, Because my creator do I swear inextinguishable hatred,
have a care. I will work at your destruction, nor
finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall

(03:00):
curse the hour of your birth. A fiendish rage animated
him as he said this. His face was wrinkled into
contortions too horrible for human eyes to behold. Presently, he
calmed himself and proceeded. I intend to reason this passion
is detrimental to me, for you do not reflect that

(03:20):
you are the cause of its success. If any being
felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them
a hundred and a hundredfold. But for that one creature's sake,
I would make peace with the whole kind. But I
now indulge in dreams of bliss that cannot be realized.

(03:43):
What I ask of you is reasonable and moderate. I
demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself.
The gratification is small, but it is all that I
can receive, and it shall content me. It is true
we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world,

(04:07):
but on that account we shall be more attached to
one another. Our lives will not be happy, but they
will be harmless and free from the misery. I now feel, O,
my creator, make me happy. Let me feel gratitude towards
you for one benefit. Let me see that I excite

(04:30):
the sympathy of some existing thing. Do not deny me
my requests. I was moved. I shuddered when I thought
of the possible consequences of my consent. But I felt
that there was some justice in his argument. His tale,
and the feelings he now expressed proved him to be

(04:52):
a creature of fine sensations. And did I, not, as
his maker, owe him all the portion of happiness that
it was in my power to bestow. He saw my
change of feelings and continued, If you consent, neither you
nor any other human being shall ever see us again.

(05:14):
I will go to the vast wilds of South America.
My food is not that of man. I do not
destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite.
Acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment. My companion will
be of the same nature as myself, and will be
content with the same fare. We shall make our bed

(05:35):
of dried leaves. The sun will shine on us as
on man, and will ripen our food. The picture I
present to you is peaceful and human, and you must
feel that you could deny it only in the wantonness
of power and cruelty, pitiless as you have been towards me,

(05:57):
I now see compassion in your eyes. Let me seize
the favorable moment and persuade you to promise what I
so ardently desire. You propose, replied, I to fly from
the habitations of man, to dwell in those wilds where
the beasts of the field will be your only companions.

(06:17):
How can you, who long for the love and sympathy
of man persevere in this exile? You will return and
again seek their kindness, and you will meet with their detestation.
Your evil passions will be renewed, and you will then
have a companion to aid you in the task of destruction.
This may not be cease to argue the point, for

(06:40):
I cannot consent. How inconstant are your feelings? But a
moment ago you were moved by my representations? And why
do you again harden yourself to my complaints. I swear
to you, by the earth which I inhabit, and by
you that made me, that with the companion you bestow,

(07:02):
I will quit the neighborhood of man and dwell, as
it may chance, in the most savage of places, my
evil passions will have fled, for I shall meet with sympathy.
My life will flow quietly away, And in my dying
moments I shall not curse my maker. His words had

(07:24):
a strange effect upon me. I compassionated him, and sometimes
felt a wish to console him. But when I looked
upon him, when I saw the filthy mass that moved
and talked, my heart sickened, and my feelings were altered
to those of horror and hatred. I tried to stifle

(07:47):
these sensations. I thought that as I could not sympathize
with him, I had no right to withhold from him
the small portion of happiness which was yet in my
power to bestow you. Where I said to be harmless.
But have you not already shown a degree of malice

(08:07):
that should reasonably make me distrust you? May not even
this be a feint that will increase your triumph by
affording a wider scope for your revenge. How is this?
I must not be trifled with, and I demand an answer.
If I have no ties and no affections, hatred and

(08:29):
vice must be my portion. The love of another will
destroy the cause of my crimes, and I shall become
a thing of whose existence every one will be ignorant.
My vices are the children of a forced solitude that
I abhor, and my virtues will necessarily arise. When I

(08:51):
live in communion with an equal, I shall feel the
affections of a sensitive being and become linked to the
chain of existence and events from which I am now excluded.
I paused some time to reflect on all he had
related and the various arguments which he had employed. I
thought of the promise of virtues which he had displayed

(09:13):
on the opening of his existence, and the subsequent blight
of all kindly feeling by the loathing and scorn which
his protectors had manifested towards him. His power and threats
were not omitted in my calculations. A creature who could
exist in the ice caves of the glaciers and hide
himself from pursuit among the ridges of inaccessible precipices was

(09:35):
a being possessing faculties it would be vain to cope with.
After a long pause of reflection, I concluded that the
justice due both to him and my fellow creatures demanded
of me that I should comply with his request. Turning
to him therefore, I said, I consent to your demand
on your solemn oath, to quit Europe forever and every

(09:58):
other place in the neighborhood of me Man, as soon
as I shall deliver into your hands a female who
will accompany you in your exile. I swear, he cried,
by the sun, and by the blue sky of heaven,
and by the fire of love that burns my heart,
that if you grant my prayer, while they exist, you

(10:19):
shall never behold me again. Depart to your home and
commence your labors. I shall watch their progress with unutterable anxiety,
and fear not but that when you are ready, I
shall appear. Saying this, he suddenly quitted me, fearful perhaps

(10:40):
of any change in my sentiments. I saw him descend
the mountain with greater speed than the flight of an eagle,
and quickly lost among the undulations of the sea of ice.
His tale had occupied the whole day, and the sun
was on the verge of the horizon. When he departed.
I knew that I ought to hasten my sent towards

(11:00):
the valley, as I should soon be encompassed in darkness.
But my heart was heavy and my steps slow. The
labor of winding among the little paths of the mountain
and fixing my feet firmly as I advanced perplexed me.
Occupied as I was by the emotions which the occurrences
of the day had produced. Night was far advanced. When

(11:22):
I came to the halfway resting place and seated myself
beside the fountain. The stars shone at intervals as the
clouds passed from over them. The dark pines rose before me,
and every here and there a broken tree lay on
the ground. It was a scene of wonderful solemnity and

(11:42):
stirred strange thoughts within me. I wept bitterly, and clasping
my hands in agony, I exclaimed, Oh, stars and clouds
and winds, ye are all about to mock me. If
ye really pity me, crush sensation and memory, let me
become as naught. But if not, depart, depart and leave

(12:08):
me in darkness. These were wild and miserable thoughts. But
I cannot describe to you how the eternal twinkling of
the stars weighed upon me, and how I listened to
every blast of wind as if it were a dull,
ugly Siroc on its way to consume me. Morning dawned
before I arrived at the village of Chamuni. I took

(12:29):
no rest, but returned immediately to Geneva. Even in my
own heart, I could give no expression to my sensations.
They weighed on me with a mountain's weight, and their
excess destroyed my agony beneath them. Thus I returned home, and,
entering the house, presented myself to the family. My haggard

(12:49):
and wild appearance awoke intense alarm, but I answered no question.
Scarcely did I speak. I felt as if I were
placed under a ban, as if I had no right
to claim their sympathies, as if nevermore might I enjoy
companionship with them. Yet even thus I loved them to adoration,

(13:10):
and to save them, I resolved to dedicate myself to
my most abhorred task. The prospect of such an occupation
made every other circumstance of existence pass before me like
a dream, and that thought only had to me the
reality of life. End of Chapter seventeen.