CHAPTER XVII.
The being finished speaking, and fixed his looks upon me in expectationof a reply. But I was bewildered, perplexed, and unable to arrange myideas sufficiently to understand the full extent of his proposition. Hecontinued--
"You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in theinterchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alonecan do; and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse toconcede."
The latter part of his tale had kindled anew in me the anger that haddied away while he narrated his peaceful life among the cottagers, and,as he said this, I could no longer suppress the rage that burned withinme.
"I do refuse it," I replied; "and no torture shall ever extort a consentfrom me. You may render me the most miserable of men, but you shallnever make me base in my own eyes. Shall I create another like yourself,whose joint wickedness might desolate the world. Begone! I have answeredyou; you may torture me, but I will never consent."
"You are in 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 tearme to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pityman more than he pities me? You would not call it murder, if you couldprecipitate me into one of those ice-rifts, and destroy my frame, thework of your own hands. Shall I respect man, when he contemns me? Lethim live with me in the interchange of kindness; and, instead of injury,I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at hisacceptance. But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountablebarriers to our union. Yet mine shall not be the submission of abjectslavery. I will revenge my injuries: if I cannot inspire love, I willcause fear; and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator,do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care: I will work at yourdestruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shallcurse the hour of your birth."
A fiendish rage animated him as he said this; his face was wrinkled intocontortions too horrible for human eyes to behold; but presently hecalmed himself and proceeded--
"I intended to reason. This passion is detrimental to me; for you do notreflect that _you_ are the cause of its excess. If any being feltemotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them an hundred andan hundred fold; for that one creature's sake, I would make peace withthe whole kind! But I now indulge in dreams of bliss that cannot berealised. What I ask of you is reasonable and moderate; I demand acreature of another sex, but as hideous as myself; the gratification issmall, but it is all that I can receive, and it shall content me. It istrue, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on thataccount we shall be more attached to one another. Our lives will not behappy, but they will be harmless, and free from the misery I now feel.Oh! my creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for onebenefit! Let me see that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing;do not deny me my request!"
I was moved. I shuddered when I thought of the possible consequences ofmy consent; but I felt that there was some justice in his argument. Histale, and the feelings he now expressed, proved him to be a creature offine sensations; and did I not as his maker, owe him all the portion ofhappiness that it was in my power to bestow? He saw my change offeeling, and continued--
"If you consent, neither you nor any other human being shall ever see usagain: I will go to the vast wilds of South America. My food is not thatof man; I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite;acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment. My companion willbe of the same nature as myself, and will be content with the same fare.We shall make our bed of dried leaves; the sun will shine on us as onman, and will ripen our food. The picture I present to you is peacefuland human, and you must feel that you could deny it only in thewantonness of power and cruelty. Pitiless as you have been towards me, Inow see compassion in your eyes; let me seize the favourable moment, andpersuade you to promise what I so ardently desire."
"You propose," replied I, "to fly from the habitations of man, to dwellin those wilds where the beasts of the field will be your onlycompanions. 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 berenewed, and you will then have a companion to aid you in the task ofdestruction. This may not be: cease to argue the point, for I cannotconsent."
"How inconstant are your feelings! but a moment ago you were moved by myrepresentations, 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, I will quit the neighbourhood ofman, and dwell as it may chance, in the most savage of places. My evilpassions will have fled, for I shall meet with sympathy! my life willflow quietly away, and, in my dying moments, I shall not curse mymaker."
His words had a strange effect upon me. I compassionated him, andsometimes felt a wish to console him; but when I looked upon him, when Isaw the filthy mass that moved and talked, my heart sickened, and myfeelings were altered to those of horror and hatred. I tried to stiflethese sensations; I thought, that as I could not sympathise with him, Ihad no right to withhold from him the small portion of happiness whichwas yet in my power to bestow.
"You swear," I said, "to be harmless; but have you not already shown adegree of malice that should reasonably make me distrust you? May noteven this be a feint that will increase your triumph by affording awider scope for your revenge."
"How is this? I must not be trifled with: and I demand an answer. If Ihave no ties and no affections, hatred and vice must be my portion; thelove of another will destroy the cause of my crimes, and I shall becomea thing, of whose existence every one will be ignorant. My vices are thechildren of a forced solitude that I abhor; and my virtues willnecessarily arise when I live in communion with an equal. I shall feelthe affections of a sensitive being, and become linked to the chain ofexistence and events, from which I am now excluded."
I paused some time to reflect on all he had related, and the variousarguments which he had employed. I thought of the promise of virtueswhich he had displayed on the opening of his existence, and thesubsequent blight of all kindly feeling by the loathing and scorn whichhis protectors had manifested towards him. His power and threats werenot omitted in my calculations: a creature who could exist in theice-caves of the glaciers, and hide himself from pursuit among theridges of inaccessible precipices, was a being possessing faculties itwould be vain to cope with. After a long pause of reflection, Iconcluded that the justice due both to him and my fellow-creaturesdemanded 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 for ever,and every other place in the neighbourhood of man, as soon as I shalldeliver 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 bythe fire of love that burns my heart, that if you grant my prayer, whilethey exist you shall never behold me again. Depart to your home, andcommence your labours: I shall watch their progress with unutterableanxiety; and fear not but that when you are ready I shall appear."
Saying this, he suddenly quitted me, fearful, perhaps, of any change inmy sentiments. I saw him descend the mountain with greater speed thanthe flight of an eagle, and quickly lost among the undulations of thesea of ice.
His tale had occupied the whole day; and the sun was upon the verge ofthe horizon when he departed. I knew that I ought to hasten my descenttowards the valley, as I should soon be encompassed in darkness; but myheart was heavy, and my steps slow. The labour of winding among thelittle paths of the mountains, and fixing my feet firmly as I advanced,perplexed me, occupied as I was by the emotions which the occurrences ofthe day had produced. Night was far advanced, when I came to thehalf-way resting-place, and seated myself beside the fountain. The starsshone at intervals, as
the clouds passed from over them; the dark pinesrose before me, and every here and there a broken tree lay on theground: it was a scene of wonderful solemnity, and stirred strangethoughts within me. I wept bitterly; and clasping my hands in agony, Iexclaimed, "Oh! stars and clouds, and winds, ye are all about to mockme: if ye really pity me, crush sensation and memory; let me become asnought; but if not, depart, depart, and leave me in darkness."
These were wild and miserable thoughts; but I cannot describe to you howthe eternal twinkling of the stars weighed upon me, and how I listenedto every blast of wind, as if it were a dull ugly siroc on its way toconsume me.
Morning dawned before I arrived at the village of Chamounix; I took norest, but returned immediately to Geneva. Even in my own heart I couldgive no expression to my sensations--they weighed on me with amountain's weight, and their excess destroyed my agony beneath them.Thus I returned home, and entering the house, presented myself to thefamily. My haggard and wild appearance awoke intense alarm; but Ianswered no question, scarcely did I speak. I felt as if I were placedunder 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 themto adoration; and to save them, I resolved to dedicate myself to my mostabhorred task. The prospect of such an occupation made every othercircumstance of existence pass before me like a dream; and that thoughtonly had to me the reality of life.
Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus Page 24