Chapter 17

by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

He finished speaking and looked at me, waiting for a response. But I was confused, overwhelmed, and unable to gather my thoughts enough to grasp the full weight of his request. He continued,

“You need to create a female for me, someone with whom I can share the connection that’s essential for my existence. You’re the only one who can do this, and I demand it as a right you cannot refuse.”

His words reignited the anger that had faded while he recounted his peaceful life among the cottagers. As he spoke, I could no longer hold back the fury that surged within me.

“I refuse,” I shot back. “No amount of torture will ever make me agree. You can make me the most miserable man alive, but you will never make me feel low in my own eyes. Am I supposed to create another like you, whose combined wickedness could wreak havoc on the world? Get out! I’ve answered you; you can torture me, but I will never give in.”

“You’re mistaken,” the creature replied. “Instead of threatening, I’m willing to reason with you. I’m malicious because I’m miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all of humanity? You, my creator, would tear me apart and revel in it. Remember that, and tell me why I should pity humans more than they pity me? You wouldn’t hesitate to destroy me if you could push me into one of those ice crevices and obliterate the body you made. How can I respect humanity when they condemn me? If they lived with me in kindness, I would repay them with gratitude and benefits. But that’s impossible; human nature stands as an insurmountable barrier to our union. Yet I refuse to submit to a life of servitude. I will take revenge for my wrongs; if I can’t inspire love, I will instill fear, especially towards you, my greatest enemy. As my creator, I swear I will harbor an unquenchable hatred for you. Beware; I will work towards your destruction and won’t stop until I’ve shattered your heart, making you curse the day you were born.”

A fierce rage lit up his face, twisting it into a sight too horrifying for any human to bear. But soon he calmed himself and continued.

“I meant to reason with you. This anger is harmful to me, and you must realize that you are the cause of it. If any being showed me kindness, I would return it a hundredfold. For that one creature, I would make peace with all of humanity! But now I’m lost in dreams of happiness that can never come true. What I’m asking for is reasonable and modest; I want a mate of the opposite sex, but as ugly as I am. The satisfaction is small, but it’s all I can hope for, and it would be enough. Yes, we would be monsters, cut off from the world, but that would only make us closer. Our lives wouldn’t be happy, but they would be free from the misery I currently endure. Oh, my creator, make me happy! Let me feel gratitude for just one kindness! Let me see that I can inspire sympathy in something that exists; don’t deny me this request!”

I was moved. I shuddered at the thought of what my consent might lead to, but I sensed some truth in his argument. His story and the emotions he expressed revealed him to be a being capable of deep feelings. As his creator, didn’t I owe him a chance at happiness within my power? He noticed my change of heart and pressed on.

“If you agree, neither you nor any other human will ever see us again. I will go to the vast wilderness of South America. My diet doesn’t consist of human food; I don’t kill lambs or kids to satisfy my hunger. Acorns and berries are enough for me. My companion will be like me and will be content with the same fare. We’ll make our bed of dried leaves; the sun will shine on us just as it does on humans, ripening our food. The vision I’m presenting is peaceful and humane, and you must realize that denying it would be an act of cruelty and power for its own sake. Despite your relentless cruelty towards me, I can see compassion in your eyes; let me seize this moment and persuade you to grant me my heartfelt wish.”

“You’re suggesting,” I replied, “that you escape from humanity to live in the wilderness, where only wild beasts will be your companions. How can you, who longs for love and connection, endure such isolation? You will inevitably return, seeking their kindness again, only to face their hatred. Your dark desires will resurface, and you’ll have a companion to help you wreak havoc. This cannot happen; stop arguing, for I cannot agree.”

“How fickle your feelings are!” I exclaimed. “Just a moment ago, you were moved by my words, and now you’ve hardened yourself against my complaints. I swear to you, by the ground I stand on and by you who created me, that if you give me a companion, I will leave humanity behind and live, perhaps, in the wildest of places. My dark passions will vanish because I will find understanding! My life will flow peacefully, and in my final moments, I won’t curse my creator.”

His words struck me in a strange way. I felt compassion for him and sometimes wanted to comfort him, but when I looked at him, when I saw the grotesque figure that moved and spoke, my heart turned to sickness, horror, and hatred. I tried to suppress these feelings; I thought that since I couldn’t sympathize with him, I had no right to deny him the small happiness that I could still offer.

“You swear,” I said, “that you will be harmless, but haven’t you already shown enough malice to make me distrust you? Could this not be a trick to deepen your triumph by giving you more room for revenge?”

“What do you mean?” he demanded. “I won’t be toyed with, and I expect an answer. If I have no connections and no love, then hatred and vice will be my fate. The love of another will erase my crimes, and I will become a being of whom no one will know. My vices are born from a forced solitude that I detest, and my virtues will emerge when I live alongside someone equal to me. I will feel the emotions of a sensitive being and become part of the chain of existence from which I am now excluded.”

I paused to reflect on everything he had said and the various arguments he had made. I thought of the promise of goodness he had shown when he first came into being and how that promise had been shattered by the disgust and scorn his creators had shown him. I couldn’t ignore his power and threats; a creature capable of surviving in the icy caves of glaciers and hiding among steep cliffs was not someone to take lightly. After a long moment of contemplation, I concluded that justice, both for him and for my fellow humans, required that I comply with his request. Turning to him, I said,

“I agree to your demand, on your solemn oath to leave Europe forever and every other place near humanity, as soon as I give you a female companion to join you in your exile.”

“I swear,” he cried, “by the sun, the blue sky above, and the fire of love that burns in my heart, that if you grant my wish, you will never see me again while I live. Go home and begin your work; I will watch its progress with unending anxiety. Don’t worry; when you are ready, I will appear.”

With that, he suddenly left me, perhaps fearing any change in my feelings. I watched him descend the mountain faster than an eagle, quickly disappearing among the undulating ice.

His story had taken the entire day, and the sun was just about to set when he departed. I knew I should hurry back down to the valley before darkness enveloped me, but my heart felt heavy, and my steps were slow. The effort of navigating the winding paths of the mountain and planting my feet firmly as I moved distracted me, consumed as I was by the emotions stirred by the day’s events. Night had fallen by the time I reached the halfway resting place and sat beside the fountain. The stars shone intermittently as clouds drifted by; the dark pines loomed before me, and here and there, a fallen tree lay on the ground. It was a scene of profound solemnity that stirred strange thoughts within me. I wept bitterly, clasping my hands in anguish, and cried out, “Oh! Stars, clouds, and winds, you are all about to mock me; if you truly pity me, crush my feelings and memories; let me become nothing. But if not, then depart, depart, and leave me in darkness.”

These were wild and desperate thoughts, but I can’t express how the eternal twinkling of the stars weighed on me, how I listened to every gust of wind as if it were a dull, ugly force coming to consume me.

Morning broke before I reached the village of Chamounix. I didn’t stop to rest; instead, I turned right back to Geneva. Inside, I struggled to put my feelings into words. They pressed down on me like a mountain, their weight so heavy that it dulled my pain.

When I finally arrived home and stepped into the house, my disheveled and frantic appearance sent shockwaves through my family. They were alarmed, but I didn’t answer their questions; I barely spoke at all. It felt as though I was under a curse, as if I had no right to seek their sympathy, as if I could never again enjoy their company.

Yet, despite this, my love for them was overwhelming. To protect them, I made the decision to commit myself to the very task I loathed the most. The thought of this duty overshadowed everything else in my life, transforming all other circumstances into a mere blur. In that moment, it was the only thing that felt real to me.