Frankenstein

Frankenstein spent many months looking in the mountains, where he was sure the Monster was hiding. In August he began to search near Mont Blanc. He went to Chamonix near the bottom of the Mer de Glace glacier, the great river of ice coming down from Mont Blanc.
One day we decided to cross the glacier itself. It was ­dangerous because of the deep cracks in the ice. We had to walk round them, and it took us a long time to reach the rock in the middle of the glacier. So we were surprised to see someone coming very quickly, straight across the ice towards us.
"It's the Monster," said Frankenstein.
The Monster came on until he was about ten metres from us, then stopped. He appeared to be staring at us, but his eyes were so hidden by the dirty hair that hung down over his face that it was difficult to know what he was thinking.
We looked at each other for some minutes in silence. Then he moved nearer, bringing with him a strong animal smell. If he had meant to attack us, he would surely have done so by now.
Instead he began to speak. It was the first time we had heard his voice, which was deep and rough. But the manner of his speaking did not prepare us for what he said. We were surprised to find that behind that voice lay a thinking, feeling person.
"You may wonder why I have come to meet you here," he said, fixing his look upon Frankenstein. "It is not to destroy you, as you would destroy me if you had the power to do so. It is to tell you my story. When you have heard it, then, perhaps, you will tell me whether I owe anything to you or to any man.
"First let me tell you how I found myself alone, cold, hungry and unclothed in the forest near Ingolstadt. What my life before had been I did not know, except that I remembered being in a room and you looking with disgust at me and shouting.
"I learned quickly how to live in the forest. There were springs for water and wild fruits for food. My stomach learned to take the roughest and poorest food. After all, I was not quite human, as you well know. At first I was cold, and had to walk about at night to keep warm, sleeping during the day when the sun shone. Later I found clothes hanging outside the houses of villagers. I saw what humans wore, and wished to wear the same, since at that time I still foolishly hoped to be received as one of the human race."
The Monster's voice at this point shook with feeling. He went on: "But humans were disgusted by me. One day I decided to enter a village to see what would happen. And what did happen? The children ran away, the women cried out in horror and the men threw stones at me. The body that you gave me disgusted them as it disgusted you. In the end it disgusted me. I decided to go deeper into the forest to die - as you no doubt hoped I would. It was then that I came upon the house of the de Lacys.
"At first I used to watch them from behind the trees. I used to see Felix go off into the forest and return with firewood. I saw the old man sitting in the sun. But when I saw Agatha I put away all thoughts of dying. I thought that she was as much above all the other human beings as I was below them. I wanted to be her friend. I wanted to be a friend to them all. So I began to gather wood in the forest every day and lay it beside their door; and sometimes wild fruits - early in the morning before they got up.
"One morning, just as I was putting the wood there, the door suddenly opened, and there stood Agatha. When she saw me she was surprised and frightened, but she did not shut the door. She gave me food, and I stayed. They all began asking me questions, but I could not answer them then. However, as I visited the house again and again, I began to understand and speak their language. In the end I moved into the little hut behind the house. And when Agatha and Felix used to read to their father in the evenings, I listened, and learned about the world outside the forest. I even learned to read, myself, and learned from history that human beings hardly treated each other any better than they treated me."
"I learned, too, the meaning of words like brother, sister, father and mother. I saw that I had none of these. I could not even remember having been a child. Had I forgotten all my early life, I used to wonder. Or was there nothing to forget? Could it be that I had not been born, but made already fully grown? If so, who had made me? All I could remember was a face. But whose face was it?
"The answer to my question came by chance. A man called at the cottage one day while I was in the forest and talked to the de Lacys about my 'master', Frankenstein, of Geneva. At last I knew my maker's name and where he lived. One day, I decided, I would go and seek him. But before I could do this, something happened which turned me against the human race for ever.
"I saw that in the world people lived in families, but I had no family. I knew that families could be made by two people who loved each other. From the time I first saw her, Agatha had seemed to me like something from another world; and the longer I lived with the de Lacys the more I grew to love her.
"One day when Felix had gone to the town, and the old father was asleep in his room, I found Agatha reading a book under the apple tree in the garden. I knelt down in front of her and told her of my love. I took her hand and kissed it.
"She pulled it back as if I had laid a red-hot iron there. Without a word she threw down her book and ran into the house. She stayed in her room all that afternoon. She did not have to speak: her face told me everything I needed to know. It had the same look as the first human face I ever saw - a look of horror, fear, disgust.
 "I knew then that I could never find happiness in human company, and ran off into the thickest part of the forest. For days I lay there, turning my sorrows over and over in my mind. Why should these humans treat me as they did? Was I just an animal to work for them? They had used me but never loved me.
"It was then that I decided to destroy them. One night when they were all asleep, I came quietly to their house. First I made sure that nobody could get out, by rolling large rocks against the doors. Next I went to the place built into the outside wall of the house where Agatha used to make bread. I blew the dying fire to life again, and with a handful of dried grass I carried the fire to the edge of the roof. The roof was made of dry stuff and burnt easily. I stood aside and waited." The Monster’s voice stopped. He closed his eyes and rubbed his hairy body with his great hands. He smiled as he remembered.
"After a time I heard cries from inside. But the windows were small, the old man was blind, and there was thick smoke. They died; I laughed; and ran off into the forest. I was on my way to Geneva.
 "I travelled by night so that I should not meet anybody. Because I no longer wished to belong to the human race I gave up wearing clothes, and soon found that the cold did not trouble me any more. Coming down from the moun­tains to the east end of the Lake of Geneva, I swam across the lake to Savoy, and went on towards Geneva along the south shore.
"At that point I knew I was faced with a difficulty. I knew that Geneva was a large town, and I had no way of finding where my maker lived. But I was lucky. Early one morning as I was passing some large country houses quite a long way before the town, I read, cut in the stone gate-post of one of them, the words Villa Frankenstein. I had arrived.
"I spent the next four days in the woods above the house, waiting for you to come walking that way, so that I could speak to you. But you never came. Instead, one afternoon I saw a young woman with a child coming up the path. I did not know who this child was. But as I watched him picking flowers and wandering nearer and nearer the place where I lay, an idea came to me. I would try human company once more. If I could take a child like this, too young to have fixed ideas, it might grow up to love me and be my friend. Yes, I would carry him off to some lonely place in the mountains and bring him up in my way.
"So I waited until the child came into the wood, and then got hold of him. He fought and cried out. The young woman came up and tried to pull him away. I held the child out of her reach; but I was holding him by the neck, and by the time I had dealt with her he was dead.
"I knew I could not stay after that, and so I crossed the mountains to this place, where I have been living in a cave on the edge of the glacier ever since. I was going to come to you, because I have something to ask you. Instead, you have come to me!
"Yes, Frankenstein, with the strength that you gave me I could kill you now, and your friend as well. But because I need you, I will not. I need you to make my miserable life worth living. Make me happy and I will be good."
At this, Frankenstein, who had remained silent all through the Monster's story, began to show interest. "What do you want?" he asked.
"A wife," the Monster replied.
"A wife?" cried Frankenstein. "Are you mad? Where can I find a woman who would want to be the wife of an evil creature like you?"
"You cannot find one," said the Monster. "That is why I have come to you. You must make me one."
"What!" shouted Frankenstein. "Make another like you?"
"A woman - as ugly as myself."
"Never!" said Frankenstein. "The very idea is so frightful that I will not even think of it. Even if you throw me down the deepest crack in the ice I will never make another like you."
The Monster smiled again his evil smile. "Even if I throw not only you, but all those whom you love down with you? Master, think again. You are putting others in unnecessary danger - your friend here, your father, the young woman who lives in your house. Besides, I am ready to make you a promise. As soon as you have made her we will both leave the world of cities and men, and go to the forests of South America. You will never see or hear from us again."
For a time nobody spoke. Then Frankenstein turned to me. "Leave us, Henri," he said. "Go back over the ice and wait for me there. This creature must have an answer."
I wanted to stay, but I could see from Frankenstein's look that he wanted to be left alone. The sun had already gone behind the mountain, and a cold wind began to blow down the glacier.
"Come soon," I said, and started back across the ice. When I looked back they were as I had left them, still talking on the rock while their shadows grew longer.