Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Weeks pass, and Frankenstein feels unable to begin his work. He frequently goes to the lake for comfort. His father one day tells him that he always wanted him to marry Elizabeth and asks whether Frankenstein would be inclined. Frankenstein assures him that he would like to marry her. However, he does not want to marry Elizabeth before creating the creature’s companion, a task that is a “deadly weight hanging round” his neck (137). He also would like to go to England to speak with scientists who have knowledge that would help him in his task, and he does not want to create the companion in his father’s house.

Frankenstein tells his father he would like to go to England, and his father arranges for Clerval to join him. Frankenstein prepares to leave, though he is concerned that his family will be left with no protection from the creature. He consoles himself with the reminder that the creature promised to watch him and therefore will follow him to England. Upon returning, Frankenstein will marry Elizabeth.

Frankenstein leaves in September and meets Clerval in Strasbourg. While Frankenstein is “desponding and sorrowful” (139), Clerval is “alive to every new scene, joyful when he saw the beauties of the setting sun, and more happy when he [beholds] it rise and recommence a new day” (139). As they travel by boat along the Rhine so they can take a ship to London, they pass many idyllic scenes, which charm Clerval.

Clerval and Frankenstein decide to stay in London for a few months. Clerval speaks with “men of genius and talent” while Frankenstein seeks “the information necessary for the completion of [his] promise” (143). He takes no pleasure in speaking to philosophers he would otherwise find joy in learning from. He finds company “irksome” and feels “an insurmountable barrier” between himself and others (143).

In February, they receive a letter from a friend in Scotland asking them to visit. They leave for Scotland in March and enjoy their leisurely trip through England, making stops in various cities. Frankenstein is relieved when they near Scotland, for he fears the creature will grow impatient. He is worried about his family back in Geneva and anxiously awaits letters so he knows they are safe.

Frankenstein tells Clerval he would like to tour Scotland alone and that they should meet in Perth, where their friend lives. He then seeks a “remote spot of Scotland” so he can build the creature’s companion (148). He goes to the Scottish Highlands to “one of the remotest of the Orkneys,” where he finds “a place [fit] for such a work, being hardly more than a rock whose high sides [are] continually beaten upon by the waves” (148).

He rents a hut that “exhibit[s] all the squalidness of the most miserable penury” (148). He works in the morning and walks along the sea in the evening, contemplating the “desolate and appalling landscape” (148). His work disgusts him, and some days he cannot bring himself to work. He also fears seeing the creature. He simultaneously looks forward to and fears finishing his task, the end of which approaches.

One night, Frankenstein contemplates how he does not know the disposition of the companion, who may be “ten thousand times more malignant than her mate” (150). Though the creature promised to leave human society, the companion made no such promise. She and the creature “might even hate each other” (150). He also worries that they will have children and create “a race of devils who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror” (150). Frankenstein believes he does not have the right “to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations” purely for his “own benefit” (151). He fears that “future ages” will curse him (151). He looks outside, sees the creature, and then destroys the companion. The creature cries out and flees.

Later, the creature returns and enters the hut. He is furious with Frankenstein for breaking his promise. He asks whether every man should have a wife but him. He reminds Frankenstein that he used to feel love and that those feelings were replaced with “detestation and scorn” (152). He promises that he will be with Frankenstein on his wedding night and then flees. Frankenstein resigns himself to the fact that the creature will kill him and fears not for himself but for Elizabeth, who will mourn him.

Frankenstein walks along the sea feeling separated from all humankind. He sleeps in the grass and feels better when he awakens. A man in a boat approaches and gives him a letter from Clerval, who asks that Frankenstein join him in Perth. Frankenstein puts the companion’s remains in a basket and, in the early hours of the morning, takes the basket onto a boat and throws it into the sea.

After being tossed about in a storm, his boat finally reaches land, where a crowd gathers. Frankenstein asks where he is, and a man tells him the place “will not prove much to [his] taste” (157). When Frankenstein expresses surprise, the man replies that “it is the custom of the Irish to hate villains” (158). Another man tells Frankenstein he must follow him to the office of the magistrate, Mr. Kirwin, “to give an account of the death of a gentleman who was found murdered here last night” (158). Frankenstein goes with him.