May not even this be a feint that will increase your triumph by affording a wider scope for your revenge?
But further arguments by the creature wore Victor down, and eventually he allowed himself to be persuaded that the creation of a female monster would be the best way out of his predicament.
Turning to him, therefore, I said, "I consent to your demand, on your solemn oath to quit Europe forever, and every other place in the neighborhood of 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 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, of any change in my sentiments. I saw him descend the mountain with greater speed than the flight of an eagle, and quickly he was lost among the undulations of the sea of ice.
The scientist went home. But he did not hurry to begin his labors. Perhaps he was considering the fuller implications of the second creation, and the tribe of monsters that it might engender, though oddly such considerations receive only brief mention in the book. He relates that he "passed whole days alone on the lake in a little boat," rather avoiding the matter than thinking it over. And he debated, with his father, another matter that had long been subject to an "understanding" among the parties involved—his expected marriage to Elizabeth Lavenza.
Alas! To me the idea of an immediate union with my Elizabeth was one of horror and dismay. I was bound by a solemn promise (He means to the monster, not to her—B.F.) which I had not yet fulfilled and dared not break, or, if I did, what manifold miseries might not impend over me and my devoted family! Could I enter into a festival with this deadly weight yet hanging around my neck and bowing me to the ground? I must perform my engagement and let the monster depart with his mate before I allowed myself to enjoy the delight of a union from which I expected peace.
Frankenstein declares that he had "heard of some discoveries having been made by an English philosopher," knowledge of which would be "material to his success." (It would appear, esteemed Parent, that since the first male of the monster race was constructed without the benefit of this knowledge, it must pertain particularly to the female parts.)
To fulfill his promise, then, Frankenstein faced the necessity "of either journeying to England or entering into a long correspondence with those philosophers of that country whose knowledge and discoveries were of indispensable use to me in my present undertaking." But he considered that "the latter method of obtaining the desired intelligence" would be "dilatory and unsatisfactory."
Besides, I had an insurmountable aversion to the idea of engaging myself in my loathsome task in my father's house while in habits of familiar intercourse with those I loved. I knew that a thousand fearful accidents might occur, the slightest of which would disclose a tale to thrill all connected with me with horror.
Unarguable; but there was more.
I was aware also that I should often lose all self-command, all capacity of hiding the harrowing sensations that would possess me during the progress of my unearthly occupation. I must absent myself from all I loved while thus employed.
With these considerations in mind, Victor expressed to his father "a wish to visit England," and his father, glad to find him able to take pleasure in any plan of activity, readily agreed. The marriage to Elizabeth was to be casually postponed, for a year, or at the most two. Victor's friend Henry Clerval (who had been with Victor on the first morning after the creation, and supposedly nursed him through the subsequent illness) was enlisted as a traveling companion. Elizabeth, we are told, "approved of the reasons" for the trip, and "only regretted that she had not the same opportunities of enlarging her experience, and cultivating her understanding." But she wept at Frankenstein's departure.
Descending the Rhine from Strasbourg to Rotterdam on a boat, Clerval and Frankenstein took ship for London, where they arrived at the end of the year 1780. They remained in London for almost three months, while the experimenter made use of the letters of introduction given him by his father, and "addressed to the most distinguished natural philosopher;" which gentlemen are not otherwise named.
Being well equipped with letters of my own, Sir, I mean to try such gentlemen as Joseph Priestley and others. We shall see whether they remember, and are willing to discuss, a visit from Victor Frankenstein a couple of years ago.
I will write again, Sir, when I have something else of substance to report.
Yr Obdt Svt
Benjamin Freeman
LETTER 6
January 27,1783
My Dear Father—
Once more allow me to add my small congratulations to those of the rest of the world, on your great achievement in working out the preliminary peace agreement. Here in London the general sentiment is strongly in favor of peace, and I think that if my true identity should become known today I should be little the worse for it. May we soon be able to exchange letters by the regular post—though I suppose that will hardly be likely to make the delivery any swifter or more certain. The more I travel in the world, the more I come to appreciate, among other things, your achievements as a postmaster.
On to business. I have had more contact with the Saville clan. The lovely Mrs. Saville—her first name is Margaret, by the way—has entertained me once more at tea. Husband Roger, I have been given to understand, is still absent, off somewhere in India. When he is likely to return has not been specified. But wherever Mr. Saville may be, he seems to be at least as interested as his good lady is in Frankenstein's experiments; she says that she has sent Roger a copy of the book, which he found most intriguing, and that he is anxious to converse with anyone who knows anything of the matter. Such a person may be hard to find in India.
The lady tries in many subtle ways to discover all that she can about my own background, and, as she is certainly a charmer, I am continually on my guard not to give much away.
Later_I may have been wrong about the strength of the peace sentiment. There were loiterers in the street near my lodgings, a different man on each occasion, and I now have some suspicions that I am being watched. I intend to use even greater care than usual in dispatching this note.
There is interesting gossip I would ordinarily pass along—about the current London fashions, and so forth, since I know your continuing interest in such matters—but I prefer to keep this message short.
I was fortunately able to see Priestley without going to Birmingham, catching him on one of his periodic visits to London and the Royal Society, and was able to get a word with him alone. I divulged my identity, and presented greetings from you, Father, which he was happy to receive. He sends his warmest regards in return.
He recalls that young Frankenstein visited him in London, in the early spring of 1780, and says that he also heard of the fellow's arrest in Ireland in 1781, and his tragic marriage last summer during the occupation of Geneva by the French—tragic of course because of the bride's murder, by person or persons unknown, on her wedding night. There have been whispers, I am told, of suspicion against the husband himself. But there was no evidence to disprove his story of a mysterious prowler, and no legal steps were taken against him.