Frankenstein, who had at first been silent, now roused himself; his eyes sparkled, his cheeks flushed with momentary vigour. “What do you mean? Are you, then, so easily turned from your design? Did you not call this a glorious expedition? And wherefore was it glorious? Not because the way was smooth, but because it was full of dangers and terror. Oh! Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not. Do not return to your families with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows.”
They looked at one another and were unable to reply. I told them to retire and consider. They retired; Frankenstein sank into languor and was almost deprived of life.
September 7th.
The die is cast; I have consented to return if we are not destroyed. Thus are my hopes blasted by cowardice and indecision.
September 12th.
It is past; I am returning to England. I have lost my hopes of utility and glory; I have lost my friend.
On the 9th the ice began to move. On the 11th the passage towards the south became perfectly free. Frankenstein awoke and asked the cause of the tumult. “They shout,” I said, “because they will soon return to England.” “Do you, then, really return?” “Alas! Yes.” “Do so, if you will; but I will not. Mine is assigned to me by Heaven, and I dare not.” He strove to spring from the bed, but fell back and fainted.
The surgeon told me my friend had not many hours to live. As he lay dying, he spoke of his duties: “I created a rational creature and was bound towards him to assure his happiness. But my duties towards the beings of my own species had greater claims. Urged by this view, I refused to create a companion for the first creature. He destroyed my friends; he ought to die. The task of his destruction was mine, but I have failed. When actuated by selfish motives I asked you to undertake my unfinished work; I renew this request now, when I am only induced by reason and virtue. Seek happiness in tranquillity and avoid ambition.”
He pressed my hand feebly, and his eyes closed for ever, while the irradiation of a gentle smile passed away from his lips.
Margaret, what comment can I make? All I should express would be inadequate and feeble. My tears flow.
The Final Scene.
I am interrupted by a sound from the cabin. Great God! A gigantic form hung over the coffin of my friend, his face concealed by long locks of ragged hair, one vast hand extended like that of a mummy. He sprang towards the window, and never did I behold a vision so horrible as his face.
I called on him to stay. He paused, then turning towards the lifeless form of his creator: “That is also my victim! In his murder my crimes are consummated; the miserable series of my being is wound to its close! Oh, Frankenstein! Generous and self-devoted being! I, who irretrievably destroyed thee by destroying all thou lovedst. Alas! He is cold, he cannot answer me.”
Then, gathering my resolution, I addressed him: “Your repentance is now superfluous. If you had listened to the voice of conscience, Frankenstein would yet have lived.”
“And do you dream?” said the dæmon. “He suffered not in the consummation of the deed. Oh! Not the ten-thousandth portion of the anguish that was mine during the lingering detail of its execution. I knew that I was preparing for myself a deadly torture, but I was the slave of an impulse which I detested yet could not disobey. Evil thenceforth became my good. Urged thus far, I had no choice but to adapt my nature to an element which I had willingly chosen.”
“But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept. There he lies, white and cold in death. You hate me, but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself. Fear not that I shall be the instrument of future mischief; it requires my own. I shall quit your vessel on the ice raft which brought me thither; I shall seek the most northern extremity of the globe; I shall collect my funeral pile and consume to ashes this miserable frame, that its remains may afford no light to any curious and unhallowed wretch who would create such another as I have been. I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly and exult in the agony of the torturing flames.”
He sprang from the cabin-window upon the ice raft which lay close to the vessel. He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.
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