A/N: A eulogy for Victor Frankenstein from the perspective of his creature. Hope you like!
The first memory I have, the first sight I drank in upon opening my eyes, is of Victor Frankenstein. While these eyes had gazed upon the world before, they held no memories of the colors and shapes around them, of the men and women beheld in their vision. Thus, Victor was the first living being I knew, and in this man I would grow to
Victor epitomized man's greatest achievements and most fatal flaws. He was the ingenuity and brilliance of the human mind. He unlocked the secret to life, to my very existence, stitching together the fibers of my being. His actions were galvanized by his thirst for knowledge, for the advancement and progression of man. And in doing so, he became more than a man. Victor donned the role of a god, drawing from the powers of nature and manipulating them to birth something new, monstrous in its potential and implications. Victor created life, and suddenly man was more than man. Victor was more than man.
Yet at the same time, Victor was all too human. He was flawed. He battled the same emotions as others, even a monster such as I. Fear, avarice, cravings for affection—yes, Victor was human indeed. He was afraid of the judgements of his fellow man, of becoming a pariah for bringing a beast such as I into the world. He lusted for knowledge, his desire to understand the machinations of the world driving him toward obsession. He loved—loved Elizabeth, loved Henry Clerval, loved his brother William and his family. In this he was human, and he was flawed, and I both loved and hated him for it.
In Victor's humanity, he rejected a monster as grotesque and unnatural as I. He feared the consequences of playing god, feared the unknown that he had dived into in his mad pursuit of knowledge. Victor had trespassed into a world forbidden to man and was unable to turn back.
In this, we should remember Victor was man. He was a son of Adam, not a god raised upon a pedestal of his own creation. We must remember his flaws, his weaknesses, his mistakes. Most difficult of all, we must forgive them—for while Victor's actions and achievements were those of someone who was more than human, he was in fact human. He was fallible just as all of man is, and in our judgements, we must hold him accountable as a human, not a deity.
I despised Victor. Victor was my God, and I his Adam. Yet, Victor rejected me, cast me from his Eden without due cause. Thus I gave him cause. I decimated his life as I felt he had done to me. I felt I was exacting a just vengeance against a fallen God, bringing about God's own judgement to him.
I broke Victor. I ripped away all he held dear. And, in stripping away the things and people that supported him, I finally saw Victor for what he was—Human. He loved as I, hungered as I, feared as I. I saw that my own wrongs were not justified by his. I had thought I was bringing about justice. I simply brought pain.
Only in seeing Victor as man could I understand him, forgive him. I longed for a God to guide, protect, love me—Victor was not that. He was fallible, human, and while I myself am a far cry from human, he was like me. He was not God, but I was made in his image. In that, I hated him. In this, I love him.
I am sorry Victor. I forgive you. I pray you forgive me as well.
~The Creature