"Devil, cease and do not poison the air with these sounds of malice. I have declared my resolution to you and I am no coward to bend beneath words. Leave me. I am inexorable."
"It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding night."
And with this the creature quitted him, with only more wretched forebodings of the miserable future to come. Never satisfied with the simple reply the creature gave when denied his only hope, I chose to rewrite it. Though longer than intended, I decided to expand it so that readers coming back to the novel's concept would have their "memory jogged".
Disclaimer: Without a doubt, I do not, nor will I ever, own the delightful writings of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley or her 'lurid' characters. ;)
"Oh, detestable familiar, repugnant angel, harbinger of all my woe! Would I, if I could, rip from this earth your malice divined, my hatred refined, so that I may live as holy Adam, in nature dignified. From you daemonic glow shone my only hope, my only salvation, but only too quickly did you dampen the light I once perceived to have shined upon all this world.
'Oh, lamentable day! Too soon, I opened my eyes of my own accord, by way of my dearest lord and creator, Victor Frankenstein. Through the sight and mind of a newborn infant, and through the supple joints of man enhanced, I ventured this world, pure and ready for molding, only to have my heart cast into form as detestable as my own person. With baited breath did I steal into the ranges of man, beholding the joys and wonders of the world around me. With innocent eyes, I did peek into the homes of beloved man, and with ignorance blissed, I yearned to one day join them. But it was in witnessing their angelic forms and hearing their melodious notes that I learned to recognize my grotesque figure for what it was and learned to cringe to my abominable voice.
'I saw love, I saw beauty; I realized hate, I realized deformity.
'In my ignorance, I saw a likeness; for in my own ignorance I recognized a personal purity. Full solely of devotion for the world around me and consumed with only yearn of wishing to love and be a part of it, I saw no real dark qualities in my ghastly features. Surly, I thought, creatures as pure, wise, and beauteous as man may learn to accept the outward repugnance of my countenance once I was able to display the virtuous, uncorrupted aspects of the heart. And so I set out in the world and soon found a happy, yet hapless, family to direct this task upon. I had finally found a purpose to which I would direct my devotion.
'But, alas! Too soon again did I realize the fate forever boded for an ill creature such as I. Ill! What a word I may say, for other than thy literal sense as a foul, evil thing, I am also but a cancer, a festering canker on humanity's wound, forever preventing it from properly healing. With child-like innocence and tendencies, I urged my kindness on the once blessed family. As the heaven-faced babes were sent out to play an the eldest set out to work, I too set to do whatever help I could for them, be that whether it was to chop and bring firewood or gather berries from the meadows. In return for my humble gesture, they unwittingly taught me of man through their complacencies towards each other and their teaching for their youngest. What sublime bliss these precious few days were! It was in my hasty excitement that I deemed myself (and perchance themselves) ready to go before the eldest, who was with no sight and as such would not recognize a difference in my monstrous form. Oh, how the quarrelsome fates weave their threads against me! May I experience hope and joy for but a moment, then by so be quickly ripped apart in bitter woe and anguish as punishment.
'I had resolved to present myself to the old man whilst he was alone as a weary traveler seeking refuge. Ah, I say weary traveler and be no further from the truth, for all I look for is a rest from it all. It was in careless bliss that I overstayed my company with the man, and his son did return to their home. Contrite day, I live thee again and again in hope of better consequence, for it was your events that set my heart into the miserable wretch it is today. Upon the sight of my form the boy raised such a hatred from his breast the likes of which I've never seen so that he was all but deaf to my cries of innocence. I beseeched him to reason, but, in fear of raising my own arm in defense against his assaults, I fled, only to later return a creature of horrid heart to take revenge upon man's rejection. Oh, gentle friend, violent enemy, who with my presence I infect thee as mad and into a raging beast whom I may never quell with my words and unseen actions alone. With soft eyes and tender heart I turned to thee, only to be rejected as an abhorred monster. Why must I always be rejected like so? Was I not assembled by the hands of fellow man, was I not cast in your perfect image?! I would walk with the borrowed parts of shameful men, but you would rather see this face, these hands, rot in open graves then see them in new life upon this cursed cheek. Happy hypocrites that you are, you'd rather live oblivious to your sins than accept my form as like your own. But for all your scorn, I still love and envy thee so much that I consider the taking of my own life so as to end the objection in yours. Unfortunately, such a cold-hearted coward I have become, that I cannot be allowed to let my malevolent temperature to cool with my corpse in the dark dirt of the earth. Albeit in contrast, life as I know it may only an accumulation of my anguish, it is still as dear to me as my creator from whom I received this only gift, and I will defend it. Alas, for me to speak of such malevolent temperatures after so benevolent a beginning is a horrid sight, indeed, but withal is in truth. Though I started out, as I claimed to be, as nothing more but a scorned child in the form of a monster, I may never more redeem myself with such qualities. Is man truly so blessed, to have created something so cursed as myself? Perhaps together on earth we reside as God's fallen angels, for although by man's ill-gotten hand I was wrought, it was by God's giving will I was brought to life. So for as long as I may draw breath, by God's will may I also draw redemption.
'Fair man, do we then both face the some quest for deliverance? I find it hard to believe that creatures of such contrast could hold the same purpose in life. Yet, I face my goal alone, treading my own path in hidden parallel to your own. Dearest Frankenstein, I, your only child, ask you this one favour. If you, my own creator of physical form, feel no obligation to help me in my plight, then what hope do I have of aid from any other? I implore thee on your good will, and ask that you take compassion on the miserable wretch that I am and fashion for me a like creature of myself, so that I, too, may not face such trials by my lonesome. And yet, you refuse, for fear of the wrath we may bring to your world. Through my ignorance I learned to adore thee, and through yours, you learned condemn, and so condemned to damnation I stand alone.
'And so I curse thee! I curse your very existence and all it has wrought, and, in turn, deny my very own! Ah! But I, too, must be a hypocrite happily, by way of my contradiction of love and hate, of ignorance and realization, of acceptance and condemnation, and of my utterance of your praise and anathema in the same breath; and so I must live with but one more likeness in mankind, so haply named, till through our deliverance I may die.'
'May this day be soon, dearest creator."
I love monologues; they give such a wonderful opportunity for writers to truly express their character. This is my first submission online, and I would be grateful towards anyone who would RR. :)
