A Full-Cast Audio Drama
The script of a full-cast audio drama adapted from Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818, public domain), with Dale Tummins written in. There is no narrator. Scene, sound and music cues are as performed. Free, not for sale.
Scene: ice ship.
Music: monster theme.
Sound: quill letter.
WALTON My dear Margaret. The ice closed round us on Monday, and the fog with it. We lie to, and wait, and the timbers complain all night.
WALTON I told you I should find no friend on the wide ocean. I have not. So I write to you, which is a poor way to share a feeling, but it is the way I have. There is something at work in my soul which I do not understand. A love for the marvellous. It will not let me turn back.
Sound: ice groan.
THE MATE (shouting) Captain! On the ice, sir! North, half a mile!
Scene: arctic ice.
Sound: sledge dogs.
WALTON The glass. Give me the glass.
A MAN Whose dogs? Whose dogs, out here?
VOICES God keep us. The size of him.
THE MATE We're hundreds of miles from any land, sir. Where's he come from?
(A pause.)
WALTON Never mind where from. He is going north. Where we are going.
Sound: ice crack.
(A pause.)
Sound: sailors shout.
THE MATE Easy with him, lads. Here is our captain, and he will not allow you to perish on the open sea.
VICTOR (out of breath) Before I come on board your vessel, will you have the kindness to inform me whither you are bound?
WALTON Whither? Sir, you are dying.
VICTOR Whither, Captain.
WALTON North. A voyage of discovery, to the pole.
(A pause.)
VICTOR Then I will come.
DALE Me too. I didn't need to know where. Can the dog come? He's the last one. The other ten quit.
THE MATE And who might you be?
DALE I'm with him.
VICTOR He is not with me.
DALE He always says that. Is that soup?
Sound: body thud.
THE MATE He's fainted. Brandy! Keep him up here in the air.
WALTON Gently. Blankets, and put him by the galley stove.
DALE I'll take the other side of the stove.
Scene: ship cabin.
Sound: door creak.
THE MATE Two days, sir, and he's barely said a word. Except about the sledge.
WALTON What about it?
THE MATE Which way it went. Whether the ice took it when it broke up. He was half out of the blankets asking. He doesn't call the driver a man, sir. He calls him a daemon.
WALTON He has been very ill.
THE MATE And the other one? The cheerful one?
WALTON Mister Tummins.
THE MATE He's had five bowls of soup and told the cook it wants salt. He sleeps across the gentleman's door. The gentleman says he never hired him.
WALTON Then why does he stay?
THE MATE Says it isn't up to the gentleman, sir.
WALTON Tell the men to leave them both in peace. No more talk of daemons.
THE MATE The men saw what they saw, sir. And next morning, two more on the ice, going the same way. They'd like to know which side of it we've taken aboard.
Sound: door creak.
(A pause.)
Sound: ice groan.
WALTON You have become very dear to me, sir, in so short a time. I had begun to think I should never find a friend.
VICTOR I once had a friend, the most noble of human creatures. You have hope, and the world before you. But I have lost everything, and cannot begin life anew.
DALE (sleepy) You've got me.
(A pause.)
WALTON I would give my fortune for this voyage, my friend. My existence, every hope I have. One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the knowledge I seek.
VICTOR Unhappy man. Do you share my madness? Have you drunk also of the intoxicating draught?
VICTOR (crying) Hear me. Let me reveal my tale, and you will dash the cup from your lips.
WALTON I would not have you suffer it over again for my sake.
VICTOR You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did. And I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been.
DALE Is this the story? Hang on, I want to sit up for it.
VICTOR Prepare to hear of things that are usually deemed marvellous.
DALE Start with the part where I hire myself. That's a good part.
VICTOR You were never hired.
DALE That's what makes it good.
(A pause.)
VICTOR I am by birth a Genevese.
Scene: geneva house.
Sound: horses arrive.
ELIZABETH Hold still. Your mother would have fixed this collar, so you'll have to put up with me.
VICTOR Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH She joined our hands, Victor, on her last night. She trusted us to each other. So you will write. Every week, and long letters, not three lines about the weather.
VICTOR Every week.
CLERVAL My father still thinks a merchant needs no Greek. I'll wear him down. Keep a chair for me in Ingolstadt.
VICTOR I'll keep two, Henry.
ELIZABETH (gentle) Go. Go, before I ask you to stay.
Sound: carriage wheels.
Scene: candle room.
Sound: book thump.
PROFESSOR KREMPE Cornelius Agrippa. Paracelsus. Albertus Magnus. Have you really spent your time in studying such nonsense?
VICTOR I have, sir.
PROFESSOR KREMPE Every minute, every instant that you have wasted on those books is utterly and entirely lost. Good God. In what desert land have you lived, where no one was kind enough to tell you these fancies are a thousand years old, and as musty as they are ancient?
PROFESSOR KREMPE My dear sir, you must begin your studies entirely anew. Here is a list. Buy them. Good day.
Scene: lecture hall.
PROFESSOR WALDMAN The ancient teachers of this science promised impossibilities and performed nothing. Their successors promise very little. They know that metals cannot be transmuted, and that the elixir of life is a chimera.
PROFESSOR WALDMAN But these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding places.
PROFESSOR WALDMAN They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers. They can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows.
Sound: polite clap.
VICTOR (whispering) So much has been done. More, far more, will I achieve. I will explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.
DALE (whispering) Count me in.
VICTOR I beg your pardon?
DALE Whatever that was. I'm in.
Scene: student rooms.
Sound: door open.
VICTOR You. How did you get in here?
DALE Your landlady. I told her I was your assistant, and she said about time. I've done your books by size. Big ones on the bottom, so the shelf can't tip on you.
VICTOR You are not my assistant.
DALE Assistant to the Natural Philosopher. I've thought about it, and I want capitals on all of it.
VICTOR I cannot pay you.
DALE That's fine. I can't do very much yet.
VICTOR Go home, sir.
DALE I've got the cot under your stairs. The landlady says I'm handy. I fixed her clock. It goes backwards now, but it goes.
VICTOR (sighing) Goodnight.
DALE Goodnight, boss.
Scene: candle room.
Sound: glassware clink.
PROFESSOR KREMPE Your disciple has improved your air pump, Waldman. And your crucible. And, I hear, your opinion of yourself.
PROFESSOR WALDMAN Two years, Krempe. There is nothing left in Ingolstadt to teach him. He ought to go home to Geneva.
PROFESSOR KREMPE He won't. The porter at the dissecting room says he's there after dark. Asking for things no chemist has any use for.
PROFESSOR WALDMAN He wants to know where life comes from. It's a good question.
PROFESSOR KREMPE It's a good question in a lecture hall. It's a bad one in a charnel house at two in the morning. You and your thunders of heaven.
PROFESSOR WALDMAN And the man who follows him about? The one with the cards?
PROFESSOR KREMPE Frankenstein turns him out every morning. Every evening he comes back with the supper.
PROFESSOR WALDMAN Then somebody sees that the boy eats. I'm glad of it.
PROFESSOR KREMPE I'm not. Did you read the card? He spelled philosopher with an F.
Scene: cellar.
Sound: bones rattle.
VICTOR (whispering) Lower the lantern. Lower.
DALE (whispering) Victor, when you said we were going out collecting, I pictured butterflies.
VICTOR Hold the sack open.
DALE I'm holding it. I just want it on the record. Butterflies. And while we're down here, I'd like to bring up a lunch break.
VICTOR It is three in the morning.
DALE A late lunch, then.
Sound: footsteps stone.
A MAN Who's down there? I've a dog, mind.
VICTOR (whispering) The back stair. Now.
DALE Should we leave a note? It feels rude, just taking things.
Scene: candle room.
Sound: glassware clink.
VICTOR The smaller parts defeat me. My fingers are too slow for them. I shall make him larger. Eight feet.
DALE Then we'll need a bigger sack. And a bigger door, eventually. I'm only saying it now so nobody says I didn't.
VICTOR Life and death are ideal bounds, Tummins, which I shall first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.
VICTOR A new species would bless me as its creator and source. Many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs.
DALE Could I be the uncle?
VICTOR What?
DALE If you're the father. I'd be a good uncle. I'd take him fishing. I'd want a key, though. I'm tired of coming in over the roof.
VICTOR No one has a key to this room.
DALE That's why I'd like one.
VICTOR Fetch the lamp oil. And never touch the table.
Sound: door slam.
Sound: letter unfold.
ELIZABETH My dear cousin. The vines at Belrive have never borne so well, and you have not seen them. Two summers now. Your father makes no reproach, but in the evenings he reads your old letters over again, even the short ones.
ELIZABETH William asks whether you have forgotten his name. One line, Victor. One line in your own hand, and this whole house will sleep tonight.
(A pause.)
VICTOR (whispering) When it is finished. When it is finished, I will write to all of them.
Scene: student rooms.
Sound: quill letter.
DALE Dear Phil. I've got a job at a university. Nobody gave it to me, which I think shows initiative. My title's Junior Philosopher in Charge of Natural now. I'm still working on it. Victor's building a man, out of parts. I asked if it came as a kit, and he fired me. That's the fourth time. He doesn't eat unless I bring it, and I don't always remember, so he's pretty thin. The grapes were good this year. Your friend, Dale.
Scene: candle room.
Sound: snore.
DALE (whispering) Don't get up. I'm just tidying.
DALE Who put this brass bit in? Made in Nuremberg, and it's upside down. That'd bother you every time you looked at him.
Sound: brass screw.
Sound: spark crackle.
DALE Ow. That's fine. That's the good kind of ow.
DALE (whispering) There. Now anybody can read it. He'll never notice, which is how you know it's a good job.
Sound: bed creak.
VICTOR What are you doing at the table?
DALE Nothing. Dusting.
VICTOR (angry) I told you never to touch the table. Never! Get out. You are dismissed.
DALE That's the fifth time since Easter. I've decided to take it as feedback.
VICTOR Out!
Sound: door slam.
(A pause.)
Sound: door knock.
VICTOR (scared) Who is it? Who's there?
DALE It's not me. It's your supper. I'll leave it on the stair.
(A pause.)
DALE It's sausage. I know I'm fired.
Scene: ship cabin.
VICTOR It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils.
DALE This is the good part. Captain, pass the hard bread, I don't want to miss anything.
Scene: lab rain.
Sound: snore.
VICTOR (whispering) Burn. Burn a little longer. One hour more, and then go out if you like.
VICTOR Now. Now, or never.
Sound: spark crackle.
(A pause.)
Sound: spark crackle.
(A pause.)
Sound: creature breath.
VICTOR The eye. Oh, God. The dull yellow eye.
Sound: creature breath.
VICTOR (scared) I chose his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God. Two years. Two years, and my health, and my sleep, for this.
Sound: running stone.
Sound: door slam.
(A pause.)
Sound: creature moan.
DALE (sleepy) Victor? Is it morning?
Sound: creature breath.
Music: creature lament.
DALE Oh. Hello.
(A pause.)
DALE Good morning. It isn't morning, it's the middle of the night. But you just got here, so it's morning for you.
Sound: creature moan.
DALE You're shaking. Course you are, it's November and you just got here. Here. This is Victor's coat. He's gone out, he won't need it.
Sound: coat shrug.
DALE Arm. Other arm. It's short in the sleeves. Everything's going to be short on you, I wouldn't let it bother you.
DALE I'm Dale. I'm the assistant. Some of you is my work, actually. I'm going to call you Gary.
Sound: creature moan.
DALE We don't have to decide tonight. Are you hungry? There's sausage on the stair. It's Victor's, but he's not eating.
Sound: creature footsteps.
Scene: student rooms.
Sound: rain window.
VICTOR (sleepy) Elizabeth. You came all this way. Let me kiss you.
Sound: kiss.
VICTOR Your lips are cold. Elizabeth, your lips. Mother?
Sound: creature breath.
Sound: bed creak.
Sound: creature moan.
VICTOR (panicked) Keep away! Keep your hand away from me!
Sound: running stone.
(A pause.)
Sound: creature moan.
Sound: window thrown up.
DALE Gary? Gary, use the door.
(A pause.)
DALE (shouting) Keep the coat!
Scene: inn yard.
Sound: church bell toll.
VICTOR (whispering) Like one who, on a lonely road, doth walk in fear and dread, and having once turned round, walks on, and turns no more his head.
VICTOR Because he knows a frightful fiend doth close behind him tread.
Sound: carriage wheels.
CLERVAL My dear Frankenstein! How glad I am to see you! How fortunate that you should be here at the very moment of my alighting!
VICTOR Henry. Henry, you came.
CLERVAL My father gave in at last. He still says he has ten thousand florins a year without Greek, and eats heartily without Greek. But he has let me come.
VICTOR Tell me how you left my father. And Elizabeth.
CLERVAL Very well, and very happy, only a little uneasy that they hear from you so seldom. But, my dear Frankenstein, how very ill you look. So thin and pale. As if you had been watching for several nights.
VICTOR I have been engaged in one occupation. But I hope, I sincerely hope, that it is now at an end, and that I am at length free.
Scene: student rooms.
Sound: door bang.
(A pause.)
VICTOR (laughing) Gone! Gone! Henry, come up, come up, there is nothing here at all!
CLERVAL My dear Victor, what, for God's sake, is the matter? Do not laugh in that manner. How ill you are!
DALE Victor, before you hear it from anybody else, I lent him your coat.
CLERVAL Lent whom?
VICTOR Do not ask me. He can tell. Oh, save me! Save me!
Sound: body thud.
CLERVAL Victor! Help me with him. He's burning.
DALE I've got his feet.
(A pause.)
CLERVAL I'll write to your father that you are tired. No more than that. He is too old for the journey, and it would break Elizabeth's heart.
CLERVAL Who is he so frightened of?
DALE Gary. New fella, very shy. I think he'll bring the coat back. He seemed like that kind of fella.
Music: sting dramatic.
Scene: ship cabin.
WALTON You need not go on tonight. Your hands are shaking.
VICTOR If I stop now, I shall never begin again. The fever held me all that winter.
DALE Captain, while he does the sick part, is that biscuit spoken for?
Scene: forest winter.
Sound: quill letter.
DALE Dear Phil. Victor's sick, so I've been looking for Gary. I put up notices. Missing, very tall, yellowish, in a nice coat that isn't his. Reward, one sausage. Nobody's seen Gary, but eleven people came forward for the sausage.
DALE I followed some big footprints for two days. They were a bear's. The bear was nice about it. I'm fine except for one ear. Your friend, Dale. Assistant Natural Philosopher, Retired Against My Will.
Scene: student rooms.
Sound: bird flap.
VICTOR Dearest Clerval. This whole winter, instead of being spent in study, has been consumed in my sick room. How shall I ever repay you?
CLERVAL You will repay me entirely if you get well as fast as you can. And since you seem in good spirits, I may speak to you on one subject, may I not?
VICTOR (scared) One subject? What subject?
CLERVAL Compose yourself. Only this. Your father and cousin would be very happy to have a letter in your own hand. And this one has lain here some days.
Sound: letter unfold.
Music: tender.
ELIZABETH My dearest cousin. You have been ill, very ill, and even the constant letters of dear kind Henry are not sufficient to reassure me. One word from you, dear Victor, is necessary to calm our apprehensions.
ELIZABETH Justine Moritz has come back to us. Her mother is dead, and I love her tenderly. And little William, I wish you could see him. He is very tall for his age, with sweet laughing blue eyes, and when he smiles, two little dimples appear on each cheek.
ELIZABETH Write, dearest Victor. One line, one word will be a blessing to us. Adieu, my cousin. Take care of yourself, and I entreat you, write.
VICTOR Dear, dear Elizabeth. Henry, a pen. I will write this instant.
Scene: garden night.
ELIZABETH William! William, it's late, come out now!
A MAN He's hiding again. He ran on ahead of me, he always hides.
ALPHONSE He has gone home. He'll be in his bed, laughing at us.
ELIZABETH He wanted to wear the picture of his mother tonight. I put it round his neck myself. I should never have let him.
ALPHONSE Bring torches. William!
(A pause.)
Scene: student rooms.
CLERVAL (laughing) Peasants dancing on a Sunday, and you dancing with them. Open it, open it. It will be the day fixed for Geneva.
Sound: letter unfold.
ALPHONSE My dear Victor. How shall I inflict pain on my long absent son? I wish to prepare you for the woeful news, but I know it is impossible. William is dead. That sweet child, whose smiles delighted and warmed my heart. Victor, he is murdered.
ALPHONSE About five in the morning I discovered my lovely boy, stretched on the grass, livid and motionless. The print of the murderer's finger was on his neck. The picture of your mother is gone.
ALPHONSE Come, Victor. Not brooding thoughts of vengeance, but with feelings of peace and gentleness. Your affectionate and afflicted father.
(A pause.)
CLERVAL (sad) I can offer you no consolation, my friend. Your disaster is irreparable. What will you do?
VICTOR Go instantly to Geneva. Come with me, Henry, to order the horses.
Sound: door knock.
DALE (out of breath) Victor, can I borrow your horses? I've got a lead on Gary. A turnip farmer in Wurzburg.
VICTOR My brother is dead. Get out of my rooms. You were never in my employ, and you are dismissed.
DALE Okay. I'm sorry about your brother.
Sound: carriage wheels.
(A pause.)
DALE I'll be on the back.
Scene: geneva house.
A WOMAN (whispering) Don't. Don't hold it up to the candle like that. Put it down.
A MAN It's Madame's picture. The one the little boy had round his neck.
A WOMAN It was in the pocket of the dress she wore that night. I was only brushing it.
A MAN She was out the whole night. Nobody knows where.
A WOMAN She cried over that child for three days. She loved him.
A MAN Then let her tell it to the magistrate. Say nothing to the family. I'm going now, before I lose my nerve.
Sound: door slam.
Scene: lake night.
Sound: paddle strokes.
DALE You can row the way back. My arms are still asleep from the carriage. There wasn't a seat on the back, just a sort of knob.
VICTOR Dear mountains. My own beautiful lake. How do you welcome your wanderer?
Sound: thunder crack.
DALE Is that a yes?
Scene: alpine storm.
DALE Can we stand under a tree? I don't need to be in the actual storm to feel sad.
Sound: thunder crack.
VICTOR (shouting) William, dear angel! This is thy funeral, this thy dirge!
Sound: creature footsteps.
Sound: thunder crack.
Music: sting dramatic.
VICTOR (whispering) No. Not here. Not you.
DALE (excited) Gary! Gary, it's me! Hey! He's grown. Has he grown? He's grown.
Sound: creature moan.
Sound: rock fall.
DALE I can't climb that. Gary, I can't climb that! I'll wait at the bottom!
Sound: rock fall.
(A pause.)
VICTOR Nothing in human shape could have destroyed that fair child. He was the murderer. I cannot doubt it.
DALE Who, Gary? Gary's never even met William. They haven't been introduced.
VICTOR Two years. Two years since that night, and I let myself forget him. Was this his first crime? I turned him loose upon the world, and he has come home before me.
DALE Then we tell them. In the morning, first thing. We tell your dad.
VICTOR Tell him what? That I made a man out of the dead, and he climbs mountains in the dark? They would think me mad, as I would think any other man who said it.
DALE I'd say it.
VICTOR You are exactly the witness who would get us both locked away. Swear you will never speak that name in my father's house.
DALE Gary? Okay. I've been leaning toward Big Gary anyway.
Scene: geneva house.
Sound: door creak.
ALPHONSE Victor. My son. I hoped to welcome you to joy. You find us in misery, and worse than my letter told you. They have taken Justine.
VICTOR Justine Moritz? Poor, poor girl. It is wrongfully, Father. I know who killed William.
ALPHONSE We do also, unfortunately. I had rather have been for ever ignorant than have found such ingratitude in one I valued so highly.
ELIZABETH Not you too, uncle. Victor, you have come in time. Everyone else believes her guilty, and I know it is impossible. Who is safe, if she be convicted?
ELIZABETH We have lost that darling boy, and now this poor girl, whom I love, is to be torn away by a worse fate. If she is condemned, I never shall know joy more.
VICTOR She is innocent, my Elizabeth, and that shall be proved. Fear nothing.
ALPHONSE If she is, God forbid that she should suffer as guilty. She is tried today, at eleven.
DALE Mister Frankenstein, I'm Dale. I came on the back. I'm sorry about your boy. I'd like to help. I'm good at getting coffee.
ALPHONSE Who is this person, Victor?
VICTOR No one. He is no one.
Sound: church bell toll.
DALE That's fair. I'll get the coffee.
Scene: courtroom.
Sound: gavel.
A MAN She was out the whole night of the murder. At dawn a market woman found her not far from the spot, and she could give no account of herself. And this, gentlemen, was in the pocket of her dress.
Sound: crowd gasp.
ELIZABETH (crying) It is the same. I put it round his neck myself, an hour before he was missed.
VOICES Ingrate!
VOICES She nursed that child!
Sound: gavel.
A MAN The accused may speak.
JUSTINE God knows how entirely I am innocent. I passed the evening at my aunt's at Chene. Coming home, a man told me the child was lost, and I searched for him until the gates were shut. I slept in a barn. When I woke, I went on searching.
JUSTINE Concerning the picture, I can give no account. I believe I have no enemy on earth. Did the murderer place it there? And if he did, why should he steal the jewel, only to part with it again so soon?
DALE (whispering) Victor. Let me go up. I'll be a character witness.
VICTOR (whispering) For her?
DALE For Big Gary. I've known him longer than anybody. I was there when he was one minute old. Somebody's got to say he's shy.
VICTOR (whispering) Say one word of him and they will call us madmen, and she will hang all the same. Sit down.
ELIZABETH I beg leave to speak. I am the cousin of the murdered child, or rather his sister, for I have lived with his parents since long before he was born.
ELIZABETH When I see a fellow creature about to perish through the cowardice of her pretended friends, I wish to be allowed to say what I know of her character. She nursed my aunt in her last illness. She loved that child like a mother.
ELIZABETH As to the bauble on which the chief proof rests, if she had earnestly desired it, I should have willingly given it to her.
Sound: crowd gasp.
VOICES The ingratitude of it!
Sound: gavel.
(A pause.)
Scene: castle corridor.
Sound: footsteps stone.
A MAN Monsieur Frankenstein. You needn't ask. The ballots were all black.
A MAN And she has confessed. Hardly required in so glaring a case, but I'm glad of it. None of our judges like to condemn upon circumstantial evidence.
VICTOR Confessed.
(A pause.)
Scene: prison cell.
Sound: door lock.
A MAN Two visitors. Family only. Not you.
DALE I'm not anybody's family. Will you give her this? It's a pie from the place by the gate. It's the good one. Tell her it's from people who know.
A MAN Know what?
DALE She'll understand.
(A pause.)
A MAN I'll give it her.
Sound: door creak.
ELIZABETH Oh, Justine. Why did you confess? I relied on your innocence, and you robbed me of my last consolation.
JUSTINE (crying) I did confess, but I confessed a lie. My confessor besieged me. He threatened me with hell fire in my last moments, until I almost began to think I was the monster he said I was. Dear lady, I had none to support me.
ELIZABETH Forgive me for having for one moment distrusted you. I will prove your innocence. I will melt the stony hearts of your enemies by my tears. You shall not die.
JUSTINE I do not fear to die. That pang is past. God raises my weakness and gives me courage to endure the worst.
(A pause.)
JUSTINE Dear sir. You are very kind to visit me. You, I hope, do not believe that I am guilty?
(A pause.)
ELIZABETH No, Justine. He is more convinced of your innocence than I was. Even when he heard you had confessed, he did not credit it.
JUSTINE I truly thank him. How sweet is the affection of others to such a wretch as I am.
JUSTINE Farewell, sweet lady, dearest Elizabeth, my beloved and only friend. May this be the last misfortune that you will ever suffer. Live, and be happy, and make others so.
Scene: garden night.
Sound: bell knell.
(A pause.)
ELIZABETH Victor. When falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness?
ELIZABETH The murderer walks about the world free, and perhaps respected. But even if I were condemned to suffer on the scaffold for the same crime, I would not change places with such a wretch.
Sound: bell knell.
VICTOR (whispering) William and Justine. And I, the cause.
Music: tender piano.
Scene: lake day.
ELIZABETH Dear Victor, banish these dark passions. There is an expression of despair in your face, and sometimes of revenge, that makes me tremble.
ELIZABETH While we love, while we are true to each other, here in this land of peace and beauty, what can disturb our peace?
VICTOR I am going up to Chamounix. Alone. Tell my father not to send anyone after me.
DALE Should I pack a lunch?
VICTOR You will not pack anything. You are dismissed. Again, and finally, and for ever.
DALE Okay. Cheese or no cheese?
Scene: glacier.
Sound: ice crack.
VICTOR Wandering spirits, if indeed ye wander, and do not rest in your narrow beds, allow me this faint happiness. Or take me, as your companion, away from the joys of life.
(A pause.)
DALE (out of breath) Victor! I went with cheese. I fell in a crack, but only to the waist, and then a deeper one, to the armpits.
VICTOR I dismissed you in Geneva.
DALE I don't take firings above the tree line. The air's thin up here, you might not have meant it.
Sound: creature footsteps.
Music: sting danger.
DALE Whoever that is, I only brought cheese for two.
Sound: ice crack.
VICTOR (shouting) Devil, do you dare approach me? Begone, vile insect! Or rather, stay, that I may trample you to dust!
THE CREATURE I expected this reception. All men hate the wretched. How, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!
THE CREATURE Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. How dare you sport thus with life?
VICTOR Abhorred monster! Come on, then, that I may extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed.
Sound: body thud.
THE CREATURE Be calm. Thou hast made me more powerful than thyself, my height superior to thine, my joints more supple. But I will not be tempted to set myself in opposition to thee.
THE CREATURE Remember that I am thy creature. I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. I was benevolent and good. Misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.
VICTOR Begone! There can be no community between you and me. We are enemies.
THE CREATURE Believe me, Frankenstein, I was benevolent. My soul glowed with love and humanity. But am I not alone, miserably alone? The desert mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge. These bleak skies I hail, for they are kinder to me than your fellow beings.
THE CREATURE Listen to my tale. The guilty are allowed, by human laws, bloody as they are, to speak in their own defence before they are condemned. Listen to me, and then, if you can, and if you will, destroy the work of your hands.
VICTOR Cursed be the day, abhorred devil, in which you first saw light! Cursed, although I curse myself, be the hands that formed you!
THE CREATURE (calm) Thus I relieve thee, my creator. Thus I take from thee a sight which you abhor.
VICTOR (disgusted) Take your hands from my eyes!
THE CREATURE Still thou canst listen to me. Come to the hut upon the mountain. The sun is yet high, and before it sets, you will have heard my story and can decide.
Sound: ice crack.
(A pause.)
DALE Good morning, by the way. I didn't want to cut in.
(A pause.)
THE CREATURE Good morning.
(A pause.)
THE CREATURE It is the first time any man has wished me a good one.
DALE Well, it's a nice one, apart from the shouting. Do you want some cheese, Gareth?
THE CREATURE My food is not that of man. Nor is that my name.
DALE Big Gary?
THE CREATURE I have none. He did not give me one.
DALE I'll keep working on it.
Scene: mountain hut.
Sound: fire catch.
DALE Can I sit near the fire? I'm wet to the armpits.
THE CREATURE Sit. You may hear it too. He has never cared to.
Music: creature lament.
Scene: mountain hut.
Sound: fire catch.
DALE Before you start. Victor Junior.
THE CREATURE I beg your pardon.
DALE For a name. Gareth didn't take, and you've already got his coat.
VICTOR No.
THE CREATURE It is kindly meant. But I will not be named until I know what I am.
VICTOR Begin your tale, or let me go down the mountain.
THE CREATURE It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being. Light pressed upon my nerves. Cold came, and I did not know what cold was. I knew, and could distinguish, nothing.
Scene: forest winter.
Sound: creature breath.
(A pause.)
Sound: bird flap.
Sound: creature moan.
(A pause.)
Sound: fire catch.
(A pause.)
Sound: creature moan.
Scene: mountain hut.
THE CREATURE In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers. How strange, I thought, that the same cause should produce such opposite effects.
DALE I did that with a stove once. Then again, to make sure.
VICTOR Must he be here?
THE CREATURE He stayed, that first night. He may stay.
THE CREATURE And at night a gentle light stole over the heavens, and a radiant form rose from among the trees. I knew nothing of what it was. I only fixed my eyes on it, with pleasure.
THE CREATURE I walked three days towards the setting sun, and came at evening to a village. Milk and cheese stood in the windows. It seemed to me a miracle. And I was hungry.
Scene: cottage.
Sound: door creak.
Sound: scream.
A WOMAN (shouting) Out! Get it out of here!
VOICES Fetch the men!
A MAN Stones! Drive it off!
Sound: stones pelting.
Sound: creature footsteps.
Scene: mountain hut.
THE CREATURE I crept into a hovel against the back of a cottage. In the boards of the wall there was a chink, through which the eye could just penetrate.
Scene: hovel.
Music: delacey guitar.
DE LACEY Why do you weep, child? It is only an old air.
AGATHA (crying) It was mother's. Forgive me, father. Play on.
DE LACEY Up, up. Nobody kneels in this house. Come here and let me find your face.
Sound: door open.
FELIX Take the loaf before I eat it on the step. The cheese is for father, and nobody argue.
AGATHA (whispering) And what did you eat?
FELIX I ate at the farm.
AGATHA (whispering) You did not eat at the farm.
Scene: mountain hut.
THE CREATURE They gave their bread to the old man and went hungry. At night I had been taking from their store. I stopped. And I took the young man's tools into the wood.
Scene: hovel.
Sound: wood bundle drop.
(A pause.)
Sound: door open.
AGATHA Felix! Felix, come here, quickly.
FELIX Who did this? I'd have been in the forest till dark.
DE LACEY What is it? Somebody tell a blind man.
AGATHA Wood, father. Cut and stacked, at our door, and nobody in the lane.
DE LACEY Then we have a good spirit. Felix, mend the roof today. Agatha, thank it.
AGATHA (gentle) Thank you, good spirit. Whoever you are.
Sound: owl flap away.
THE CREATURE (whispering) Fire. Milk. Bread... Wood. Father. Agatha. Felix... Good. Good... spirit.
Scene: mountain hut.
DALE Did they ever find out it was you with the wood? Somebody should've said thank you.
THE CREATURE They said it every morning. To the spirit. I was content to be the spirit.
(A pause.)
THE CREATURE Then the thaw came, and the pool beside the hovel was clear again. I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers, their grace, their delicate complexions. I knelt to drink.
Sound: splash small.
Music: creature lament.
THE CREATURE I started back. I could not believe that it was indeed I who was reflected there. And when I became fully convinced, I knew that I was in reality the monster that I am.
Scene: mountain hut.
DALE That's the pond, though. Pond water makes everybody look yellow. You get out of the damp, it clears right up.
VICTOR Go on with it.
THE CREATURE Spring came. Felix grew sadder every day, and I could not learn why.
Scene: hovel.
Sound: horses arrive.
Sound: door knock.
AGATHA Madame? Can I help you? Who is it you're looking for?
SAFIE Felix.
FELIX Safie. Father! Father, it's Safie. She's come, she's here in our door.
DE LACEY Then bring her in out of the wind, my son, and let me hold her.
SAFIE (crying) Felix. Yes. Felix.
FELIX My sweet Arabian. We'll teach you. Every word we have.
Scene: mountain hut.
THE CREATURE She did not have their language. Neither did I. So every day, through the chink in the wall, I went to school with her.
Scene: hovel.
FELIX Good morning. Say it with me. Good morning.
SAFIE Good... morning.
FELIX Good. And this one. Father.
SAFIE Father.
THE CREATURE (whispering) Good morning.
Scene: mountain hut.
DALE That's a good one to start on. You can get a long way on good morning.
(A pause.)
Scene: hovel.
FELIX Ruins of Empires. Here, the Romans. How great they were, and how they fell.
SAFIE Why fell?
FELIX Because men divided the earth. Some have high birth, some have riches. With one of those a man is respected. Without either, he is a vagabond, and a slave.
SAFIE And with nothing? Not one?
FELIX Then he is nobody.
Scene: mountain hut.
THE CREATURE And what was I? I had no money, no friends, no kind of property. When I looked around, I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?
Scene: hovel.
AGATHA She crossed half of Germany alone, father. Her maid died on the road, and she came on anyway.
DE LACEY And her father, whom Felix saved from a French scaffold, stole her away from us and sent a purse. Five months in a Paris cell for that man. Our fortune. France.
AGATHA You're not angry.
DE LACEY How can I be? Felix laughed at supper tonight. I have not heard him laugh since Paris.
Scene: mountain hut.
THE CREATURE In the wood that summer I found a leather satchel, and in it three books. Plutarch's Lives. The Sorrows of Werter. And Paradise Lost, which I read as a true history.
THE CREATURE Like Adam, I was united by no link to any other being in existence. But Adam came forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, guarded by the especial care of his Creator. Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition.
THE CREATURE And there were the papers. In the pocket of the coat I wore out of your chamber, I found your journal.
DALE That was my idea, the coat.
VICTOR You. You put my coat on it.
DALE He was cold, Victor. And you shouldn't keep a diary in a coat. Anybody can read it.
Sound: letter unfold.
THE CREATURE You doubtless recollect these papers. Here they are. Every step of your work. And the minutest description of my odious and loathsome person, in language which painted your own horrors and rendered mine indelible.
VICTOR (whispering) Give them to me.
THE CREATURE No.
Scene: hovel.
THE CREATURE (angry) Hateful day when I received life! Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?
THE CREATURE God, in pity, made man beautiful, after his own image. But my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance.
THE CREATURE Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him. But I am solitary and abhorred.
Scene: mountain hut.
Music: creature lament.
THE CREATURE No Eve soothed my sorrows, nor shared my thoughts. I was alone.
Scene: mountain hut.
THE CREATURE A whole year had turned since I awoke. I resolved to enter the cottage when the old man was alone. My voice, though harsh, had nothing terrible in it.
DALE That's how I got in with Victor. I started with his landlady.
VICTOR You did not get in with me.
DALE I've almost got a key.
Scene: cottage inside.
Music: delacey guitar.
Sound: door knock.
DE LACEY Who is there? Come in.
Sound: door creak.
THE CREATURE Pardon this intrusion. I am a traveller in want of a little rest. You would greatly oblige me if you would allow me to remain a few minutes before the fire.
DE LACEY Enter, and I will try in what manner I can to relieve your wants. But my children are from home, and as I am blind, I am afraid I shall find it difficult to procure food for you.
THE CREATURE Do not trouble yourself, my kind host. I have food. It is warmth and rest only that I need.
(A pause.)
THE CREATURE I go to claim the protection of some friends, whom I sincerely love. They have never seen me. If I fail there, I am an outcast in the world for ever.
DE LACEY Do not despair. To be friendless is indeed to be unfortunate. But the hearts of men, when unprejudiced by any obvious self-interest, are full of brotherly love and charity.
THE CREATURE They are the most excellent creatures in the world. But a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster.
DE LACEY I am blind, and cannot judge of your countenance, but there is something in your words which persuades me that you are sincere. I am poor, and an exile, but it will afford me true pleasure to be in any way serviceable to a human creature.
THE CREATURE Excellent man. From your lips first have I heard the voice of kindness directed towards me.
DE LACEY May I know the names and residence of those friends?
(A pause.)
Sound: footsteps stone.
THE CREATURE (panicked) Now is the time! Save and protect me! You and your family are the friends whom I seek. Do not you desert me in the hour of trial!
DE LACEY Great God! Who are you?
Sound: door bang.
Sound: woman scream.
Sound: body thud.
FELIX (shouting) Father! Let go of him! Get off him!
Sound: stick blow.
SAFIE (scared) Agatha! Felix, Agatha!
Sound: stick blow.
Sound: creature moan.
Scene: mountain hut.
THE CREATURE I could have torn him limb from limb, as the lion rends the antelope. But my heart sank within me as with bitter sickness, and I refrained.
Scene: hovel.
A MAN You'll lose the rent, and the garden. Take some days to think.
FELIX It is utterly useless. We can never again inhabit your cottage. My wife and my sister will never recover from their horror. Let me fly from this place.
Scene: wind wood night.
Sound: torch flare.
Sound: fire roar.
THE CREATURE (shouting) Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live?
Scene: mountain hut.
THE CREATURE From that night I declared everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me. Your papers named Geneva.
Scene: river.
A WOMAN (laughing) You'll never catch me!
Sound: splash big.
Sound: creature footsteps.
A MAN (shouting) Put her down! Put her down, you devil!
Sound: musket shot.
Sound: creature moan.
Scene: mountain hut.
THE CREATURE This was then the reward of my benevolence. I had saved a human being from destruction, and for my wages, a ball in the shoulder.
THE CREATURE It was evening when I came to Geneva. A child ran into my hiding place. I thought, this little creature is too young to have learned a horror of deformity. I will take him. He will be my friend.
VICTOR (whispering) No.
Scene: evening fields.
WILLIAM (scared) Let me go! Monster! Ugly wretch! Let me go, or I will tell my papa!
THE CREATURE Child, what is the meaning of this? I do not intend to hurt you. Listen to me.
WILLIAM Hideous monster! Let me go. My papa is a syndic. He is Monsieur Frankenstein. He will punish you.
THE CREATURE Frankenstein. You belong, then, to my enemy.
Scene: mountain hut.
(A pause.)
THE CREATURE I grasped his throat to silence him, and in a moment he lay dead at my feet.
(A pause.)
THE CREATURE On his breast was the portrait of a lovely woman. In a barn a girl lay asleep on the straw. She will wake, I thought, and see me, and curse me. Not I, but she, shall suffer. I put the portrait in the folds of her dress, and fled.
VICTOR (crying) Justine. They killed Justine for that.
(A pause.)
DALE You shouldn't have done that. He was little.
Scene: mountain hut.
THE CREATURE I am alone and miserable. Man will not associate with me. But one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. You must create a female for me.
VICTOR (angry) I do refuse it, and no torture shall ever extort a consent from me. Shall I create another like yourself, whose joint wickedness might desolate the world? Begone!
THE CREATURE You are in the wrong. I am malicious because I am miserable. You, my creator, would tear me to pieces and triumph. Tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me.
THE CREATURE If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear. And chiefly towards you, my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart.
Sound: ice crack.
(A pause.)
THE CREATURE (calm) I intended to reason. If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them a hundred and a hundredfold. For that one creature's sake I would make peace with the whole kind.
(A pause.)
THE CREATURE What I ask is reasonable and moderate. One of another sex, as hideous as myself. We shall be monsters, cut off from all the world, but more attached to one another. We will go to the vast wilds of South America. We shall make our bed of dried leaves, and the sun will shine on us as on man.
VICTOR You will return and seek their kindness, and meet with their detestation. And then you will have a companion to aid you in the task of destruction.
THE CREATURE My vices are the children of a forced solitude that I abhor. My virtues will necessarily arise when I live in communion with an equal. Oh, my creator, make me happy. Let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit.
(A pause.)
VICTOR I consent to your demand, on your solemn oath to quit Europe for ever, as soon as I shall deliver into your hands a female who will accompany you in your exile.
THE CREATURE I swear, by the sun, and by the blue sky of heaven, and by the fire of love that burns my heart, that while they exist you shall never behold me again. Depart to your home and commence your labours. I shall watch their progress with unutterable anxiety.
Sound: door creak.
Sound: creature footsteps.
(A pause.)
DALE I'll help. I know where everything goes.
VICTOR You know where nothing goes. You are dismissed. Go home.
DALE You can fire me after. I know where one thing goes. That first night, I wired him in upside down. Everything you are, he's the other way. That's why he's nice.
(A pause.)
VICTOR (whispering) Another one. God forgive me, I have promised him another.
Scene: mountain night.
VICTOR (crying) Oh, stars and clouds and winds, ye are all about to mock me. If ye really pity me, crush sensation and memory. Let me become as nought. But if not, depart, depart, and leave me in darkness.
Scene: geneva house.
ALPHONSE On the lake again, all day, alone. Then he comes in and smiles at us as if he were paying a debt.
ELIZABETH He smiled at supper. That's something, uncle.
ALPHONSE I have wondered whether it is you. Whether he looks on you as a sister, and is too honourable to say so.
ELIZABETH Then ask him. I would rather he were free and happy than bound to me and miserable.
ALPHONSE And if he loves you?
ELIZABETH Then marry us soon, before this gloom finds another reason.
ALPHONSE And the young man in the stable? He tells the cook he is Victor's staff.
ELIZABETH He's the only one Victor talks to. He shouts at him. But it's talking. I've told cook to set him a place.
Sound: door open.
VICTOR Father. I will marry Elizabeth, gladly, and soon. But first I must go to England. An English philosopher has made discoveries I need. A year, no more.
ALPHONSE Then you'll not go alone. I'll write to Henry Clerval tonight.
ELIZABETH Come back to me, Victor. That's all I ask. Come back.
Scene: inn yard.
Sound: carriage wheels.
VICTOR You are not coming to England.
DALE Which boat are we?
VICTOR We are nothing. Henry and I are going. You are staying.
DALE That's fine. I'll find out which boat.
Music: sting comic.
Scene: river.
CLERVAL (excited) This is what it is to live! Now I enjoy existence!
CLERVAL I have seen the lakes of Lucerne and Uri, Victor, and the mountains of La Valais. But this divine river pleases me more than all those wonders.
DALE Swap with me, Victor. You take the front, the front's where the river is. I'll sit back here and guard the crates. One of them sloshes.
VICTOR Do not touch the crates.
CLERVAL Victor, you have not once told me your friend's name.
VICTOR He is not my friend. I did not bring him.
DALE Dale Tummins. Senior Assistant to the Natural Philosopher, Overseas Division. I added the Overseas part at Strasbourg.
CLERVAL (laughing) Then welcome to the Overseas Division, Dale. He has said more to you today than to me all week.
Scene: inn yard.
CLERVAL A month or two alone in the Highlands. I cannot like it.
VICTOR Leave me to peace and solitude, Henry. When I return, I hope it will be with a lighter heart.
CLERVAL I had rather be with you in your solitary rambles than with these Scotch people, whom I do not know. Hasten, then, my dear friend, to return, that I may again feel myself at home, which I cannot do in your absence.
VICTOR Dale, you are dismissed. I say it before Henry, so it is witnessed.
DALE Okay.
CLERVAL Write to me, Victor. Write often.
Sound: carriage wheels.
Scene: orkney hut.
Sound: wave crash.
VICTOR How did you come to this island?
DALE Fish boat. He charged me what he charges for a cod. I didn't argue. I didn't want to get weighed.
DALE I've started the best man speech. It opens with how they met. Then I realized they haven't met yet, so for now it's mostly about the weather.
VICTOR It is no wedding, Dale. It is a compact. He takes her, and they quit the neighbourhood of man forever.
DALE That's a honeymoon. You're describing a honeymoon.
Sound: glassware clink.
VICTOR I made one fiend. Now I make another, and I know her mind no better than I knew his. She may be ten thousand times more malignant than her mate. She may turn from him in disgust.
VICTOR And if she does not, there will be children. A race of devils upon the earth. Had I the right, for my own peace, to buy it at the price of the whole human race?
DALE So do her the same way I did him. Then they'll match.
Sound: creature breath.
DALE (excited) Evening, big fella! Don't look yet, it's bad luck to see the bride.
(A pause.)
VICTOR (whispering) No. Never. Never another like thee.
Sound: crash.
Sound: bones rattle.
Sound: wood crack.
Sound: creature moan.
(A pause.)
Sound: door creak.
Sound: creature footsteps.
DALE Come in, come in. Mind the floor.
THE CREATURE You have destroyed the work which you began. Do you dare to break your promise?
THE CREATURE I left Switzerland with you. I crept along the shores of the Rhine, among its willow islands. I have dwelt many months in the heaths of England and among the deserts of Scotland. Do you dare destroy my hopes?
VICTOR Begone! I do break my promise. Never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness.
THE CREATURE Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power. You believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you.
THE CREATURE You are my creator, but I am your master. Obey!
VICTOR The hour of my irresolution is past. Shall I, in cool blood, set loose upon the earth a daemon whose delight is in death and wretchedness? I am firm.
THE CREATURE (angry) Shall each man find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn. Man! You may hate, but beware. I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom.
VICTOR Devil, cease. Leave me. I am inexorable.
THE CREATURE It is well. I go. But remember. I shall be with you on your wedding-night.
Music: sting dramatic.
VICTOR (shouting) Villain! Before you sign my death warrant, be sure that you are yourself safe!
Sound: door slam.
Sound: paddle strokes.
(A pause.)
DALE (sad) I'd finished the speech. Most of it was about how nobody should have to eat alone.
Music: creature lament.
Scene: sea night.
Sound: paddle strokes.
VICTOR (whispering) Lie there, and never rise.
Sound: body splash.
(A pause.)
Sound: wave crash.
Scene: irish harbor.
VICTOR (out of breath) My good friends, will you be so kind as to tell me the name of this town?
A MAN You'll know that soon enough. Maybe you're come to a place that won't prove much to your taste.
VICTOR Surely it is not the custom of Englishmen to receive strangers so inhospitably.
A MAN I don't know what the custom of the English may be. But it's the custom of the Irish to hate villains.
VOICES That's the boat. That's the very boat!
A MAN Come, sir. You'll follow me to Mr. Kirwin's, and give an account of the gentleman found murdered here last night.
Scene: courtroom.
MR. KIRWIN Who appears as witness? You. Speak up.
A MAN I was walking up the sands from the creek, sir, with my son and Daniel Nugent. Ten o'clock, no moon. I struck my foot against something and fell my whole length. It was a man.
MR. KIRWIN Drowned?
A MAN That's what we thought. But his clothes weren't wet, sir. And he wasn't cold.
MR. KIRWIN Was there any mark upon him?
A MAN None but the black mark of fingers on his neck.
Sound: crowd gasp.
MR. KIRWIN Give the prisoner a chair before he falls.
A WOMAN I was at my door that night, sir, waiting for the boats. An hour before they found him, a boat with one man in it pushed off from that very part of the shore.
VOICES The same boat!
MR. KIRWIN Quiet. Take him to the inn, where the body lies. We shall see what the sight of it does to him.
Scene: candle room.
Sound: door creak.
(A pause.)
VICTOR Henry.
VICTOR (crying) Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry, of life? Two I have already destroyed. Other victims await their destiny. But you, Clerval, my friend, my benefactor.
Sound: body thud.
VOICES Catch him!
(A pause.)
Scene: prison cell.
A WOMAN Are you better now, sir?
VICTOR I believe I am. But if it be all true, if I did not dream, then I am sorry I still breathe to feel it.
A WOMAN For that matter, if you mean about the gentleman you murdered, I believe it were better for you if you were dead, for I fancy it'll go hard with you. However, that's none of my business. I'm sent to nurse you, and I do my duty with a safe conscience.
Sound: door open.
DALE They took my spoon at the gate. They said a spoon is how people get out. I've never got out of anything with a spoon, but I respect a rule.
DALE It's leek. You'll have to drink it off the side.
VICTOR I left you on the island.
DALE You left me asleep on an island. That's not firing somebody. That's just rude.
VICTOR (sad) William, Justine, and Henry. They all died by my hands.
(A pause.)
DALE Henry gave me his seat on the boat. Nobody gives me their seat.
Sound: door open.
MR. KIRWIN Someone, a friend, is come to visit you.
VICTOR (panicked) Oh, take him away! I cannot see him. For God's sake, do not let him enter!
MR. KIRWIN I should have thought, young man, that the presence of your father would have been welcome.
VICTOR My father?
ALPHONSE Victor. My son. What a place is this that you inhabit.
Music: tender.
Scene: irish harbor.
MR. KIRWIN The grand jury rejected the bill. Five islanders swore he was on the Orkneys at the hour your son's friend was found. The assistant swore to it as well, at some length.
ALPHONSE My son has no assistant.
MR. KIRWIN He was very firm that your son has. He's been at my prison gate every day for two months. My jailer has started keeping a stool for him.
ALPHONSE Then I thank him.
MR. KIRWIN Watch your son, Monsieur Frankenstein. He accuses himself in his sleep.
ALPHONSE Of what?
MR. KIRWIN Of everything.
Scene: geneva house.
Sound: quill letter.
ELIZABETH My dear Victor. My uncle writes from Paris, and you are no longer at a formidable distance. Before we meet, answer me one thing, I conjure you, with simple truth. Do you not love another?
ELIZABETH Our marriage would render me eternally miserable unless it were the dictate of your own free choice. Do not answer tomorrow, if it gives you pain. If I see but one smile on your lips when we meet, I shall need no other happiness.
Scene: candle room.
Sound: quill letter.
VICTOR My beloved girl. Little happiness remains for us on earth, yet all that I may one day enjoy is centred in you. I have one secret, Elizabeth, a dreadful one. I will confide it to you the day after our marriage. Until then, I conjure you, do not speak of it.
Sound: wedding bells.
Music: wedding air.
ALPHONSE To my son. And to my Elizabeth, my more than daughter. Our circle is small now, but it is bound close.
VOICES Long life to them!
Scene: lake boat.
VICTOR You are sorrowful, my love.
ELIZABETH Be happy, my dear Victor. If a lively joy is not painted in my face, my heart is contented. Something whispers to me not to depend too much on what is opened before us. But I will not listen to such a sinister voice.
ELIZABETH You are watching me, and not the water. Every pebble on the bottom, and the fish over them. What a divine day!
VICTOR And tomorrow, my secret.
ELIZABETH Tomorrow, then.
Scene: inn night.
Sound: thunder crack.
ELIZABETH What is it that agitates you, my dear Victor? What is it you fear?
VICTOR Peace, peace, my love. This night, and all will be safe. But this night is dreadful, very dreadful.
VICTOR Go up, Elizabeth. I will come when I have walked the house.
ELIZABETH Don't be long.
Sound: footsteps stone.
A MAN That's the fourth time the bridegroom's gone along this passage. With a pistol in his coat.
A WOMAN On his wedding night? Leave him be. Men are strange at weddings.
A MAN Then you go and ask him why he's opening my cupboards.
Sound: door creak.
VICTOR (whispering) Come, then. Come for me. I am ready for thee.
(A pause.)
Sound: woman scream.
VICTOR (shouting) Elizabeth!
Sound: running stone.
Sound: door bang.
(A pause.)
VICTOR (crying) Elizabeth. Elizabeth, wake. My love, my wife.
Sound: shutters bang.
Sound: creature breath.
VICTOR Thou! Thou!
Sound: pistol shot.
Sound: splash big.
A MAN The lake! He's gone into the lake!
VOICES Bring the boats! The nets!
A WOMAN The poor child. On her wedding night.
Scene: geneva house.
Sound: rain window.
ALPHONSE I cannot rise, Victor. I have tried. My Elizabeth. William. I am too old to carry them all.
VICTOR Father, stay with me. You are all I have.
ALPHONSE Hold my hand, then. There. That is better.
(A pause.)
Sound: bell knell.
Scene: cemetery night.
VICTOR By the sacred earth on which I kneel, by the shades that wander near me, by the deep and eternal grief that I feel, I swear. And by thee, O Night, and the spirits that preside over thee, to pursue the daemon who caused this misery, until he or I shall perish in mortal conflict.
VICTOR For this purpose I will preserve my life. Let the cursed and hellish monster drink deep of agony. Let him feel the despair that now torments me.
Sound: creature laugh.
THE CREATURE (whispering) I am satisfied, miserable wretch. You have determined to live, and I am satisfied.
Sound: creature footsteps.
VICTOR (shouting) Stay! Stay, devil!
Sound: running stone.
(A pause.)
DALE (gentle) Night, Elizabeth. Thanks for always setting me a place.
Music: tender piano.
Scene: ship cabin.
Sound: ice groan.
VICTOR And then, Walton, he began to leave me words.
Scene: forest winter.
Sound: chisel on stone.
VICTOR My reign is not yet over. You live, and my power is complete. Follow me. I seek the everlasting ices of the north.
VICTOR You will find near this place a dead hare. Eat, and be refreshed. Come on, my enemy.
DALE He left us lunch.
VICTOR He left it to mock me.
DALE Then I'll have your half.
Scene: ice ship.
Sound: ice groan.
THE MATE She'll not take another squeeze like that one.
A MAN Then tell him. If she's freed, we go south, or we don't lift a rope.
THE MATE He'll listen to the stranger before he listens to me.
A MAN The stranger's dying. And the other one's been in the galley since Tuesday, eating the hard bread and asking after the dogs.
Scene: ship cabin.
Sound: door open.
THE MATE Captain. We come from the men. If she's freed, you'll swear to steer south.
VICTOR What do you demand of your captain? Are you, then, so easily turned from your design? Did you not call this a glorious expedition?
VICTOR And wherefore was it glorious? Not because the way was smooth and placid as a southern sea, but because it was full of dangers and terror.
VICTOR Oh! Be men, or be more than men. 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. Return as heroes who have fought and conquered, and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the foe.
(A pause.)
WALTON Go, and think on what has been said. I will not lead you north against your will.
Sound: ice crack.
Sound: sailors cheer.
VICTOR Do you, then, really return?
WALTON Alas, yes. I cannot lead them unwillingly to danger.
VICTOR Do so, if you will. But I will not.
Sound: thud.
(A pause.)
VICTOR (sighing) Farewell, Walton. Seek happiness in tranquillity, and avoid ambition. Yet why do I say this? I have myself been blasted in these hopes, yet another may succeed.
VICTOR Dale.
DALE Here.
VICTOR You are dismissed.
DALE (gentle) I know. I'll be here in the morning.
(A pause.)
Scene: ice ship.
Sound: quill letter.
WALTON Margaret, my friend is dead. But I am interrupted. It is midnight, and from the cabin where he lies comes a sound as of a human voice, but hoarser.
Scene: ship cabin.
Sound: creature moan.
WALTON (scared) Stay!
THE CREATURE That is also my victim! Oh, Frankenstein! Generous and self-devoted being! What does it avail that I now ask thee to pardon me? Alas, he is cold. He cannot answer me.
WALTON Your repentance is now superfluous. Had you heeded remorse before, Frankenstein would yet have lived.
THE CREATURE And do you dream? Think you that the groans of Clerval were music to my ears? My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy.
Music: creature lament.
THE CREATURE Once I falsely hoped to meet with beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the qualities which I was capable of unfolding. The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends in his desolation. I am alone.
DALE (gentle) Morning, big fella.
(A pause.)
THE CREATURE It is midnight.
DALE I know. You've got to start the day with somebody.
THE CREATURE Captain. Of all humankind, this one only ever bade me good morning. In Ingolstadt, when I was not an hour made. On the glacier, with my hands not clean. And tonight.
THE CREATURE I shall quit your vessel on the ice raft which brought me hither, and seek the north. There I shall consume to ashes this miserable frame, that no curious and unhallowed wretch may ever create such another as I have been.
THE CREATURE I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly, and exult in the agony of the torturing flames. My ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds. My spirit will sleep in peace, or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus. Farewell.
DALE Can I try one more name?
THE CREATURE You may.
DALE Gregory.
(A pause.)
THE CREATURE (gentle) No.
DALE No. I heard it when I said it.
DALE Here. Take my coat. It's cold where you're going.
THE CREATURE I go to a fire.
DALE It's cold on the way.
Sound: coat shrug.
DALE Sleeves are short. Victor's were short on you too.
Sound: window thrown up.
THE CREATURE Dale.
DALE Yeah?
THE CREATURE Good morning.
Sound: ice crack.
Sound: wave crash.
Scene: ice ship.
Sound: quill letter.
WALTON He sprang from the cabin window upon the ice raft, Margaret. He was soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness and distance.
(A pause.)
Music: end credits monster.