Chapter 20

Summary

At last Victor sets about creating the second monster. As he suspected, the monster had trailed Victor and Henry’s tour through Europe into England. He is anxious to see his mate and he approaches Victor’s workshop on the remote island in the Orkneys.

With mixed feelings of guilt and temper Victor destroys the half-finished creature in front of the monster, saying that he will not continue.  The monster says, “Do you dare to break your promise?  I have endured toil and misery '''.  I have dwelt many months in the heaths of England and among the deserts of Scotland. I have endured incalculable fatigue and cold and hunger. Do you dare destroy my hopes?”   Victor responds, “Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness.”

The monster disappears into the night and Victor worries who the next victim of the creature’s evil will be next. 

Victor prepares to return home, but he must first destroy his laboratory, and dispose of the body parts he has accumulated.  He sets out in a boat in order to dispose of the body parts, but a storm pushes him out to sea and eventually he is cast ashore in Ireland and he is unceremoniously taken to the local magistrate, Mr. Kirwin, accused of murder.

Interpretation

Victor cannot repeat the experiment, and he destroys the partly created monster when confronted with the obscenity that is the monster and has been his work.

One of the considerations Victor had, was the possibility that his second creation might be more evil than the first, and the pair might endanger the entire human race.

The monster, on seeing his mate in ruin, issues the threat, “I shall be with you on your wedding night.”  This is perhaps a ploy by Shelley in order to keep the reader interested.  We are again right back in the midst of a Gothic tale. All the elements are present again; the bleak scenery, the storms, the visions of experiments and body parts, all conjure up a typical Gothic atmosphere.