Chapter XVII

The Creature finishes his account and demands that Victor create a female companion, claiming it as a right. Victor, enraged, initially refuses, fearing the multiplication of evil. The Creature counters that his malice springs from misery and vows revenge if denied, yet offers reasoned pleas for companionship and seclusion.

Moved yet repulsed, Victor questions the Creature’s trustworthiness. The Creature swears that with a mate he will abandon human society and live harmlessly in remote wilderness, arguing that sympathy will extinguish his vices. Victor weighs the Creature’s early benevolence, subsequent abuse, and formidable power alongside the threat to others.

Concluding that justice to both the Creature and humanity requires it, Victor agrees—on the strict condition that the pair quit Europe and avoid mankind forever. The Creature swears by heaven and love to keep the bargain and departs swiftly across the glacier, promising to watch the work’s progress and reappear when it is complete.

Left alone at dusk, Victor descends the mountain in anguish, tormented by dread and self-reproach. After a sleepless journey through night to Chamounix and back to Geneva, he returns home haggard and mute. Feeling unworthy of his family’s sympathy yet devoted to their safety, Victor resolves to devote himself to the detested labor of creating the female.