00:00Have you ever created something you wish you could undo?
00:12A mistake so monumental, it haunts your every waking moment.
00:17Today, we're diving into a story that asks that very question.
00:22A tale of creation, rejection, and the dark consequences of playing God.
00:30This is the tragic story of Frankenstein.
00:35Our journey begins not with a monster, but with a man.
00:39Victor Frankenstein is a young, brilliant, and incredibly ambitious scientist from Geneva.
00:47Consumed by a burning desire to unlock the secrets of life and death,
00:51he isolates himself in his university town of England for months.
00:56He toils away in a hidden workshop, piecing together a new form of life from discarded body parts gathered from graveyards and dissecting rooms.
01:05He imagines his creation will be beautiful, a new species that will bless him as its creator.
01:10He pours his soul, his health, and his sanity into this single, obsessive gall.
01:16Then, on a dreary November night, the moment arrives.
01:21Amidst the flicker of a candle, Victor brings his creation to life.
01:25But the reality is a nightmare.
01:27The creature's yellow, watery eyes open.
01:30Its skin, stretched taut over muscles and arteries, is a ghastly yellow.
01:36Its black lips and floating black hair only accentuate the heart.
01:41This is no beautiful new Adam.
01:44This is a monster.
01:46Overwhelmed by disgust and terror, Victor does the unthinkable.
01:52He rules.
01:53He abandons his creation.
01:55Fleeing his workshop and leaving the newborn being utterly alone in a world it doesn't understand.
02:00The creature, like a child, is confused and innocent.
02:05It wanders out of Ingolstadt, seeking warmth and companionship.
02:10But its grotesque appearance inspires only fear and hatred.
02:16They'll just scream and throw stones.
02:19Every hand is raised against it.
02:21The creature learns about humanity not through kindness, but by secretly observing a loving family.
02:27Teddy Laces, who live in a small cottage in the woods.
02:31Hiding in a hovel attached to their home.
02:34The creature learns to speak, to read, and to feel.
02:39It develops a deep longing for connection and acceptance, believing that if it could just speak to the kind, blind old man of the family, he might see past its appearance.
02:52Finally, the creature gathers its courage and enters the cottage when the old man is alone.
02:58A gentle conversation begins, and for a fleeting moment, the creature feels a glimmer of hope.
03:04But then, the rest of the family returns.
03:07They are horrified.
03:09They attack the creature, driving it away in a frenzy of terror.
03:13This brutal rejection is the final straw.
03:16The creature's heart, once filled with a desire for love, now burns with rage and a thirst for revenge.
03:24It realizes that if it cannot inspire love, it will inspire fear.
03:29And its vengeance will be directed at one person, its creator, Victor Frankenstein.
03:36Meanwhile, Victor has been trying to forget his terrible secret.
03:41He returns to his family in Geneva, attempting to piece his life back together.
03:45But his past is not so easily escaped.
03:48He receives a devastating letter.
03:51His youngest brother, William, has been murdered.
03:54Victor knows, with a chilling certainty, who is responsible.
03:59Rushing back to Geneva, he sees his monstrous creation lurking in the woods near the crime scene.
04:05The creature has begun its reign of terror.
04:09To make matters worse, Hustin Moritz, a beloved family servant, is falsely accused of the murder and executed, compounding Victor's guilt, driven by grief and a need for answers.
04:22Victor seeks solitude in the mountains.
04:25It is there, on a glacier, that he comes face to face with his creation once more.
04:32But this is not the cowering, confused being he abandoned.
04:37The creature is now articulate, intelligent, and filled with a righteous fury.
04:43It tells Victor the story of its lonely existence, of the constant rejection and cruelty it has faced.
04:50It makes a demand, an ultimate!
04:53It wants Victor to create a female companion, a mate just like itself, so it will no longer have to endure its crushing solitude.
05:01If Victor agrees, the creature promises to disappear with its partner into the wilds of South America, never to trouble humanity again.
05:10But if Victor refuses, the creature vows to make his life a living hell, culminating in a chilling threat.
05:17I will be with you on your wedding night!
05:21Torn between his responsibility and his revulsion, Victor reluctantly agrees.
05:26He travels to a remote island in the Orkneys, off the coast of Scotland, to begin his grim work a second time.
05:32But, as he pieces together the female creature, he is plagued by horrifying visions.
05:39What if this new creature is even more malevolent?
05:41What if they have children and create a race of demons that could terrorize the world?
05:45Looking up, he sees the creature watching him through the window. A demonic grin on its face.
05:52In a fit of revulsion and defiance, Victor tears the female creature to pieces.
05:58The creature lets out a howl of despair and rage, and its promise of revenge becomes an unbreakable va-
06:05From that moment on, Victor's life unravels completely.
06:09The creature is true to its word.
06:12It first murders Victor's best friend, Henry Clairville, framing Victor for the crime.
06:18Though eventually acquitted, Victor is a broken man.
06:22He returns home to marry his beloved Elizabeth, hoping to find some solace.
06:27But the creature's threat hangs over him like a guillotine.
06:31On their wedding night, while Victor patrols the grounds, expecting an attack on himself.
06:36The creature slips into the house and strangles Elizabeth in their marriage bed.
06:41Victor's father, upon hearing the news, DS of grief.
06:46Victor has lost everyone he has ever loved. His entire world has been destroyed.
06:52Now, only one thing remains. Revenge. The roles have been reversed.
07:00Victor, once the creator, is now the hunter.
07:04He pursues his creation across the globe. A mad obsession driving him onward.
07:09The chase leads them north, further and further into the desolate, frozen wasteland of the Arctic.
07:16It's a relentless cat and mouse game.
07:18With the creature often leaving clues and taunts to fuel Victor's hatred and keep the pursuit alive.
07:25The creator and the created are now locked in a final, deadly embrace, bound together by their mutual destruction.
07:32Victor's pursuit ends when his ship becomes trapped in the ice.
07:36Near death, he is rescued by an Arctic explorer, Captain Walton, to whom he recounts his entire horrific story as a warning.
07:45Victor Frankenstein, the brilliant scientist who sought to create life.
07:49Dies on Walton's ship, a man consumed and destroyed by his own ambition.
07:54Shortly after, Walton is stunned to find the creature in the cabin, mourning over the body of its creator.
08:00The creature confesses its terrible crimes, but also expresses its profound misery and loneliness.
08:06With its creator dead, its purpose, even its purpose for revenge is good.
08:12It tells Walton, it will travel to the northernmost point of the globe and build its own funeral pyre.
08:18The creature then disappears into the darkness and distance, leaving only a story of ambition, loneliness.
08:24And the devastating consequences of unchecked pride.
08:28The story of Frankenstein is a powerful reminder that with great power comes great responsibility.
08:34It forces us to ask what it truly means to be human and what we owe to the things we create.
08:40Thank you so much for joining me on this journey into one of literature's greatest tragedies.
08:47If you enjoyed this, please like, subscribe and hit that bell icon for more deep dives into classic stories.
08:57See you next time.
