Chapter 17 — the demand

The Creature finishes his narration. He has one request to make of Victor, and the entire conversation has been preparation for it. He wants a companion — a female of his own kind, made by the same process, as ugly and solitary as he is. The two of them, he promises, will leave Europe immediately and travel together to the wildernesses of South America, where no human beings will see them. Victor will never hear of them again. They will be self-sufficient — eating roots and acorns, sleeping rough, asking nothing of any human community. They will take care of each other; they will not have children (the Creature is specific about this); they will simply, finally, not be alone.

Victor argues against it. He fears what two such beings might do; he fears what the female might choose; he fears that they will reproduce despite the Creature's promise; he fears the moral weight of making, deliberately, a second being he knows will suffer. The Creature counters each objection with patience. He has thought about all of this. He is not asking for happiness, he says, only for the company of one being who will not flinch from looking at him. He concedes that if Victor refuses, his violence against the Frankenstein household will not stop. The threat is implicit and explicit at the same time.

Victor, after long argument, agrees. The promise is conditional — he will return to his work and make a female companion, and the Creature will then leave with her and never trouble him again. The chapter ends with the agreement. Victor walks down the mountain alone, sick at heart, committed. The Creature, behind him, is already disappearing across the ice.