Chapter 20 — the destruction; pursuit

Victor tears the female apart on her bench. He destroys the work of the past three months in a few violent minutes. The Creature, watching through the window, howls — a sound, Victor says, "of devilish despair." When Victor comes out of the hut to compose himself, the Creature is waiting. He confronts Victor on the rocks above the shore. He has been promised a mate. He has watched the work proceed for weeks. He has now seen Victor destroy it in front of him. He is past argument.

He gives Victor the threat that has been the most-quoted line of the novel: "It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding-night." Victor takes it as a threat against himself. He does not yet realize — he will not until it is too late — that the threat is against Elizabeth. The Creature disappears across the rocks. Victor is left alone in the dawn. He spends the rest of the night sitting on the shore, sick.

He has the practical problem of the female's remains. He cannot leave them in the hut; he cannot bury them on the island. He puts them in a basket, weights the basket with stones, and rows out at midnight to dump it at sea. The wind shifts; he is blown off course; he lands on a strange shore at dawn. The local fishermen, suspicious of his arrival, drag him before a magistrate. They have a body, a recently-murdered man, to identify. Victor, brought in for questioning, is shown the body. It is Henry Clerval. The Creature, in his promised retaliation, has already begun. Victor is charged with the murder he is heartbroken to be wrongly accused of. He collapses into another long brain fever.