From Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, pg. 77-78 “I expected… be virtuous.”

“The Monster’s Lament”

Why did you create me

If this what I’m to be?

A fallen angel

(You- I’ll mangle)

Wretched creature

(O be my teacher!)

I hate this life, but life I want,

So teach me Virtue

Or your dreams I’ll haunt.

What made me so?

Misery- my perpetual foe.

Dejection, rejection,

Starving for affection,

Alas! Who can love me?

All men hate the wretched

For not even my Maker

Will extend a hand of Protection.

In making me, you courted Death,

You sport with life

As if a game,

And you only have yourself to blame

For my creation you have not fame-

No, just Misery.

So listen, sir, to my request

And dare say you’ll do your best

To meet my needs-

Absolve your deeds-

You owest me that much.

I beseech you, natural lord and king

To alleviate my suffering;

Renew in me lost happiness,

I seek virtue through simple bliss.

But if you reject my dire plea,

Expect to embrace agony;

I will not stop, will never rest

Until you forge a wife for me.

What sayest you?