On a dark, stormy night in which the rain patters
"dismally against the panes of his laboratory window, and his candle nearly extinguishes
itself, Victor Frankenstein notices the yellow eye of his creature open. Now the
features that Victor has so carefully selected somehow seem ugly: the lustrous black
hair and the pearly white teeth are hideously in contrast to the watery eyes, shrivelled
complexion, and straight black lips. With life breathed into his creature, Frankenstein
is horrified by its hideous appearance; in fact, Victor is so frightened that he runs
from the laboratory.
In disgust at what he has made,
Frankenstein, having left the laboratory, flees to his bedroom where he falls into a
fitful sleep. He dreams of Elizabeth whom he holds in his arms, only to have her become
his dead mother, wrapped in a shroud. At length, the creature appears, lifts the
curtain by the bed, and gazes at Victor. "his jaws opened...while a grin wrinkled his
cheek....," but Victor runs from the room at the "hideous" sight and spends the night
walking up and down in the courtyard. When mornning comes, Victor Frankenstein flees
the courtyard of such a hideous wretch, and hurries on "although drenched by the rain
which poured form a black and comfortless sky."
As he
walks, Victor comes to the inn and notices his dear friend, Henry Clerval, descending
from the coach. Victor greets him with joy and Clerval, who is delighted to see him,
also notices the tension in Victor. But, Victor takes Clerval to his college, and
rushes up to his lodgings as though "expecting a spectre to stand in waiting for him
after he flings open the door. When there is no one there, Victor is delighted and
returns to Henry. Taking him to his rooms, Victor laughs in delight, jumps over a chair,
and runs nervously around the rooms. Finally, he collapses in a nervous fever." When
he becomes conscious, it is many months later and Henry has attended him the entire
time.
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