Chapter 18 Destroyer第18章 毁灭者

Mary Shelley

在新的女怪物即将被成功制造的那一刻，“我”为什么要毁掉它呢？

One evening two months later,I was sitting in my laboratory.Most of my work was done,and I could finish the woman monster that night.But I wondered if I should finish the work.

Was I making a monster more evil than the first creature?Perhaps a thousand times more evil.How could I know?Perhaps the woman monster would be another murderer.She had not promised to stay away from other people.Perhaps the two monsters would hate each other and would kill,and murder,and destroy...without an end.

As I thought these things,I looked up at the window.Suddenly,in the moonlight,I saw the monster's awful face looking at me.And in his yellow eyes I could see only hate and evil.I knew he would not keep his promise.

I went over to the laboratory table where the new creature was lying.I pulled off the wires that joined her to my machine.I took a sharp knife and cut through the body that I had joined together so carefully.Through the window,the monster saw me destroy his woman.With a loud and miserable scream of sadness and lost hope,he ran into the laboratory.

“You have destroyed all my hopes of happiness,” he cried. “You have left me with one feeling—hate...and with one wish—to destroy your happiness.You will be sorry that you were ever born.Remember this:I shall be with you on your wedding night.”

Reading Check

Who do you think is the real destroyer in the novel—the creator,the monster,or others?Why?

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