Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

"If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful - not befitting the human mind."

Victor Frankenstein

Usted seguramente ya habrá disfrutado de este horrendo viaje a las entrañas de la condición humana. Si bien la mayoría de nosotros conoce a los personajes de esta dramática historia por parodias, versiones cinematográficas, digestos y similares, seguramente estará de acuerdo conmigo en que su lectura le vibra a uno en el estómago. O por lo menos a mí se me vuelca el interior nomás de pensar que una niña de ni siquiera 20 años es quien ha concebido y plasmado en papel lo que estoy leyendo.

Los personajes, usted los recuerda: Robert Walton, capitán que intenta llevar a su barco y tripulación al fin del mundo entre hielos y glaciares; Victor Frankenstein, estudiante de medicina que cuenta al capitán su atribulada historia; Elizabeth Lavenza, prometida de Victor; Clerval, su mejor amigo; Justin, inocente condenada a muerte por el asesinato del hermano menor de Victor, William; Felix, Agatha y De Lacey, la familia a la que el hombre creado por Victor aprendió a guardar afecto; y el hombre creado por Victor. Al final, sabemos, Victor Frankenstein muere a bordo del barco del capitán Walton. Su persecusión e incesante búsqueda resultan infructuosas, no consigue nunca dar alcance al monstruo por él creado y autor de toda su desgracia.

Los tres segmentos que quiero recordarle son tomados de la historia vista desde la perspectiva del monstruo. El primero describe los sentimientos de afecto y compasión que inevitablemente se generan en él al observar a Felix, Agatha y De Lacey.

The old man, whom I  soon perceived to be blind, employed his leisure hours on his instrument or in contemplation. Nothing could exceed the love and respect which the younger cottagers exhibited towards their venerable companion. They performed towards him every little office of affection and duty with gentleness; and he rewarded them with his benevolent smiles.

They were not entirely happy. The young man and his companion often went apart, and appeared to weep. I saw no cause for their unhappiness; but I was deeply affected by it.  If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be wretched… What did their tears imply? Did they really express pain?... A considerable period elapsed before I discovered on of the causes of the uneasiness of this amiable family: it was poverty, and they suffered that evil in a very distressing degree… They often, I belive, suffered the pangs of hunger very poignantly, especially the two younger cottagers; for several times they placed food before the old man when they resereved none for themselves.

This trait of kindness moved me sensibly. I had been accostumed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption; but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries, nuts and roots, which I gathered from a neighbouring wood.

El segundo es la solicitud a su creador, Victor Frankenstein, luego de haber sido rechazado por la familia a la que él tanto quería.

We may not part until you have promised to comply with my requisition. I am alone and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects… You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of sympathies necessary for my being.

I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind?... Shal I respect man when he contemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness and, instead of injury I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance. But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union. Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery. I will revenge my injuries: if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care: I will work at your destruction, nor finish until Idesolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth.

El tercero es un fragmento del diálogo que sostuvo con el capitán Walter a los pies de su recién fallecido creador.

Once I falsely hoped to meet with beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding.  I was nourished with high thoughts of honour and devotion. But now crime has degraded me beneath the meanest animal. No guilt, no mischief, no malignity, no misery, can be found comparable to mine. When I run over the frightful catalogue of my sins, I cannot belive that I am the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and trascendent visions of the beauty and majesty of goodness. But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet eventhat enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.

¿Acaso no era ésta un alma humana? ¿Aquello a lo que estamos expuestos define y nutre nuestro corazón? Ser rechazado, ¿quién lo soporta? Sentirse repugnante, ¿quién lo aguanta? ¿Cuánta gente anda por ahí sin saber lo que es intercambiar cariño? La soledad debe ser una cosa terrible. Pero igual y son puras figuraciones mías.

Espero que haya disfrutado su resumen, peladito y en la boca.