Dr. Victor Frankenstein quotes from Penny Dreadful

Sir Malcolm

How will we be able to tell?

Victor

Well, he won’t want to eat everyone, to start.

Vanessa

Leave the mad larks to the boys, Sir Malcolm.

Victor

Oh, not me, just him. I'm bloodless.

Vanessa

The essence of your appeal, Doctor.

Of what I am about to tell you, we cannot enlighten him.

Victor

Why not?

Because the truth is unendurable.

She did not succumb to a disease precisely.

Victor

Of what did she succumb?

I drove a stake through her heart and cut off her head.

Victor

[shooting bottles] Again?

Ethan

Go crazy, Dr. F.

Vanessa

You have very clean hands.

Victor

Yes, I suppose so.

Vanessa

Do you value cleanliness?

Victor

I suppose I do.

Vanessa

That's why you're a virgin. [Victor looks startled] Or maybe not. Who can tell about such things, such hidden things. Such secrets we all have, don't we, Doctor? [pretends to almost bite his thumb] There's a line from Shelley that haunts me, a single line from "Adonais". I can't seem to get it out of my head. "No more let life divide what death can join together." [Victor stands, shuddering] Your clean hands are trembling. Are you afraid?

Victor

N-Not of you.

Vanessa

You think you know a greater demon? Tell me of him. Or shall I tell you? [Victor walks to his bag] Is the examination over?

Victor

It has not yet begun. [leaves the room]

Ethan

[about Vanessa] What's wrong with her?

Sir Malcolm

She's been possessed by the devil.

Ethan

[under his breath] Fuck me.

Sir Malcolm

Or a devil. Who can say. There is a pantheon, I believe.

Ethan

[to Victor] Well, you're a doctor, do something!

Victor

This is a bit beyond my usual practice. [pointing up to Vanessa's room]

Victor

If Proteus was any model to go by, she'll pick up language quickly. Even more quickly since I reduced the trauma of the electrical charge. It will come back to her. So too human interaction and, well, perhaps memory.

John Clare

And then?

Victor

I don't know. Proteus was just beginning to regain the memory of his former life, when you killed him.

John Clare

You don't need to remind me of my sins. Just never forget your own.

Victor

And this? Creating another sin?

John Clare

Atoning for your first. All the love and companionship you denied me, visit upon her. She is our future, Creator. Tread carefully.

Lily

You haven't told me. What's my name?

Victor

Lily. Your name is Lily. The flower of resurrection and rebirth.

Lily

Why does that make me sad? Why should a flower make me sad. I don't understand. The words come out, but with so little meaning. [cries]

Victor

Shh. Be still. It will take time. But you'll learn. I'll show you what life is.

Lily

Cousin, teach me. I am at your mercy.

Victor

I shall.

Vanessa

[clothes shopping for Lily] Good morning. Vanessa Ives, pleased to meet you.

Mr. and Mrs. Ives.

Victor

Oh God, no! No, we're not married.

Oh, I see.

Victor

No, it's not like that either.

I assure you, sir, discretion is the watch-cry of my trade.

Vanessa

We'll look around for a bit if we may, my non-husband and I. [they walk away]

Victor

This is worse than I knew it was going to be.

Lily

So, women wear corsets so they don't exert themselves?

Victor

Partly.

Lily

What would be the danger if they did?

Victor

They'd take over the world.

Victor

You know, once I would have thought all of this impossible.

Vanessa

And now?

Victor

I know nothing's impossible. Whatever we can imagine, far worse is true.

Vanessa

And far better.

Victor

You think so?

Vanessa

I choose to.

Victor

My cousin and I... it's not without its complications. That's what they call the workings inside of watches. Did you know that? The intricate gears and mechanisms. Complications.

Vanessa

Then enjoy them, doctor. They will tick away no matter what we do.

Lily

You musn't be here. There's nothing here for you.

Victor

Where you go, I belong.

Lily

God help you if you follow my path, Victor. Take your romance and your memories of your most current fiction and go.

Victor

No. I must save you from one of them. One way or another, you're my responsibility. I created you.

Lily

I need no man to save me. And I think, in a way, I created you more than you created me. First love, Victor. You will recover. Do not come here again. You will not like what I am becoming.

[after a patient regresses into insanity] Aye, that's the tragedy of it. The ceremony lasts a matter of hours, and then they revert.

Victor

The beast will out.

And which is true? Which is the real man: the beast or the angel?

Victor

We are both.

Are we?

Victor

Good and evil braided be.

Oh, no. Not at all. Or at least, we can seem to be that way. So complicated, I mean. In the end, we must be that thing the world demands of us. We must take all the lust and the avarice and the ambition and bury them. All the alien and ugly things, all the things we really are! The other one, the other man, we cannot allow him!