Mary Shelley

Each night,after the people in the house had gone to bed,I stole some of their food for myself.But soon I realized that the old man was blind.And I realized that often the three of them did not have enough to eat.I saw the two young people put extra food on the blind man's plate,although they were hungry themselves.

When I saw that,I stopped stealing their food.Their life was already hard enough,so I went back to the wild fruit in the woods.I tried to help them in other ways,too.During the night,I cut firewood for them,and added it secretly to the wood which the young man had cut during the day.I was very happy to see how much this pleased the young man.

After a while,I began to understand some of the noises that the people made to each other.The first words that I understood were words like“fire” and “bread”.I also learned that the three people called each other by names.The girl was Agatha,the young man was Felix,and the old man was called Father.I tried to make the noises that they made,and slowly I began to speak.

The two young people were very beautiful.One day I saw my own face in the water of the river.It was a terrible face.I understood why people were frightened and why they shouted and threw stones.I knew then that I could not let these beautiful people see me.They would be frightened by my horrible face and body.

Summer was coming,and I continued to watch and learn.I also continued to help the two people and their father,and did many jobs for them in the night.They were always surprised in the morning when they saw what I had done.I heard them talk about the “good creature”who did these “wonderful”things.

But the family were often sad,and I wished I could make them happy.I looked forward to the time when I could speak well enough to talk to them.And I was happy because I was sure I would soon have three good friends.

Reading Check

1.According to this chapter,what can be used to describe the monster's personalities?

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2.Do you think the monster would be accepted by his neighbors for what he had done for them?If you were his neighbor,how would you get along with him?

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