The Wedding-Night Threat

The Wedding-Night Threat is the monster's explicit promise to Victor Frankenstein that he will be present on Victor's wedding night, a declaration that transforms the anticipated union into a scene of terror and ultimately leads to the murder of Elizabeth Lavenza. This threat, first uttered during a confrontation on the Orkney Islands, becomes the central axis of the novel's final movement, dictating Victor's actions, paralyzing him with dread, and culminating in the fulfillment of the monster's vengeful design.

Origin and Utterance

The threat is born in the immediate aftermath of Victor's destruction of the female creature he had begun to build on the remote Orkney Islands. As Victor sits in his laboratory, the monster appears at the casement, his countenance expressing "the utmost extent of malice and treachery." Seeing the torn remains of his hoped-for companion, the monster withdraws with a howl of "devilish despair and revenge." Later that night, he enters Victor's room and, after a bitter exchange in which Victor declares he will never create another being, the monster delivers his final, chilling words: "I shall be with you on your wedding-night." The threat is not a vague warning but a precise, targeted promise, aimed directly at the one remaining source of happiness Victor might claim.

Victor's Interpretation and Response

Victor immediately understands the threat as a death sentence directed at himself. He reflects that "that, then, was the period fixed for the fulfilment of my destiny. In that hour I should die and at once satisfy and extinguish his malice." The prospect of his own death does not move him to fear, but the thought of Elizabeth's grief—of her finding her lover "so barbarously snatched from her"—brings tears to his eyes for the first time in months. He resolves not to fall without a bitter struggle, arming himself with pistols and a dagger. Yet his interpretation is tragically incomplete; he assumes the monster intends to kill him, not Elizabeth. This misreading blinds him to the true nature of the threat and leads him to hasten the marriage, believing that by confronting the monster he can protect his bride.

The Threat's Influence on the Marriage

When Victor returns to Geneva, Elizabeth's letter revives the memory of the threat. He reads and rereads her words, and "some softened feelings stole into my heart and dared to whisper paradisiacal dreams of love and joy; but the apple was already eaten, and the angel's arm bared to drive me from all hope." He reasons that if the monster executes his threat, death is inevitable, and that postponing the marriage would only invite more dreadful revenge. He therefore agrees to an immediate union, telling his father that he loves Elizabeth and looks forward to their marriage with delight. The wedding proceeds, but Victor's heart is heavy; he carries his weapons constantly and remains ever watchful, believing that the decisive struggle will occur on the night itself.

Fulfillment and Aftermath

On the wedding night, after the ceremony and the journey to Evian, Victor urges Elizabeth to retire while he searches the inn for any sign of the monster. He hears a "shrill and dreadful scream" from her room and rushes in to find her lifeless body, thrown across the bed, the "murderous mark of the fiend's grasp" on her neck. At the window, he sees the monster, who grins and points at the corpse before leaping into the lake. Victor fires a pistol but misses. The threat is fulfilled not by Victor's death but by Elizabeth's, a cruel inversion that leaves Victor utterly desolate. The monster's words, which Victor had interpreted as a promise of his own destruction, instead become the instrument of a far more devastating loss, one that completes the destruction of Victor's family and drives him into a lifelong pursuit of revenge.