Penny Dreadful (TV Series)

Resurrection (2014)

Rory Kinnear: The Creature

Photos 

Quotes 

• [the Creature tells Victor Frankenstein the story of his birth] 

  The Creature : [the Creature awakens on a bloody table, narrating]  That it was a difficult birth there can be no doubt. I was born in sheer, terrified agony. But surely this was not the Protean man you'd envisioned. This was not a golden triumph over mortality, the lyrical Adonais, of which Shelley wrote. This was abomination.

  The Creature : [the blood-covered Creature reaches for Victor as he fleas away, narrating]  And so you fled. The first human action that I experienced was rejection. So do not wonder my loathing of your species. I waited. But you did not return. Has there ever been a creature so alone? So utterly helpless? Was every new-born creature abandoned the moment they were born? Was this what life was?

• [the Creature tells Victor Frankenstein how he learned to speak] 

  The Creature : [the Creature watches villagers outside the window, narrating]  That upstairs window became my salvation and my tutor. I learned how people were. What the people of the village valued and what despised. How animals were treated. There was no doubt in my mind that I was an animal. How could there be a doubt? Was it not a countenance made for prediction?

  The Creature : [the Creature sits with a pile of books, narrating]  Eventually I learned words. Your beloved volumes of poetry were my primers. From your penciled notations I learned that you favored Wordsworth and the old Romantics. No wonder you fled from me. I am not a creation of the antique pastoral world. I am modernity personified. Did you not know that's what you were creating? The modern age.

• [the Creature questions Victor Frankenstein on his actions of creating life] 

  The Creature : Did you really imagine that your modern creation would hold to the values of Keats and Wordsworth? We are men of iron and mechanization now. We are steam engines and turbines. Were you really so naive to imagine that we'd see eternity in a daffodil. Who is the child, Frankenstein, thee or me?

  The Creature : [the Creature grabs Victor by the throat as he tries to run away]  You ran away from me once. Never again. We are the Janus mask. Inseparable.

• [the Creature tells Victor Frankenstein where he found a family and home] 

  The Creature : [the Creature works the stage for his fellow actors, narrating]  Could there have been a more appropriate place for me? Night after night, the players died gruesomely and then came back to life again for the next show. They were undying, like me, creatures of perpetual resurrection. I was not welcomed by all. How could this face, this form, fit with ease amongst the mortal and the beautiful? I learned to stay in the shadows to protect such a heart as this you gave me. But still, I was a member of the company in my way and I proved an able and agile worker. You made me strong and tireless. If only you had made me handsome.

• [the Creature leaves a warning with Victor Frankenstein] 

  The Creature : You have not known horror until I have shown it to you.

• [Victor Frankenstein's first undead Creature speaks to him for the first time] 

  The Creature : Did you think I wouldn't find you? Did you imagine that I was dead? That I could die? You know better, Frankenstein. I would seek you even unto the maelstrom of the blackest tempest of the darkest night. Stand and face me!

  The Creature : [Victor stands up heavily breathing]  Look upon this face anew. Is it not well made? Is the language not rich with felicity of expression? Are the eyes not alert? Are these not the eyes that you looked into... Once?

  The Creature : [the Creature wipes his bloody hand over Victor's face]  Hear how I bled.

• [Vincent Brand gives The Creature the stage name of Caliban] 

  Vincent Brand : You know, occurs to me, given my total self-absorption, I never asked your name.

  Vincent Brand : [the Creature hesitates to answer]  Fear not. You shall have a nom de theater. Do you know 'The Tempest'?

  The Creature : No.

  Vincent Brand : You shall be Caliban.

  The Creature : Caliban. Who's he?

  Vincent Brand : Ah! We'll add it to the bill next week and you'll see. Of course in our version Caliban eats Prospero.

• [Victor Frankenstein apologizes to The Creature] 

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : What do you want of me? To suffer? You've done that. I'm sorry I left you. I'm sorry for the cruelty you've endured. That I inflicted upon you, but... I cannot unmake the past.

  The Creature : I'm not concerned with the past, only the future. Rise and walk with me, Creator.

  The Creature : [the Creature wipes the blood off his face]  I'll show you what I want.

• [Victor Frankenstein gives The Creature a name out of spite] 

  The Creature : [about Proteus]  You gave him a name?

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : He picked it himself. He was called Proteus.

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : [Victor covers his eyes]  What do you want from me, demon?

  The Creature : So now I have a name, and yet you will not look at me.

• [the Creature tells Victor Frankenstein how he found him] 

  The Creature : Once I resolved to find you, I knew where to look. I knew in which occupation I would find you engaged. The cutting of flesh, the work of the surgeon and the butcher. And so I came to your city. London. Cruel as the Harlot's curse.

• [the Creature tells Victor Frankenstein of the moment he learned mankind's hatred] 

  The Creature : [as The Creature is beaten to the ground for his malformed look, narrating]  And so it was I learned mankind's capacity for hatred, and mercy, in a single night.

  [when Vincet Brand finds The Creature on the ground] 

• [Vincent Brand asks The Creature if he needs work] 

  Vincent Brand : Do you need work?

  The Creature : Yes.

  Vincent Brand : Your... Visage, creates challenges?

  The Creature : It is a horror.

  Vincent Brand : Not everywhere.

• [Victor Frankenstein tells The Creature to stop tormenting him] 

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : Don't torment me.

  The Creature : You say this to me?

• [the Creature tells Victor Frankenstein he seeks a companion] 

  The Creature : In this life there are hungers that compel us. Food, shelter, warmth, even poetry. But one thing stands titanic. Name it.

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : Love.

  The Creature : Top marks.

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : I can never love you.

  The Creature : I do not seek your love, demon. I do not seek what is not there. I would weep for you if I'd ever learned how. No. I seek a companion.

  The Creature : [the two look to all of the Londoners around them]  Look around. Take your pick.

• [the Creature threatens Victor Frankenstein with life] 

  The Creature : You will make me an immortal mate. A woman. Like myself, everlasting. This you shall do. Or I will strike down all those you love and render your brightest day your darkest night.

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : You seek to threaten me with death? If you seek to threaten me, threaten me with life.

  The Creature : Do not test me, Frankenstein.

• John Clare : You have not known horror until I have shown it to you.