Although the extent of Victor's losses must await his own narration, his despairing
language here calls attention to itself and introduces several themes that will be
developed in the course of the novel. One is psychic death: a person who cannot renew
life is, in some profound sense, not truly alive, a condition made famous by Coleridge
in the idea of "Life-in-Death" advanced in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," line
193. Philosophically speaking, Victor's language reflects a deterministic viewpoint.
Readers will observe how often he invokes destiny or a like sense of fatality driving
the course of his existence.