• in giving the life and spirit There is no little irony in this phrase, since Victor has already in a material sense,
    given "life and spirit" to his Creature and even to his Creature as "enemy." Given
    his manifest failure on the level of the actual, his desire to succeed on the level
    of the merely textual may be understandable, but it is no less morally problematic.
    Having the last word must be a poor substitute for acting with foresight and responsibility
    in the first place.