• my guiding spirit The assurance of a guiding spirit on Victor's part is now total, but the previous
    references in this chapter, in their shaded ambiguity, along with the context of P.
    B. Shelley's "Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude" (published February 1816), compel
    the reader to question whether that guardian is a good angel or an evil spirit, an
    alastor.