that has dominated Victor's perspective on his Creature and blinded him to the dangers
to which he has exposed his loved ones. The melodramatic posturing, it should be emphasized,
does have a purpose if we remind ourselves that this first-person narrative is delivered
to a listener, Robert Walton, who at the end of the next chapter will reenter the
novel. Since Victor is well aware that Walton is preserving this record as an exemplary
warning to later human generations, he has every reason to try to influence the portrait
thus handed down to the future.