logical circle he cannot escape is as characteristic of him as the passivity into
which he actually retreats from the stress of events. Still, his figure resonates
against his contrasting application of the turning wheel a few paragraphs earlier
(see III:4:12 and note), where its every revolution was conceived as bringing new
calamities upon him.
The term "mighty revolution" cannot but retain some of its political charge in the
context of post-Napoleonic Europe, particularly if connected to the world of undiscriminated
wretchedness that Victor had been contemplating before Mr. Kirwin entered to prepare
him for his father's arrival (III:4:21).