This word, which as a noun entered the novel with Walton rhapsodizing over his passion
for discovery (I:L4:20), is now picked up by Victor as if deliberately to echo and
admonish the mariner. It will toll repetitively—and resonantly—through the remainder
of this chapter. It seems clear that Mary Shelley, capitalizing on her strategy in
1818, is here emphasizing the word in all its ambiguity. The complex of associations
in its definition can be tracked here.