This seemingly offhand sentimentalism is in actuality an exceedingly subtle move on
Mary Shelley's part, suggestive of how dangerous unexamined metaphors can be, especially
those that stem from our day-to-day existence and common practices. Victor Frankenstein,
deeply aware from his scientific experiments that electricity achieves its dynamic
energy from the interplay of polarities, here sees in the heavens an example of that
polarity writ large and, as it were, iconically—as elemental warfare. He will almost
immediately transfer that icon into an earthly counterpart, a permanent struggle between
positive and negative poles, by which he respectively denominates himself and his
Creature as good and evil, as figures of God and Satan. Thus, almost unconsciously
adopting a quasi-divine sign, Victor reinforces the animosity that allowed him conveniently
to categorize, externalize, and thus alienate as Other the Creature whom he brought
to life and then left to his own devices (see I:4:3 and note).