• they at once drew tears of sorrow and delight from my eyes

    This is only the second occasion in which the Creature has shed tears, the other being
    on the first night of his existence (II:3:2). Yet how different is this repetition,
    another sign of the growing refinement of his emotional life. His oxymoronic response
    to music (and perhaps to Safie as well) is a further example of how his education
    proceeds by encompassing opposites (see II:3:6 and note).