This instinctive gesture is part of a pattern across the novel in which those with
sight must technically blind themselves in order to endure the presence of the Creature:
see I:4:3 and note.

The combination of terms here may be accidental, but is wonderfully encapsulating
of the dynamics of the novel thus far. The Creature is denominated an Other even as
the fixed point for comparison is lodged in the established, public figure of Alphonse
Frankenstein, who, from the point of view of his sons (and of himself) is never capable
of being viewed in the light of alterity.

We enter here into a third level of narrative, one that is embedded within Victor
Frankenstein's autobiography, which is itself being transcribed by Walton each night
of its recounting for his sister's future perusal. Issues of the authority and even
the reliability of any particular level of the narrative thus abound and have raised
serious debate in the critical literature on the novel. As the Creature twice in these
two paragraphs speaks of his "tale," so Victor refers to his narrative as a "tale"
as well (see I:L4:30 and I:3:13). The underlying question is how true is any tale.

His limited reading immediately calls to his mind the mythic model for his profound
alienation, Milton's Satan, establishing a new line of psychological congruence between
the tormented Creature and Victor Frankenstein, who used the identical expression
at the end of Volume I (Chapter 8 in the 1831 edition): see I:7:30 and note. Victor
also makes similar statements in I:4:5 and II:1:1 (and note). The allusion is to Satan's
soliloquy upon Mount Niphates: Paradise Lost, IV.75.

The Creature has internalized the dynamics of Paradise Lost, setting himself as a
reactionary force to undo the world of his creator. That such desolation, rather than
a triumph, is inherently defeating and involves the undoing of his self is well understood
by Mary Shelley, yet to be learned by the Creature.

This a sentiment born of Enlightenment optimism that Mary Shelley would have heard
echoed in her father's home as well as in the one she established with Percy Bysshe
Shelley. It is based on a sense of the shared values of the human community. For it
to be discovered a falsehood would profoundly affect normative ethical premises. The
very blandness of this discourse testifies to our comfortable assurances and prepares
the way for a devastating reversal of them.

This is an artistically crafted interval during which Mary Shelley deftly brings Victor
back to the center of her novel as a moral being.

The Creature, cursing both his own creation and his Creator, tellingly echoes Victor's
own imprecation on himself uttered several hours earlier (see II:2:14 and note).

The last plot line of the novel, that involving the Arabian Safie, is introduced at
this significant point of the narrative, the central chapter of the work as published
in 1818.

Unknowingly yet shrewdly, throughout this speech the Creature touches Victor Frankenstein
on his most sensitive moral points. Watching Justine condemned for a crime for which
he held himself responsible, Victor was (and continues to be) racked by a sense of
injustice. Yet, in condemning the Creature, he is just as guilty of fundamental injustice
as had been the Genevan magistracy.