989

  • almost as imposing and interesting as truth For a person of Walton's scientific pretensions, this is a remarkable phrase. As
    with other statements in these paragraphs, it bears a poised ambiguity in its significance,
    both justifying the super-natural as a realm of imaginative vision and casting doubt
    on its actual efficacy. Truth is, after all, here an unmodifiable standard by which
    all visionary comparisons are to be judged.

    • 988

  • I almost felt . . . being The "almost" by which Victor separates himself from moral responsibility contrasts
    sharply with the strength of his verb emphasizing sheer brutality. This language is
    commensurate with the burst of passionate violence in which he tore to pieces the
    second being on whom he had labored (III:3:4).

    • 987

  • I allowed . . . moment

    The oddly cavalier attitude toward grave matters pronounced just before in Victor's
    interview with his father (III:1:8) appears to deepen here.

    • 986

  • my agony was still superior to thine The Creature's language recalls the diction of Victor Frankenstein's curse on him
    in the cemetery of Geneva where the Frankenstein family was interred (III:7:5), to
    which he responded with a "loud and fiendish laugh." This retrospective perhaps explicates
    that laugh; at the very least, it indicates that the agony Victor had wished upon
    him then was already the abiding condition of his existence.

    • 985

  • Again do I vow vengeance The sudden time shift into the present tense makes us realize how isolated from reality
    is Victor's conception of the universe. But, likewise, the religious overtones of
    this reiterated "vow," combined with Victor's sense that he is an instrument of divine
    retribution, must alert us to the irony by which the two beings, linked in a closed
    circle of revenge, are anything but redemptive in their endeavors.

    • 984

  • the affections In these late frames Victor's ramblings tend to touch on themes represented early
    in the novel and subsequently rather shunted to the side by the pressure of events.
    Thus, Victor's underscoring of the domestic affections as the arena for human life's
    most cherished actions reflects the nostalgic view of his childhood expressed in his
    first chapter (I:1:9, I:1:11) and strongly reinforced by his bitter recriminations
    over his withdrawal from this arena at Ingolstadt (I:3:12 and note). That the novel's
    actual focus is rather the opposite has been remarked more than once by critics. Certainly,
    the ultimate value of what on the surface appear to be peaceful domestic affections
    is thrown into question by the behavior of the cottagers to the Creature in Volume
    2 (II:7:36) or the scapegoating of Justine conducted by the pious burghers of Geneva
    in Volume 1 (I:7:13).

    • 983

  • addressed me in French For the third time in these Irish chapters (see III:3:29 and III:4:11) Mary Shelley
    emphasizes a multiple perspective associated with shifts in language. To some extent,
    she must be reinforcing our awareness of an essential affinity between Victor Frankenstein
    and Mr. Kirwin in matters of class and education. Yet, even as she evokes common bonds,
    she subtly reminds us of the differences that are lost in translation or that, on
    a larger scale, represent features by which we distinguish ourselves from others.

    • 982

  • actuated by selfish and vicious motives On the face of it, Victor's honest admission that he has been impelled by less than
    disinterested motives must raise him in the reader's estimation, especially since
    he is close to his death and seems to be struggling for a truthful objectivity. Yet,
    a second glance at this phrase calls for its positioning, and we realize that Victor
    is referring to the last paragraph of his narration (III:7:26), uttered on 26 August,
    not three weeks before. If the last paragraph of his account is so indelibly tainted
    as Victor admits, what are we to think of what has preceded it? In other words, by
    what has his entire narration been "actuated"? If the whole rests on nothing but "selfish
    and vicious motives," then the textual indeterminacy so continually hinted at throughout
    the novel may in fact be radical.

    • 981

  • some acquaintances This would appear to be an "in-joke." This region, of course, in Mary Shelley's day
    had become associated with the Lake Poets, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, and
    was likewise the home of the soon-to-be-famous Thomas De Quincey, who had rented Dove
    Cottage from Wordsworth in 1809. Percy Shelley and his first wife Harriet had visited
    the region for several weeks in 1811, where they made the acquaintance of Southey
    and held long literary and political talks with him of the sort indicated here. This
    context might be indicated by the fact that it is Clerval in particular who is attracted
    to the region and his new acquaintance there.

    • 980

  • You are in the wrong

    No one, not even his father, ever speaks to Victor so forthrightly or with such categorical
    moral language. The diction picks up on the issue of what is a "right" from two paragraphs
    before.

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