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The oddly cavalier attitude toward grave matters pronounced just before in Victor's
interview with his father (III:1:8) appears to deepen here.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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
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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Alphonse Frankenstein has so chastized Victor over his slippery sense of his family
obligations that he ought to experience some confusion to hear his father's words
echoed from the mouth of his Creature. In a world about to be turned upside-down,
it would not be surprising if Victor's putative son were not in some odd sense to
assume the role of his father.
978
own creature
As the Creature's terms have just implicitly placed Victor Frankenstein with the judges
who have wrongfully condemned Justine Moritz to death, so here, he recognizes that
Victor's easy willingness to commit murder, broached in the preceding chapter (II:1:6)
and reiterated to the Creature himself (II:2:6), places him on the same moral plane
as the being he accuses of having committed murder. If Victor does not yet recognize
his identity with his creation, the Creature's plea is reinforcing their "ties" on
every level possible.