| Romantic Circles

1404

trembled violently

This is also the phrase used to depict Felix De Lacey upon his last appearance in
the novel (II:8:11 and note).

To you first entering on life In regard to this curious reminder of the present tense in which Victor narrates
the story of his life, it is important to recall that, far from being Victor's junior,
Walton is 28 years old at this point in the account, one year older than Victor. A
useful point of comparison is the exchange between the simple Chamois Hunter and Manfred
in the second act of Byron's Manfred, the dramatic poem he began in the summer of
1816 and set in the same Alpine wilderness as the second volume of Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein.

1399

You throw a torch Walton's metaphor is prescient, since it is by fire that the Creature plans to consume
himself (III:Walton:45). It is no coincidence but an extensive of the metaphor that
Victor appears to have succumbed to a consumptive fever (III:Walton:14).

1407

concealing the true reasons

Asked to reply candidly, Victor lies to his father. This might be considered of a
piece with the way he recalled his solemn promise to the Creature two paragraphs earlier:
no sooner was it invoked than he began immediately to consider what would result should
he dare to break it.

1384

She was thinner Characteristically, Victor construes Elizabeth's state of health in reference to
himself. At the age of twenty-two she should not be so beyond her prime. Clearly,
worry over the last two years has taken its toll. Although Mary Shelley maintains
her undeviating focus on Victor, this momentary description illuminates the cost of
his obsession and detachment from Elizabeth on her state of mind and body. This is
as close to an inner life as Elizabeth ever manifests.

1405

trembling with passion We are returned to the language of "ardour" associated with Victor's earlier obsession
with his scientific experiments and to his lack of self-control in their pursuit.
What is new here is the sudden resort to unchecked and criminal violence.

1374

sympathies Although Victor dehumanizes the creature, it is interesting to recognize that, even
so, he is unable to deny the being's fundamental claim to a primary human attribute.

1373

swear That Victor has no right to implicate Walton in his vendetta goes without saying.
But the legalistic, contractual mode in which he assaults Walton testifies strongly
to the closed tyranny of mind in which he has been laboring now for many months.

1371

a sum of money, together with a few jewels Does Mary Shelley intend us to see a comparison or a total contrast with Safie, who
uses virtually the same words to explain how she escaped her father in Leghorn and
made it north to the De Lacey's cottage in Germany? That episode, impelled by love,
occurs at the center and southern extremity of the novel; Victor, in this last chapter
of his narrative, stands near its outer edge and sets out for the far north driven
by a hatred that in its passion and compulsion seems a mirror reflection of Safie's
desire: see II:6:19.

The statement also contains a second bearing, which is that, although it is not explicitly
mentioned by Victor, with the demise of Alphonse Frankenstein, Victor, as first-born
son, has inherited the family estate and can spend his inheritance in whatever fashion
he chooses. No longer need he follow his father's admonition to attend a university
(see I:2:1) or ask his permission to travel to the British Isles (see III:1:11). In
effect, Victor is now the patriarch of his family.

1375

the sympathy of a stranger In accentuating his own lack of any ties but the common ones of humanity, Mr. Kirwin
quietly establishes his link with Walton, who in the immediate context of the narrative
recital has likewise altruistically attended to Victor's well-being without any sense
of obligation or self-congratulation.