1367
of false consciousness, as Victor charges himself with a solemn revenge for murders
of human beings yet supports his mission by killing other sentient creatures. Readers
will recall that, in contrast, the Creature is a strict vegetarian.
of false consciousness, as Victor charges himself with a solemn revenge for murders
of human beings yet supports his mission by killing other sentient creatures. Readers
will recall that, in contrast, the Creature is a strict vegetarian.
1366
looks to a melodramatic struggle-to-the-death to resolve their conflict, thus substituting
a simply physical resolution for one that might embody ethical or psychological justice.
Once again, one may read here a female author's sense of the conventions of masculinist
fictions, whether those of art or real life. (For other instances where Victor similarly
falls back on physical competitiveness, see II:2:5, II:2:6, III:3:16 and III:3:17).
1361
Gothic atmosphere in which to wrap the suspense of this long-awaited evening. But
the storm functions more specifically as a leitmotif associated with the sublime power
of nature, of forces beyond human control, and of the Creature. There actually are
only two such Gothic storms in Frankenstein. The first was also set in the environs
of Lake Geneva and occured as Victor, returning from Ingolstadt, sought out the scene
of his brother William's death at Plainpalais. There in a brilliant flash of lightning
he encountered the form of his Creature for the first time since the night of its
creation. That scene in the sixth chapter in the first volume (I:6:20) thus operates
as a symmetrical counterpart to this other storm of the sixth chapter of the third
volume, anticipating the reemergence of the Creature into Victor's domestic idyll.
1359
A coastal city in Fife, St. Andrew's is the site of the oldest university in Scotland,
founded in 1411. However impatient Victor represents himself, he and Henry Clerval
go well out of their way to visit medieval sites on their way to Perth.
1358
reduced to an irrational state he naturally falls back on his native French. There
is an undercurrent of class revealed in the indication that only Mr. Kirwin among
the Irish attendants or villagers is sufficiently educated to understand French.
1356
Although less obviously allusive to Milton's characterization of Satan in Paradise
Lost than the earlier reference (III:Walton:6 and note; see also I:L4:22), the verbal
repetition serves to underscore with some finality the parallel with the fallen archangel.
1342
when he called Victor his slave and demanded his obedience (III:3:11 and note). The
effect of this recantation, however, is not so much the simple reversal the diction
connotes, as an erasure of the polarizing of his terms. Both he and Victor were slaves,
mastered alike by their antagonism.
1341
Mary Shelley was the sole child of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, conceived
before they were officially married and then left motherless by Wollstonecraft's death.
She had three step-siblings: Fanny Imlay, the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and
the American Gilbert Imlay, who committed suicide in 1817 while Mary was still engaged
in the writing of Frankenstein; and Charles and Claire Clairmont, children of the
first marriage of Godwin's second wife Mary Jane Clairmont. Because of their gender
and nearness of age, Mary and Claire were thrown much together and experienced considerable
sibling friction. Claire's unacknowledged pregnancy by Lord Byron was the driving
force behind the 1816 journey to Geneva, and when her condition became known it fell
largely to Mary to see her through the pregnancy without scandal. From this point
on, for the next five years, Claire lived with the Shelleys both in England and Italy.
Whatever words Victor speaks here, it is clear that Mary's closeness to her step-sister
generally increased the suspiciousness with which she regarded Claire's motives and
actions.
1346
devoted to Victor's egocentric ruminations in the interim, we are here sharply reminded
of the Creature's inner life that Victor refuses to acknowledge. In modern parlance
the Creature is engaged at this point in a deliberate repression of his anger. As
in their previous encounter Victor notably outrants his Creature.
1347
Although, of course, Victor will need to pursue his scientific labors by himself,
the verb "coveted" conveys a sense of profound asociality as a crucial aspect of Victor's
constitution. However eagerly he expresses his anticipation of returning to find fulfillment
in his union with Elizabeth, what his father praises as "our domestic calm" at this
point in the 1818 edition seems wholly to lack the capacity to satisfy Victor.