1211

  • the mad enthusiasm As elsewhere in these paragraphs the candor of Victor's language is unexpected and
    surprising. Earlier in his narration he has used "enthusiasm" as an apology, even
    perhaps as a cover for his lack of responsibility (see I:3:3, I:3:8, I:3:14, and III:2:21).
    This linking of his obsession with creating life to a state of madness will be reinforced
    near the end of the novel where Victor will reflect on his endeavor as a "fit of enthusiastic
    madness" (III:Walton:28).

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  • Are you mad . . . ? Alphonse Frankenstein had raised exactly the same question with Victor at the beginning
    of the fifth chapter (III.5.5), and the Genevan magistrate seems to have been assured
    of the matter from his interview at the end of the sixth (III.6.28). For readers who
    by this point in the novel might well have come to the same conclusion, Victor's questioning
    of Walton's mental stability would venture on the absurd. From the larger perspective
    of the novel's development, however, the strange echo emphasizes how relative, given
    the acute isolation in which its three male protagonists have come to exist, have
    become all grounds of reason and normalcy.

    • 1208

  • Do you not love another? At this juncture in the novel few readers would not be startled by the aptness of
    this question, even if none would construe the passion that consumes Victor as in
    any conventional sense, whether erotic or paternal, that of love. Whatever the problems
    of the fictional time scheme, it is apparent that for the past four-and-a-half years,
    which is the lifetime of Victor's offspring, not to neglect the months of concentrated
    labor that went into his gestation, Victor has been obsessed with the Creature to
    the neglect, even destruction, of any other relationship.

    • 1205

  • listless indolence

    The near-catatonic state in which Victor exists is a sign of profound mental disturbance:
    Mary Shelley's repetition of the word "listless" from the chapter's beginning indicates
    that Victor leaves in the same state in which he has existed since his interview with
    the Creature: compare III:1:1 and note.

    • 1214

  • magistrate . . . benevolent man As a magistrate, Mr. Kirwin, who treats all people with equity and compassion, contrasts
    with the Geneva judges who condemned Justine Moritz to death (I:7:14) as well as the
    rigged Paris tribunal that pronounced a like sentence on Safie's father (II:6:3).
    There is likewise to be observed here a curious symmetry, since at the other end of
    Victor's trip to the British Isles is another magistrate who, in effect, authorized
    it, Alphonse Frankenstein.

    • 1212

  • a maddening rage The language seems scrupulously chosen to indicate a transference of madness into
    the obsession of revenge: which is to say that, though his vindictiveness allows Victor
    to focus his mind wholly on this pursuit, the aim may nonetheless be construed as
    insane. After the death of Elizabeth and his father, Victor seems not so much to recover
    his mental health as to concentrate his madness.

    • 1216

  • its majestic assemblage of towers, and spires, and domes

    Oxford is famous for the way in which the structures of the university rise above
    other features of the landscape to dominate the horizon. In the late nineteenth century
    Thomas Hardy paints an enduring picture of the young Jude Fawley, the hero of Jude
    the Obscure who has mythicized what is there denominated Christminster, venturing
    far out of his village and climbing a ladder at sunset with the hope of making out
    this far-off object of all his desires:

    Some way within the limits of the stretch of landscape, points of light like the topaz
    gleamed. The air increased in transparency with the lapse of minutes, till the topaz
    points showed themselves to be the vanes, windows, wet roof slates, and other shining
    spots upon the spires, domes, freestone-work, and varied outlines that were faintly
    revealed. It was Christminster, unquestionably; either directly seen, or miraged in
    the peculiar atmosphere.

    The spectator gazed on till the windows and vanes lost their shine, going out almost
    suddenly like extinguished candles. The vague city became veiled in mist. (I.iii)

    • 1218

  • maladie du pays Home-sickness. Why Victor should lapse into his native tongue here, the single such
    instance in his lengthy account to Walton, is a mystery. Perhaps it is meant as another
    instance of his euphemisms, suggestive of an essential insincerity in his representation
    of his motives.

    • 1217

  • I can make you so wretched Resuming the earlier play on the meanings of "wretch" and "wretched," the Creature
    once again turns Victor's own terminology back on him.

    • 1215

  • the main land The Orkney Islands begin just north of John O'Groats, the point of Caithness that
    is commonly considered the northernmost point in the United Kingdom. There are several
    small islands between this village and Pomona, the largest of the Orkneys. Exactitude
    is impossible here, however, because Pomona is itself popularly known as Mainland.
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