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)

    • 1219

  • call on the manes The Oxford English Dictionary nicely captures the rationale for Victor's use of this
    Latinism, defining the term in the plural, as the deified souls of departed ancestors
    (as beneficent spirits; opposed to larvæ and lemures, the malevolent shades of the
    Lower World). Also, the spirit, `shade' of a departed person, considered as an object
    of homage or reverence, or as demanding to be propitiated by vengeance. The manes
    Victor lists here have in the aggregate constituted the guiding spirits that throughout
    this chapter he has invoked as demanding his intercession to avenge their deaths.
    Upon his own death he foresees himself joining their number. If Walton is expected
    to pick up the family cause, perhaps in thinking of Victor as "the brother of [his]
    heart" (I:L4:22) he has got much more than he bargained for.

    • 1221

  • the martyrs of old Once again Victor's sense of his own heroism intrudes on the discourse to transform
    what could be construed as unfeeling, sordid, or insane into a grand and self-exculpating
    gesture. Martyrs, we may remind ourselves, however their acts may be justified, are
    by their nature suicidal.

    • 1220

  • the mark of the fingers Victor recalls the account of William's death contained in his father's letter of
    May 12th in the previous year (I:6:6).

    • 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.

    • 1224

  • 8th of May

    The timetable seems seriously awry at this point. Henry Clerval was murdered in late
    August. Victor's subsequent breakdown forced a two-month delay during which his father
    was summoned, and the trial seems to have transpired about a month after Alphonse
    Frankenstein's arrival. This would put it in the December following the summer's removal
    to the Orkney Islands. Victor's release from prison ensued in a fortnight (III:4:44),
    and he records that thereafter he and his father left Ireland as speedily as they
    could (III:4:48). Thus, the arrival in Paris should come some four months earlier
    than Elizabeth's letter makes it. This error is attenuated in the first edition, we
    may remember, by a similar lapse of time in the trip to England, where, though it
    appears that Victor and Henry begin their trip down the Rhine in early September,
    they are not reported as having crossed the channel until the "latter days of September
    " (III:1:24).

    Scrutiny of the surviving manuscripts suggests that Mary Shelley had her chronology
    straight the first time around and for some reason changed her mind and then, again,
    subsequently compounded the confusion. In the draft she originally had Victor and
    his father arrive in Le Havre on the "8th of Feb." and dated Elizabeth's letter from
    Geneva "February 18th;" then in each case she crossed out the month, substituting
    "May." In the fair copy intended for the printer, Elizabeth's letter was first dated
    "April," but this designation was cancelled and replaced with "May 18th."

    • 1223

  • Of what materials was I made The word "materials" is the euphemism Victor customarily uses for the human and animal
    parts out of which he constructs the beings to which he intends to impart life. Now
    reduced to a psychological wretchedness, his physical being seems to him equivalent
    to these shards of undifferentiated flesh. Mary Shelley subtly reaffirms Victor's
    growing identification with his miserable Creature.

    • 1222

  • I am your master Portending a reversal of the father-son roles both Victor and the Creature have implicitly
    relied on, this assertion of the Creature's power contrasts markedly with Victor's
    chronic indecision and impotence. From this point on, as this language intimates,
    both are locked in the embrace of their mutual anatagonism.

    • 1226

  • the mechanical impulse A reader can empathize with the sense of relief with which Victor sheds his anxious,
    nervous state of mind in favor of a dogged determination. But the particular language
    Mary Shelley uses here indicates that it is also a dogged determinism. In ridding
    himself of anxiety and a sense of personal responsibility, Victor would seem to give
    up his last shreds of humanity, transforming himself into a mere machinery of destruction,
    an armament of war.
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