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who traversed this route in 1814 and published it in her History of a Six Weeks' Tour
just before Frankenstein. At that time the point of departure for the Shelley party
was Basel.
Yet, that we lack Clerval's journal might in context seem strange. The entire novel
is based on the presence of an overload of documentary information that includes the
letters of Alphonse Frankenstein and Elizabeth Lavenza, the journal letter of Robert
Walton, his representation of Victor's narrative (dutifully "corrected" by Victor),
which in turn contains the Creature's narrative, which is, in part, attested to by
the letters of Felix that the Creature promised to leave with Victor when he finished.
If we lack this last piece of evidence, however, we do not lack its effect on the
narrative, since Victor here calls attention to the nature and quality of Clerval's
writing.
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deserted the ice floe on which Walton's crew had discovered him and boarded the sailing
vessel only because its course lay to the north, the destination toward which his
pursuit of the Creature was leading him (I:L4:8). Now that Walton's ship veers to
the south, remaining aboard can no longer serve his purpose, which is as single-minded
in its vengeance as ever.
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larger, disinterested justice is, however, the stronger ethical position, as Walton
himself understood when his crew presented its case to him earlier (III:Walton:16).
1183
The diction Victor uses suggests that it is less having to inform mutual friends of
Clerval's death than his sense of culpability for it, with the attendant need to exonerate
himself, that drives him to avoid his English acquaintance, and perhaps some in France
as well. However we construe his hesitancy, Victor's total rerouting of his itinerary
here is of a piece with his progressive withdrawal from human society and normative
social obligations.
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and misery it appears that only late does Victor recognize that there are medical
costs that had to be borne by someone. He has focussed critically on the quality of
the care without inquiring who had accepted the expence on his behalf.
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1203
that has dominated Victor's perspective on his Creature and blinded him to the dangers
to which he has exposed his loved ones. The melodramatic posturing, it should be emphasized,
does have a purpose if we remind ourselves that this first-person narrative is delivered
to a listener, Robert Walton, who at the end of the next chapter will reenter the
novel. Since Victor is well aware that Walton is preserving this record as an exemplary
warning to later human generations, he has every reason to try to influence the portrait
thus handed down to the future.
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sensations as he became conscious of the world around him (II:3:1 and note).
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is the greatest of human gifts. For Victor to call it useless speaks volumes about
the deterioration of his mind and sensibility. It also subtly links his present mental
condition to his continuing sloughing off of personal responsibility upon an abstract
and transcendental destiny.