1187
logic to support them. Still, that this characteristic retreat within reasserts itself
even where he should feel most diverted by his novel surroundings indicates a dangerous
state of mental health.
logic to support them. Still, that this characteristic retreat within reasserts itself
even where he should feel most diverted by his novel surroundings indicates a dangerous
state of mental health.
1186
the next chapter he is not the only one who has traversed the open seas southwest
of the Orkneys to land on the northeast coast of Ireland. Although it has been suggested
that including Ireland in the expansive geographical range of the novel may be Mary
Shelley's means of honoring her mother, who served as a governess there, the strangeness
of this repositioning of setting has never been adequately accounted for.
From Victor's reference to "a line of high land" (III:3:26), we may suppose that Mary
Shelley has in mind geological features like the Giant's Causeway, a line of huge
islets, or the cliffs of Fair Head.
1185
abuses) of writing, the second quickly reminds us of its effects in reinforcing human
sympathy and community. Walton's concern for Victor is, of course, a measure of his
responsiveness as well and therefore of consequence for our estimation of his character.
1188
1189
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.
1169
in accord with Enlightenment values, human sympathy is marked as the foundation for
personal and social happiness. Here one infers that Mary Shelley recognizes that even
this virtue can lead to a measure of self-absorption in the merely human, at the expense
of an external reality principle embodied in nature.
1170
Saville, because of the difference in her surname, has a husband. With this confirmed,
we discover as well that she has children. One reason Mary Shelley may be supplying
this information now would be to justify the emotional intensity of this outpouring
in which Walton in solitude and dire straits reaches out to his only family connections.
But by the same token, that connectedness contrasts pointedly with the situation in
the Frankenstein household, where when the novel ends only Ernest, who would seem
to have little to recommend him beyond being a dull and regular fellow, will survive
its events.
1173
"By the utmost self-violence": Victor lacks the modern vocabulary that would term
this act mere repression. He likens it to suicide, an active, even extreme, assertion
of violence against the self. Yet again, the reader may wish to ask, which self is
it that he would destroy, that of the Creator or of his extension who has destroyed
those whom Victor loves? The doubling of selves is insistent even where, as here,
it is merely insinuated.
1175
events of the night before Victor departed "[b]etween two and three in the morning"
(III:3:24) are wholly unremarked. Clerval's body was discovered approximately four
hours earlier, some time after 10 o'clock.
1174
carefully kept Walton ignorant of the process by which he created life, and, moreover,
excoriates him when he suspects Walton of wanting to penetrate his secret (III:Walton:3).
He dies clearly wishing that he had himself remained in a state of innocent ignorance.
Although it is likely that, upon reflection, Walton will broaden the range under which
he construes knowledge to embrace a moral education, here he limits its conception
wholly to scientific discovery. In his dejection he seems to have gone out of his
way to miss the point of Victor Frankenstein's narration, which is itself truly a
mark of his ignorance.