1079

  • It is your duty as a magistrate Victor, we should remind ourselves, comes from a long line of magistrates (see, e.g.,
    I:1:1), and he has quite recently been on trial himself with the magistrate Mr. Kirwan
    leading his defence; so therefore it is clear that he perfectly well knows what their
    duties are. To state them so boldly to this judge requires something of his father's
    authority.

    • 1082

  • the power of his eloquence Again, a reader senses how double-edged is the idea of eloquence in this novel. On
    the one hand, Victor's oratory energizes the crew in positive thinking and rouses
    them to their tasks. Without this invigoration their situation could degenerate into
    a laxity of spirit and effort perilous to their well-being. Yet, the emptiness of
    mere rhetoric is likewise emphasized here, since the courage roused one day gives
    in to despondency the next. Words relate to reality only tangentially or conditionally,
    and when the reality remains implacable, Victor's signifying words appear hollow substitutes
    for its unavoidable presence.

    • 1081

  • this elevation . . . madness Again, Victor's excesses of language betray him. What if it were actually the case
    that he is insane? Then, the magistrate would only be defusing a tense and socially
    threatening situation by trying to soothe him into emotional tranquillity.

    • 1083

  • his powers of eloquence and persuasion Walton refers to the last paragraph of Victor's narration (III:7:26 and note), forgetting,
    it would appear, his friend's later adjustment that he was then "actuated by selfish
    and vicious motives" (III:Walton:28 and note).

    • 1086

  • endeavours to move the passions As with the attention Walton gives to Victor's theatrical "command" in the opening
    paragraph of his resumed narrative (III:Walton:1 and note), we are here made conscious
    of how essentially manipulative (even if it could be argued to be not wholly intentional)
    is Victor's effort to insure that his perspective on events becomes the official record
    handed down to posterity.

    • 1085

  • He is eloquent and persuasive Mary Shelley nicely returns us to the earlier concern with the relationship between
    eloquence and truth, between the representation of action and action itself, well
    aware of how the issue impinges both on her characters (particularly Victor's desire
    to vindicate himself to the world) and on her own art.

    See also I:L4:24 and note; 1831:I:8:31 and note; I:7:5 and note; I:7:13 and note.

    • 1088

  • an English philosopher

    In the sense of "natural philosophy" encountered earlier (I:3:1), a physical scientist.

    • 1087

  • demoniacal enemy In the third volume Victor has increasingly come to refer to the Creature as a "daemon,"
    thus not only dehumanizing him through an association with Satanic evil, but also,
    by conferring on the Creature a transcendental status, absolving himself as his Creator
    from any responsibility for his nature. In effect, linguistically, Victor is canceling
    his own role in the formation of the Creature.

    • 1100

  • Ernest yet lived This is the last reference to Victor's younger brother in the novel. He is left,
    a nineteen-year-old student at the University of Geneva, perhaps to learn a more human
    kind of knowledge than his brother, certainly to carry the family name forward solely
    by himself. He is the single survivor of the catastrophic history surrounding Victor
    Frankenstein.

    • 1099

  • Ernest

    Ernest is at this point about nineteen years old, and, whether or not he has followed
    his father's wishes and begun to study law, it is clear that he has not pursued his
    earlier inclination, as expressed in Elizabeth's letter to Victor at Ingolstadt (I:5:2),
    to eschew the public life and become a farmer. Whatever degree he contemplates, we
    can determine from this statement that he is undertaking some extended program of
    higher education at the University of Geneva.

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