980
No one, not even his father, ever speaks to Victor so forthrightly or with such categorical
moral language. The diction picks up on the issue of what is a "right" from two paragraphs
before.
981
had become associated with the Lake Poets, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, and
was likewise the home of the soon-to-be-famous Thomas De Quincey, who had rented Dove
Cottage from Wordsworth in 1809. Percy Shelley and his first wife Harriet had visited
the region for several weeks in 1811, where they made the acquaintance of Southey
and held long literary and political talks with him of the sort indicated here. This
context might be indicated by the fact that it is Clerval in particular who is attracted
to the region and his new acquaintance there.
982
disinterested motives must raise him in the reader's estimation, especially since
he is close to his death and seems to be struggling for a truthful objectivity. Yet,
a second glance at this phrase calls for its positioning, and we realize that Victor
is referring to the last paragraph of his narration (III:7:26), uttered on 26 August,
not three weeks before. If the last paragraph of his account is so indelibly tainted
as Victor admits, what are we to think of what has preceded it? In other words, by
what has his entire narration been "actuated"? If the whole rests on nothing but "selfish
and vicious motives," then the textual indeterminacy so continually hinted at throughout
the novel may in fact be radical.
983
emphasizes a multiple perspective associated with shifts in language. To some extent,
she must be reinforcing our awareness of an essential affinity between Victor Frankenstein
and Mr. Kirwin in matters of class and education. Yet, even as she evokes common bonds,
she subtly reminds us of the differences that are lost in translation or that, on
a larger scale, represent features by which we distinguish ourselves from others.
984
in the novel and subsequently rather shunted to the side by the pressure of events.
Thus, Victor's underscoring of the domestic affections as the arena for human life's
most cherished actions reflects the nostalgic view of his childhood expressed in his
first chapter (I:1:9, I:1:11) and strongly reinforced by his bitter recriminations
over his withdrawal from this arena at Ingolstadt (I:3:12 and note). That the novel's
actual focus is rather the opposite has been remarked more than once by critics. Certainly,
the ultimate value of what on the surface appear to be peaceful domestic affections
is thrown into question by the behavior of the cottagers to the Creature in Volume
2 (II:7:36) or the scapegoating of Justine conducted by the pious burghers of Geneva
in Volume 1 (I:7:13).
937
The terminology here has a curiously political edge to it, particularly so after we
have witnessed the demonstration of social injustice in the final chapters of Volume
1.
938
An archaic usage, meaning to prepare or cook: only the nominative form—"dressing"—is
still retained in English with this original import.
939
As earlier, Victor's histrionic sputtering, even as it testifies at once to the explosion
of long repressed emotion and to his incapacity to handle the situation with which
he is suddenly confronted, is also revelatory on a conceptual level. His mind is totally
bound by the binary opposition of God and Satan in which he assumes not just creative
godhead but also the right of judgment and particularly that of damnation, appointing
this "fiend" and "devil" to the "tortures of hell."
940
Only at this point, at the end of the chapter, do we become aware that the Creature
has, up to now, no ability to relate linguistically, that he is still operating on
the non-verbal level of the sparrows and thrushes whose sounds he first discriminated
(paragraph 4 above). Although presumably the De Lacey family speaks during the ongoing
business of the day, except for the "few sounds" (paragraph 14 above) that were uttered
by the young man outside the cottage and by the old man when his music elicited tears,
this account is, as it were, rendered against a backdrop of total silence except for
the interlude of music. Mary Shelley's artistic refinement in rendering this silence
intensifies, in contrast, the importance of words and of communication for the world
of her novel.
941
The Creature travels west for three full days. Given his stature and endurance, one
would assume this would allow him to cover a large tract of south-central Germany.