Johnson's 1755 Dictionary offers us the appropriate definitions for this period, definitions
virtually lost to modern English usage:

To addict; to give up to ill.
To curse; to execrate; to doom to destruction.

For the second meaning Johnson helpfully cites the Satanic legions in Paradise Lost,
V.890.

The phrase "devoted head" is so common a usage as to appear to be a customary eighteenth-century
idiom.

This suggests a different kind of determinism from that continually evoked by Victor
Frankenstein, a social and economic form of destiny, what Marx was to denominate as
wage slavery.

There is an unmistakeable erotic charge to the language of these paragraphs, but it
is almost metaphysical in its conception. The Creature suggests that the rage awakened
within him, which is fired by his rejection and desperate solitude, can only be slaked
by being converted into a psychologically and socially constructive alternative, which
is to say love. There are ramifications here as well for the "ardent" pursuits of
both Walton and Victor Frankenstein.

Although the notion of channeling libidinous forces into socially beneficial relationships
might be thought particularly suited to a woman's perspective on modern culture, the
conventions of the age kept most women authors from a direct engagement with issues
of sexuality and its repression or displacement. A notable exception is Mary Wollstonecraft.
Here one senses a true family resemblance.

The Creature unconsciously echoes the very language Victor (II:1:6 and note) had used
to express his violent aversion to him earlier in the chapter before their encounter
in the mountains.

In this phrase the Creature encapsulates what will become the dynamic force of the
third volume, an intense desire turned inside out and thus ironized, so that hatred
is pursued with the single-minded obsession of passionate love.

This was the easiest route into Italy, across southeastern France from Chambery to
Turin in northwestern Italy. The Mont Cenis Pass rises to only 6825 feet. This was
Napoleon's invasion route to Italy in 1796, and thereafter the post-road was improved
to allow uninterrupted traffic between the two countries. It was this road, indeed,
that the Shelleys themselves would take shiortly after publication of the novel, in
March 1818, on their trip to Italy.

The reference seems again to be to Paradise Lost (IV.49-53), and specifically to Satan's
attempt to break the chain with which God links all his creatures in an eternal sharing
of selves.

Felix's companion is the owner of the house, who holds as security a quarter-year
deposit that because of his abrupt departure Felix will have to forfeit.

In effect, the Creature asks Victor to look the other way and listen to his story.
We will recognize the similarity of this plea to that made to the blind De Lacey when
the Creature first attempts to establish human community later in the volume (II:7:15).
Throughout Frankenstein sound, rather than sight, is the means by which human sympathy
is evoked.

An appeal to justice must necessarily depend on compassion, fellow-feeling. This is
the only occasion in the Creature's existence where, even momentarily, he has been
accorded what we assume to be that fundamental right of human beings.