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  • to dedicate; to consecrate; to appropriate

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  • Noble of mind; magnanimous; open of heart.

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  • Not of mean birth; of good extraction.

    • 1133

  • generous and self-devoted being In a novel in which oxymorons have increasingly come to represent implacable ambivalences,
    this summary of Victor Frankenstein stands out as an epitome. If readers should wonder
    whether it is really possible so to overlay what appear to be opposite constructions,
    a scrupulous respect for earlier connotations of the terms will sharpen the meaning
    if not wholly dispel its ambiguities. Dr. Johnson's Dictionary (1755) lists these
    meanings for "generous":
    • Not of mean birth; of good extraction.
    • Noble of mind; magnanimous; open of heart.
    • Liberal; munificent.
    • Strong; vigorous.

    It is clear that the third, which is the customary modern sense of the word, would
    be generally inappropriate to the figure that Victor Frankenstein has cut in this
    novel, but either of the other three meanings would in one phase or another of his
    existence adequately characterize him. The main thrust of the Creature's meaning is
    probably the second. Even here, however, some readers might wish to cavil, asking
    whether, given Frankenstein's ambitions and good intentions but customary self-enclosure,
    it would be possible to retain a nobility of mind without being greatly magnanimous
    or open-hearted.

    With "self-devoted," the range of possibility is even greater and likewise is further
    from a modern, loose conception of the term as meaning "devoted to one's self." The
    three definitions of "to devote" in Johnson's Dictionary are:

    • to dedicate; to consecrate; to appropriate
    • to addict; to give up to ill
    • to curse; to execrate; to doom to destruction

    All of these definitions have a bearing on Victor Frankenstein's character, even
    simultaneously so, but in the context of the Creature's expression of "wildest rage,"
    an attribute mirrored between him and his creator, the last of the definitions would
    seem to bear a particular relevance.

    • 1132

  • fury As with the other terms of this loaded paragraph, this word, when contemplated from
    the reader's perspective of Victor's biography, bears connotations by which it is
    unlikely he would have wanted himself represented. In essence, as he gives himself
    over to the raw fury of his rage, Victor seems to be acceding to the madness that
    has become progressively more accentuated in his account.

    • 1131

  • to fulfill my wishes and my destiny Victor, apparently deluded into believing his desires and his destiny the same, does
    not notice the double connotation to which his phrase is susceptible. His wishes are,
    indeed, for a happy, prosperous marriage; but the destiny he has marked out for himself
    is exactly opposite, to suffer ruin.

    • 1130

  • friendship As with other aspects of Clerval, his capacity for "devoted," which is to say, perfectly
    disinterested, friendship separates him as an ideal, both for Victor (who from his
    student days has been too self-absorbed for such friendship) and for Walton, whose
    desire for such a friend, articulated in his second letter (I:L2:1) and in his growing
    attachment(I:L4:21) to Victor, first introduced this theme as central to the structure
    of Mary Shelley's novel.

    • 1129

  • I have longed for a friend Walton looks back to the desire expressed in his second letter to his sister (I:L2:2)
    and reiterated to Victor Frankenstein (I:L4:25), who replied in despondency over the
    memory of his dead friend Henry Clerval (I:L4:26). In reinstating that wish, Walton
    reminds us of how very little time has actually elapsed in the narrative frame of
    the novel as well as of how violent and destructive such intense relationships can
    become when they are based on hatred rather than affection.
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