The shadowy presence of Italy behind this narrative has not been explained. It may
reflect discussions about moving there that Mary and Percy Shelley were having while
she was writing the novel: shortly after its publication they did, indeed, emigrate
to Italy. On a less personal note, however, the presence of Italy does extend the
geographical bounds of the pan-European setting to the south, just as the opening
in Russia extends them far to the north. Safie, it should be noted, also travels north
from Italy (Leghorn-Livorno), to the De Lacey's cottage in Germany, but without male
protection (II:6:19).

What is it Mary Shelley sees? The plural suggests that the antecedent is "realities."
But the realities she remarks are those of Victor's bedchamber as well as her own.
Like hers it is described as barely illuminated "by the dim and yellow light of the
moon, as it forced its way through the window-shutters" (see I:4:3). As in the previous
paragraph, the novelist seems deliberately to conflate her experiences with those
of her fictional protagonist.

Victor's highly conscious sense of the effect of his narrative, from now on, will
become a continuing motif (see also, for instance, I:3:13). That he is self-conscious
as an artist may be thought a normal attribute of Romantic texts. But Mary Shelley
may have a more specific object in mind that that of fitting smoothly into her culture's
expectations. Victor's conscious manipulation of his reader (Walton and, beyond Walton,
us) continually intrudes on the supposition of its truth.

Simple etiquette might dictate Victor's withdrawal, so as not to intrude his relatively
unfamiliar presence on Justine's heart-felt conversation with her friend Elizabeth.
Still, his active attempt to distance himself seems as characteristic of his personality
as is the egotism that enfuses his private meditation.

To the Catholic Justine this is an oath of considerable gravity, condemning her if
false to an eternity in hell.

Frankenstein refers gnomically to Henry Clerval, whom he will introduce in the first
chapter of his narrative (I:1:11).

Frankenstein refers gnomically to Henry Clerval, whom he will introduce, in this 1831
edition, at the beginning of the second chapter of his narrative (I:2:2).

Beginning here, Victor portrays himself as having an instinctive interest in science
that will drive his entire existence, particularly once he arrives within a university
setting and can devote himself to scientific investigation (I:3:1).

This is the second close male friendship in as many lines (see the note to "friend").
Since friendships reflect character in this novel, the intimacy Alphonse Frankenstein
feels for Beaufort (I:1:2) and the elder Clerval (I:2:5), both of whom share a sternness
of resolve and a narrow preoccupation with business success, may suggest a comparable
rigidity, or at least a stiffness and lack of flexibility, in Victor's father. Victor
will himself shortly note these traits in respect to how his father oversees his development
(I:1:16).

As with many of her interpolations in 1831, Mary Shelley here seems intent on an early
establishment of a pattern that will reappear and become more intense in its significance
as the novel progresses. Such psychological turmoil will produce a state of nightmare
and half-sleep on the night after the Creature is created (I:5:3) and will reveal
itself in Volumes 2 and 3 by a chronic and, in the end, debilitating fever.