1422

What his feelings were Mary Shelley at once reminds us that the Creature has feelings and that, except on
the one occasion on Mont Blanc when he told his life story (II:3:1), they are wholly
indecipherable to Victor, beset as he is with his calculations of revenge. She also
prepares us for his unmediated reintroduction into the arena of the novel when in
its last scene he comes aboard Walton's ship (III:Walton:33).

1421

I should have wept to die It is true that the Creature's first experience of spring was joyful (II:4:19); but
his memory is here playing tricks with him. He was created on a "dreary night of November"
(I:4:1), and upon his escape into the woods near Ingolstadt he experienced extreme
and uncomfortable cold. His reaction to his first day of life was, in fact, to weep
(II:3:2).

1420

Wearing away his time fruitlessly The 1818 text at this point stipulates that "nearly a year had elapsed" since this
journey had begun from Geneva, a period the 1831 text identifies as "the latter end
of September." (There is a month's disparity between the two texts on this point—see
III:1 in 1818 and 1831). In her revision of the novel Mary Shelley, desiring to underpin
the professional engagement of Henry Clerval, quietly presses home the irony that
he, who once indolently indulged himself in imitating eastern poetry (see I:6:14)
now has, in contrast to Victor, a firm sense of personal mission and a commitment
to the future. Of course, in Ingolstadt at one point Victor was himself posssessed
of both traits.

1419

the watery, clouded eyes See I:4:2.

1418

I was alone Victor ironically echoes the reflection of the Creature, as he contemplates the domestic
happiness of the De Lacey household, on his contrasting solitude. The diction the
Creature used at the point—"no Eve soothed my sorrows"—would suggest that it was then
that he began to conceive the plan for a mate that here comes to a disastrous conclusion.
(See II:7:11).

1417

voluntary thought Beginning with this phrase, the last chapter of Victor's long narration starts a
subtle recapitulation and intensification of the overarching themes of his discourse.
In this case, if we read between the lines we realize that Victor has finally given
up all reponsibility for his own actions and, with that loss, any sense of his individual
identity. He is now locking himself within the dyad of his adversarial relation with
the Creature.

1416

the love of virtue The Creature unwittingly echoes the language with which Victor surveyed his past
life after the execution of Justine Moritz (II:1:1).

1415

We travelled at the time of the vintage In this context "vintage" means the harvesting of the grapes used in making the classic
white wines of Germany frequently designated as "Rhine wines." Mary Godwin, Claire
Clairmont, and Percy Bysshe Shelley descended the Rhine at this same time of year
in 1814, and this description is colored by the experiences Mary recorded in A History
of a Six Weeks' Tour.

1414

one vast hand was extended With his "hand . . . stretched out, seemingly to detain" his double, the Creature
replicates the gesture in which he first appeared before Victor's eyes, in his bedroom
in Ingolstadt (I:4:3). The reaction of Walton to his monstrous presence is in stark
contrast to that evinced on that previous occasion by his creator.

1413

utter carelessness . . . second Again, as in his shock over the mistreatment of Justine Moritz in the first volume
(I:7:30), Victor's innate sense of decency is evoked to complicate our recognitions:
in this particular case, that his own medical carelessness was implicit in his creation
of a being with monstrous features who could not function within a conventional social
format (I:3:7) and that his uncaring brutality has been recently marked in the wanton
destruction of the second creature on whom he had been working in the preceding chapter
(III:3:4).

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