1414
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.
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
(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).
1412
of his case, both for the magistrate and for Mary Shelley's readers. We cannot help
recognizing here that the end of a novel is to make fiction appear like truth. That
Victor in the end does not gain the credence of his judge does, of course, vindicate
his earlier reticence; but it also in some sense impinges on his reliability as a
witness. Does it also have a destabilizing effect on the larger narrative of which
it is a microcosm?
1411
at this point in the discourse, as a justification for the blindness with which he
worried so exclusively about himself, leaving Elizabeth unprotected. But it falls
in line as well with his reiterated invocation of destiny during this narration to
Walton, a rhetorical ploy by which, whether or not it is his explicit intention, he
exonerates himself of acknowledged responsiblity for the events his actions produce.
1410
a similar "nervous fever" that, after the creation of his being, confined him for
months (see I:4:17 and note). Mary Shelley emphasizes how severely debilitated his
physical state has become as a result of the acute psychological stress under which
he has been laboring and from which no amount of diversion can seem to liberate him.
1409
by binding him to a wheel in Hades that revolved in perpetuity. In notable instances
in the English literary tradition the mode of Ixion's torture is reconceptualized
in psychological terms. Mary Shelley would surely have been familiar with King Lear's
portrayal of himself as "bound/ Upon a wheel of fire" (IV.vii.46-47). It could well
be that her own image influenced Percy Shelley's employment of the same figure in
Prometheus Unbound (see I.139-42).
1408
between them involves more than the effect of experience on each man's sense of well-being.
Victor is, in effect, living a lie, and his lack of openness to Clerval is the actual
wedge by which their division is being enforced.
1407
Asked to reply candidly, Victor lies to his father. This might be considered of a
piece with the way he recalled his solemn promise to the Creature two paragraphs earlier:
no sooner was it invoked than he began immediately to consider what would result should
he dare to break it.
1405
with his scientific experiments and to his lack of self-control in their pursuit.
What is new here is the sudden resort to unchecked and criminal violence.
1404
This is also the phrase used to depict Felix De Lacey upon his last appearance in
the novel (II:8:11 and note).