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).

1412

unmingled with disbelief Victor's self-consciousness as to his effect as narrator shadows this deposition
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

the threatened fate as unavoidable Victor's constant attention to his unavoidable fate is at least partly to be construed,
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

I lay for two months It has been less than three years since Victor Frankenstein had been seized with
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.

Subscribe to