01/02/2022
Notes:
Themes: Love, Regret, Fear, Guilt, Suffering, Journeys, Fate, Internal Conflict, Duty,
Responsibility, Secrecy, Ignorance and Facades.
‘indefatigable’ – unfair, because the creature never had any paternal love from Victor.
‘I abhorred the face of man’ – Victor isolates himself from other humans.
‘repulsive among them’ – now everyone is an enemy.
‘no right to share their intercourse’ – everything is cold and clinical and it is true that Vict0r
doesn’t deserve ro share in human joys.
‘I had unchained and enemy among them , whose joy it was to shed blood and to revel in
their groans…all abhor me and hunt me from the world’- Victor deserves to be treated like
how the creature was treated.
‘banish my despair…prove to me the futility of pride’ – Alphonse cares about Victor but
doesn’t really understand.
‘they all died by my hands’ – taking some responsibility for his own actions
‘I avoided explanation’ – still hasn’t learnt the dangers of staying silent and not telling people
of the creature. Not fully coherent, his thoughts and actions are complete chaos.
‘impatient thirst for sympathy’ – he used to have a ‘thirst’ for knowledge and now that all
has been said and done he needs sympathy to become unburdened.
Semantic Field: ‘delirious’, ‘fatal’, ‘chained’, ‘illness’, ‘unnatural’, ‘burden’
‘never to make such an assertion again’ – Alphonse doesn’t deal with his confession
seriously. ‘obliterate the memory of the scenes’ – the problem isn’t going to disappear by
ignoring it’
‘misery had her dwelling in my heart’ – personification of misery – feminised misery, Victor
is terrified of the female gender and this terror will stay with him forever.
‘sea of ice’ – Victor is stuck in ice but there is still hope for Walton.
Elizabeth is completely weak, passive and reliant on news of Victor to cheer her up – all she
can do is sit around and wait for Victor to come back and marry her. Always puts him above
herself, so very selfless. Reminds him of his childhood, which reminds him what he sacrificed
in order to chase his ambition and pride. She just wants to know if Victor loves her but
doesn’t want Victor to be stuck in a loveless marriage with her. ‘I know you will comply’ –
she is only obedient to him and would not alienate him.
‘threat of the fiend’ – first instinct is to think about the creature, ‘my sentence’ – so selfish
and ignorant, doesn’t stop to think about Elizabeth and his father.
‘consummate his crimes by my death’ – link between marriage, sex and revenge because
Victor is afraid of sex and women. ‘union’ – their marriage is a contract, no love or care.
‘I shall be a free man’ – he won’t ever be free from guilt or burden.
‘my Elizabeth I possessed’ – she is an object the he owns and that despite the fact that he
doesn’t desire her he still covets he.
‘apple was already eaten’ – allusion to Paradise Lost and Bible, Victor doesn’t understand
real love, comparing himself to Adam.
‘destruction’ ‘torturer’ – imbalance of power, Victor is the creature’s slave.
Victors perception and understanding of the creatures words is completely skewed.
‘my endeavours for contentment’ – only cares about his own comfort and happiness and
doesn’t think about Elizabeth.
