By the beginning of Volume III, Victor has promised his creature that he will make him a partner, a female companion. At this point, he returns to Geneva.
1. Victor "was unable to overcome [his] repugnance to the task which was enjoined [him]." He realized that, in order to create a female, he would have to devote many months to study and labor. This displeases him very greatly because he no longer wishes to engage in any scientific endeavor.
2. Victor's health continues to rebound after they return home, and this makes everyone happy. He says, "my spirits, when unchecked by the memory of my unhappy promise, rose proportionably," and when he did begin to feel badly, "the bright sun seldom failed to restore [him] to some degree of composure." Victor's appreciation of nature and his good health usually go hand-in-hand. When he is healthy, he is able to enjoy nature, and nature has a likewise restorative effect on his health.
3. Victor assures his father than he still very much loves and wants to marry Elizabeth. This is important because their wedding will give the creature the ultimate way to exact revenge on Victor later on.
4. Victor asks for, and is granted, time before the wedding to take a two-year tour of England and Holland. He will use this time to create the female companion for his creature.
5. Victor, "Filled with dreary imaginations, [...] passed through many beautiful and majestic scenes [while on this tour]; but [his] eyes were fixed and unobserving." Victor says that his heart could not be touched by nature now because of his dreaded promise. This sharply contrasts with his feelings just a few pages before when he was at home.
6. Victor delivers a panegyric on his best friend, Henry Clerval. "[Henry's] wild and enthusiastic imagination was chastened by the sensibility of his heart. His soul overflowed with ardent affections, and his friendship was of that devoted and wondrous nature that the worldly-minded teach us to look for only in the imagination." Victor talks about Henry's love of nature, how happy and loving and gentle he was. Interestingly, it is all in the past tense, foreshadowing some tragedy.
7. Victor laments the apparent death of Clerval. He says, speaking in the present to Captain Walton, that "[Henry's] form so divinely wrought, and beaming with beauty, has decayed, but [his] spirit still visits and consoles [his] unhappy friend." This is another clue that something terrible is going to happen to Clerval in the story. His body could not decay nor his spirit visit Victor later on unless he were dead.
No comments:
Post a Comment