But, besides, I could not bring myself to disclose a secret which would fill my hearer with consternation and make fear and unnatural horror the inmates of his breast.Sudden alarm and dismay that leaves a person not knowing what to do. Victor keeps his secret partly to spare others this: it “would fill my hearer with consternation”. The word gives his silence a kind reason beside the fearful one, that he would be thought mad.
Frankenstein
Chapter 22 — Teaching Companion
Mary Shelley · Mountaineers 10th–12th
Coaching, not a script — and not an answer key: every question here has more than one defensible answer.
This chapter's big question
Was Victor blinded by the monster, as he claims, or did he blind himself?
The tension Victor recalls that the creature “had murdered Clerval immediately after the enunciation of his threats” and still takes the wedding-night threat as aimed at his life alone; his older voice admits, “when I thought that I had prepared only my own death, I hastened that of a far dearer victim.”
Today's focus
The road from Paris to the shore at Evian: what Victor says, what he hides, and how sure he is that he alone is in danger.
Two core ideas
- Elizabeth asks for “simple truth” and offers to free him; Victor answers with love and a promise to tell everything after the wedding.
- Victor’s older voice breaks into the tale to admit that, preparing for his own death, he “hastened that of a far dearer victim.”
The shape at a glance
In Paris, where he must rest, Victor avoids company: he loves people, he says, but has no right among them, having let loose an enemy who delights in their blood. When his father argues against pride, Victor answers that William, Justine and Henry all died by his hands. He keeps the creature secret, afraid of being thought mad and of filling a hearer with horror, though such words sometimes burst out of him. When he insists he is not mad and says he could not sacrifice the whole human race, his father is sure his mind is deranged, changes the subject, and never again lets him speak of his misfortunes. Before they leave Paris, Elizabeth writes. She asks him plainly whether he loves another and means to marry her only from honour and the family’s old plan. She loves him, she says, but the marriage would make her miserable for ever unless it were his free choice, and he need not answer until he comes. The letter brings back the threat Victor had forgotten, the creature’s promise to be with him on his wedding night. He takes it as a sentence of death on himself; even if he won the struggle, he pictures, he would be free only as a peasant whose family has been massacred is free. Delay, he decides, would only bring worse revenge, since the creature murdered Clerval right after making the threat, so he will not put off the marriage. He writes to Elizabeth that all his hope is in her, that he has one dreadful secret which he will tell her the day after the wedding, and that until then she must not mention it. In Geneva, Elizabeth, thinner and less lively, welcomes him with tears, and only she can draw him out of his fits of rage and despair. Asked by his father whether he has some other attachment, Victor says none on earth: he loves Elizabeth, and will give himself, in life or death, to her happiness. Thinking the creature invincible and his fate unavoidable, he cheerfully agrees to marry in ten days. The older Victor breaks in: had he guessed the creature’s real intention, he would have exiled himself rather than marry; thinking he had prepared only his own death, he hastened that of a far dearer victim. As the day nears his heart sinks, and he hides it under a show of gaiety that pleases his father but hardly deceives Elizabeth. He carries pistols and a dagger, and the threat begins to seem a delusion. On the wedding day Elizabeth is melancholy, with a feeling that evil is coming, which his father takes for a bride’s shyness. The couple set out by water to sleep at Evian, in what Victor calls the last happy hours of his life. He asks her to let him enjoy the day; she tells him to be happy, sets aside a whisper that warns her not to trust the future, and points him to the mountains and the fish in the clear water, though her mood keeps changing. At sunset, as Victor steps ashore at Evian, his cares and fears return.
A way in
Before reading, ask how a person decides what a threat means. Then read the chapter in three stretches: Paris, where Victor speaks and is not believed; the two letters, and what Elizabeth’s brings back to him; and Geneva to Evian, from his father’s question to the landing. Mark every place Victor says what the threat means, and every place someone else feels a warning. Read the paragraph that begins “Great God!” twice, slowly: the older Victor is speaking, and it changes how the rest reads. Bring nothing in from later in the book: the chapter ends on the shore at Evian.
Lesson plan
Retell The student retells the chapter in three movements: Paris and the father; the two letters; Geneva to the landing at Evian. In the second movement, look for what Elizabeth asks and offers, and for what Victor promises and asks in return.
Imitate the author After copying, the student writes two sentences of their own. The first sets what someone thought against what they did and keeps the cost for the last words, as “when I thought that I had prepared only my own death, I hastened that of a far dearer victim” does. The second gives one person’s mood and then another person’s reading of it, and lets “only” narrow that reading, as “only recognised in the melancholy of his niece the diffidence of a bride” does.
Debate Take sides on the last written question. One side argues that the monster blinded Victor and gathers the threat’s own words, the fiend “omnipotent” in his deeds of blood, the fear of worse revenge if he delayed, and the pistols. The other argues that he blinded himself and gathers Clerval’s murder “immediately after the enunciation of his threats”, “Such was my sentence”, the peasant picture and the cheerful consent. Each side must answer the other’s best line, and neither may say what happens at Evian or what the creature intends.
Purpose Close on two moments: Victor’s own reasoning, where Clerval’s murder sits beside his certainty that the threat is for his life, and the older voice’s “a far dearer victim.” Ask why Shelley lets the older Victor say he was wrong before the wedding comes, and what that does to the bright day on the lake.
Easier Read aloud the Paris outburst, Elizabeth’s letter, the paragraph that begins “This letter revived in my memory”, Victor’s reply, the paragraph that begins “Great God!” and the scene in the boat. Make two lists: what Victor knows about the monster’s past deeds, and what he decides the threat means. Talk through the first three discussion questions, then answer the last written question aloud before writing it.
On level Talk through all five discussion questions in order, then write both written questions as a thesis, the strongest objection and a revised thesis, each with lines from the chapter.
Harder Ask for one argued essay on how the older Victor’s words, “a far dearer victim”, change the way we read his haste, his hidden secret and his pistols. It should meet the objection that, read without hindsight, his reasons for marrying at once were sound.
Discussion
- In Paris, Victor’s father begs him never again to say that he killed William, Justine and Henry, and from then on will not let him speak of his troubles. Victor keeps quiet too, though he “would have given the world” to tell his secret. Who wanted the silence more, the father or the son?Character
What it asks It asks the student to weigh one silence that two people keep. Victor tells his father that William, Justine and Henry “all died by my hands.” His father, who sometimes “seemed to desire an explanation” and at other times took such words for “the offspring of delirium”, begs him never to say it again. When Victor adds that he “could not sacrifice the whole human race”, his father is sure his ideas are deranged, changes the subject, and never again lets him speak of his misfortunes. Victor, for his part, had already chosen silence: he feared being “supposed mad” and would not fill a hearer with horror, though he “would have given the world” to confide. The student decides whose silence it mostly is. The card must not say what the secret does to Elizabeth later; it should stay with Paris.
One reading
The father’s. Victor thirsts for sympathy, and the truth keeps bursting out of him; it even relieves him. Each time, his father meets it with alarm. After the outburst he changes the subject, tries to “obliterate the memory” of Ireland, and forbids the topic. Victor goes quiet because the one person he might tell will not hear it.
he instantly changed the subject of our conversation and endeavoured to alter the course of my thoughts.
never alluded to them or suffered me to speak of my misfortunes.
Another reading
The son’s. Victor chose silence before his father ever forbade it. He gives two reasons of his own: he would be thought mad, and the secret would fill a hearer with horror. When his father seemed to want an explanation, Victor “avoided explanation”. Later he holds back what is left with “the utmost self-violence”. The father only closes a door the son was already keeping shut.
I had a persuasion that I should be supposed mad, and this in itself would for ever have chained my tongue.
I could not bring myself to disclose a secret which would fill my hearer with consternation
Listen for
- Notices that the father sometimes “seemed to desire an explanation”, and that Victor “avoided explanation”: the door was open once.
- Hears that the outburst proves Victor’s fear right: he cries “I am not mad,” and his next words convince his father that he is.
- Notices “By the utmost self-violence”: the silence is something Victor does to himself, not only something done to him.
- Carries the habit forward within the chapter: the same man will tell Elizabeth he has a secret and ask her not to mention it. No one in the chapter hears the threat but Victor, so no one can test his reading of it.
If stuck
- What does Victor tell his father in Paris, and how does his father answer?
- What two reasons does Victor give for not telling anyone about the creature?
- Can a person long to speak and still choose to stay silent?
A strong answer A strong response chooses and grounds the choice in the Paris pages. One reader says the father: Victor’s words burst out and relieve him, and his father answers by changing the subject and never again letting him speak of his misfortunes. Another says the son: Victor had already decided he would be “supposed mad”, avoided explanation when his father seemed to want one, and later curbs himself with “the utmost self-violence”. The best answers notice that the two keep the same silence for different reasons, and that Victor brings it with him into his letter to Elizabeth.
- Elizabeth asks Victor for “simple truth”. He writes back that there must be “perfect confidence” between them. But he will not tell her his secret until the day after the wedding. Why the day after, and not the day before?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to stop on one date in Victor’s letter. Elizabeth has asked him “with simple truth” whether he loves another, and offered to set him free. He writes back that all he may one day enjoy “is centred in you”, that he has “one secret, Elizabeth, a dreadful one”, and that he will “confide this tale of misery and terror to you the day after our marriage shall take place, for, my sweet cousin, there must be perfect confidence between us.” Until then she must not “mention or allude to it.” He writes just after deciding what the threat means: on the wedding night the fiend will try to destroy him, and a deadly struggle will follow. The student decides why the telling waits for the day after. The card must not say what happens on the wedding night, must not say what the creature intends, and must not say that Elizabeth knows or guesses the secret; she knows only that he has one.
One reading
To keep the marriage whole. The secret “will chill your frame with horror”, and he has just resolved to marry at once if it will make her or his father happy. Told before the wedding, the tale could stop it or darken it. Told after, it cannot undo the union. He wants her to marry the man who loves her, and to meet the man in the tale only once she is his wife.
when revealed to you, it will chill your frame with horror,
my immediate union with my cousin would conduce either to hers or my father’s happiness,
Another reading
Because he expects the wedding night to settle everything. He reads the threat as aimed at him: on that night the fiend means to “consummate his crimes by my death”, and a deadly struggle will follow. By the day after, either he is dead and she is spared the tale, or he has won and the danger is past. Telling her the day before would mean telling her that something is coming that very night. As he reads the threat, there is nothing in it to warn her of.
On that night he had determined to consummate his crimes by my death.
a deadly struggle would then assuredly take place,
Listen for
- Hears “perfect confidence” beside “do not mention or allude to it”: one letter asks for trust and for silence in the same breath.
- Notices that Elizabeth gave him time, “do not answer tomorrow, or the next day, or even until you come”, and that he answers at once and sets a date of his own.
- Notices “I know you will comply”: the letter that answers her request for truth ends sure of her silence.
- Asks what Elizabeth carries into her wedding day instead of the secret: Victor guesses that “perhaps also she thought of the dreadful secret”.
If stuck
- What does Victor promise Elizabeth in his letter, and what does he ask her not to do?
- What does Victor believe will happen on the wedding night?
- What would change for both of them if she heard the secret before the wedding?
A strong answer A strong response gives a reason for the date and grounds it in the letter. One reader says he is protecting the marriage: the secret “will chill your frame with horror”, and told before the wedding it might stop or darken a union he has resolved to hasten for her happiness and his father’s. Another reads the date against his certainty about the wedding night: by the day after, the struggle he expects will be over one way or the other, and the danger, as he reads it, was never hers to be warned of. The best answers notice that “perfect confidence” and “do not mention or allude to it” sit in the same letter, and weigh what Elizabeth is left knowing on her wedding day.
- Victor is sure the monster means to kill him on his wedding night. Yet he agrees to marry in ten days, “contented and even cheerful”. What is he cheerful about?Character
What it asks It asks the student to stop on one face. In Geneva, Victor’s father asks whether he has some other attachment. Victor answers “None on earth” and vows himself, “in life or death”, to Elizabeth’s happiness. His father begs him to love “those who yet live”. But the threat has come back to Victor’s mind. He thinks the fiend almost “invincible” and his fate “unavoidable”. Then: “But death was no evil to me if the loss of Elizabeth were balanced with it, and I therefore, with a contented and even cheerful countenance, agreed with my father” that the wedding should be in ten days, and so put, “as I imagined, the seal to my fate.” The student decides what the cheer is about. The card must not say what happens on the wedding night and must not say what the creature intends. It must not say that Victor does not love Elizabeth; he tells his father, “I love Elizabeth and look forward to our union with delight.”
One reading
Relief. Victor reads the threat as his death, and he has already pictured that end as peace: if the fiend wins the struggle, “I should be at peace”. Death is “no evil” to him. A fixed date is a fixed end to his suffering, and the cheer is real.
if he were victorious I should be at peace and his power over me be at an end.
But death was no evil to me if the loss of Elizabeth were balanced with it,
Another reading
A face put on for others. He has just vowed himself to Elizabeth’s happiness, “in life or death”, and his father has begged him to cling to those who are left. The cheer is what they need to see. The same man, a few paragraphs later, hides a sinking heart under a show of gaiety that pleases his father.
on it I will consecrate myself, in life or death, to the happiness of my cousin.
But I concealed my feelings by an appearance of hilarity
Listen for
- Notices the one loss Victor weighs against his death: losing Elizabeth. In his reckoning he loses her by dying, not because she is in any danger.
- Hears “as I imagined” in “the seal to my fate”: the older voice marks it as a guess, one paragraph before “Great God!”
- Sets the cheer beside the father’s lesson just before it, to love “those who yet live”.
- Asks whether a man who can meet his own death this calmly has any reason left to look for another meaning in the threat.
If stuck
- What does Victor believe will happen to him on his wedding night?
- How does he look when he agrees to the date?
- Can someone be cheerful about something terrible? What would make them so?
A strong answer A strong response names what the cheer is about and grounds it in the Geneva pages. One reader hears relief: Victor reads the threat as his death, he has pictured that end as being “at peace”, and death is “no evil” to him, so a fixed date is a fixed end. Another reads a face put on for others: he has vowed himself “in life or death” to Elizabeth’s happiness, his father has begged him to love “those who yet live”, and the same man later hides a sinking heart under “an appearance of hilarity”. The best answers notice that the one loss he sets against his death is losing Elizabeth, and ask what a man who greets his own death this calmly is still able to fear.
- Victor carries pistols and a dagger everywhere he goes. As the wedding comes near, the threat starts to seem like a delusion. How can getting ready for a danger make it seem less real?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to read the last stretch before the wedding. Victor takes “every precaution to defend my person in case the fiend should openly attack me”: he carries pistols and a dagger and watches “to prevent artifice”. By these means he gains “a greater degree of tranquillity.” As the day approaches, “the threat appeared more as a delusion”, while the happiness he hopes for looks more certain, and he hears the wedding “continually spoken of as an occurrence which no accident could possibly prevent.” The student decides how preparing for a danger could make it fade. The card must not say what happens at Evian.
One reading
Real readiness brings real calm. Victor has done what he can: he is armed, and he watches for tricks as well as open force. Everyone around him speaks of the wedding as certain. Fear eases when a person has prepared, and the happy plans fill his days. The calm is honest, even if it proves wrong.
by these means gained a greater degree of tranquillity.
I heard it continually spoken of as an occurrence which no accident could possibly prevent.
Another reading
The weapons choose the danger. They are carried “to defend my person” against an open attack, so the danger becomes one thing, aimed at one man. Once he is ready for that, nothing else seems worth fearing, and his hope is free to grow. The pistols do not end the threat; they settle what he thinks it is.
I took every precaution to defend my person in case the fiend should openly attack me.
the happiness I hoped for in my marriage wore a greater appearance of certainty
Listen for
- Notices “my person” and “openly”: the weapons answer one kind of danger.
- Notices “ever on the watch to prevent artifice”: he does guard against tricks, which tests the second reading.
- Hears how other people’s certainty, the wedding “continually spoken of”, works on him.
- Sets this calm beside the sinking heart two paragraphs earlier, “whether from cowardice or a prophetic feeling”.
If stuck
- What does Victor carry, and what is it for?
- How does he feel about the threat as the wedding day gets closer?
- Can feeling safe and being safe come apart?
A strong answer A strong response explains how readiness turns into calm and grounds it. One reader sees honest relief: he is armed, he watches for tricks, and “by these means” he gains tranquillity while everyone speaks of the wedding as certain. Another sees the weapons settling what the danger is: they defend “my person” against an open attack, and once that is guarded, nothing else seems worth fearing. The best answers notice that the threat fades exactly as his hope grows, and ask which of the two is pushing the other.
- On the lake, Victor asks Elizabeth to let him enjoy this one day. She will not listen to the whisper that warns her, and she points him to the clouds and the fish. Who is taking care of whom in that boat?Character
What it asks It asks the student to watch two people in one small space. Victor takes her hand: “You are sorrowful, my love.” If she knew what he has suffered, he says, she would let him taste the quiet “that this one day at least permits me to enjoy.” Elizabeth answers, “Be happy, my dear Victor”. Her heart is contented, she says, though joy is not in her face. “Something whispers to me not to depend too much on the prospect that is opened before us,” but she will not listen to it, and she turns to Mont Blanc, the clouds and the fish in the clear water. Victor adds that she tried “to divert her thoughts and mine”, and that her mood kept changing. The student decides who is caring for whom. The card must not say what happens at Evian, and must not say that Elizabeth knows the secret; she knows only that he has one.
One reading
She is caring for him. He names her sorrow and then asks her to set it aside for his sake. She does: she reassures him, refuses her own warning, and fills the hour with things to look at. The work of keeping the day happy is hers.
Be happy, my dear Victor,
Thus Elizabeth endeavoured to divert her thoughts and mine from all reflection upon melancholy subjects.
Another reading
Each is guarding the other, and themselves. He takes her hand and notices her sorrow, and he keeps his secret for one more day. She tells him only part of her fear, and her turning to the scenery steadies her as much as him: “her thoughts and mine”. Neither says what they fear, and that silence is how they care for each other.
I took the hand of Elizabeth.
but I will not listen to such a sinister voice.
Listen for
- Notices that Victor names her sorrow and then asks her to put it away for his sake.
- Hears “Be happy” as an echo of her letter: “Be happy, my friend”.
- Notices “her thoughts and mine”: she is steadying herself as well as him.
- Notices that Victor has already told us these were his last happy hours, and asks how that colours her effort.
If stuck
- What does Victor say to Elizabeth when he takes her hand?
- What does she tell him, and what does she point out to him?
- What is each of them not saying?
A strong answer A strong response says who is caring for whom and grounds it in the boat. One reader says Elizabeth carries it: Victor asks her to let him enjoy the day, and she answers “Be happy, my dear Victor,” sets aside the voice that warns her, and turns his eyes to the mountains and the fish. Another sees each guarding the other: he takes her hand and keeps his secret one more day, and she diverts “her thoughts and mine”, steadying herself too. The best answers notice that both keep something back, and ask whether that is care or the thing that keeps them apart.
Critical thinking
- As Elizabeth’s letter stirs his hope, Victor stops himself with a picture: “the apple was already eaten, and the angel’s arm bared to drive me from all hope.” In his picture, who is the angel?
What it asks It asks the student to read an image as Victor’s picture of himself, not as a lesson on its source. He reads and rereads her letter, and “some softened feelings stole into my heart and dared to whisper paradisiacal dreams of love and joy”. Then: “the apple was already eaten, and the angel’s arm bared to drive me from all hope.” A paragraph earlier he called the threat “my sentence”. The student builds a thesis on who, in Victor’s own picture, drives him out, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not explain the image through Genesis, and must not say what the creature intends.
One reading
The monster. Victor has just called the threat “my sentence”, and an angel carries out a judgment. On this reading Victor sees the creature as the arm of a punishment he has earned. A sentence falls on the guilty man, so the threat must be meant for him alone.
Such was my sentence,
the angel’s arm bared to drive me from all hope.
Another reading
His own guilt. The apple is already eaten: the fall is his own act, long past. What drives him out is not a person but his remorse, and it drives him from hope, not from life. A few paragraphs later he says it himself: “for the guilty there is no peace.” No monster is needed to keep him out of paradise.
for the guilty there is no peace.
balanced by those horrors of remorse and guilt which would pursue me until death.
Listen for
- Notices “already”: in Victor’s picture the fall is over before the wedding day is even set.
- Notices “drive me”: there is room in his picture for one person to be driven out.
- Hears “Such was my sentence” a paragraph earlier: the threat read as a judgment.
- Asks what follows if the threat is a just sentence: on whom does a sentence fall?
If stuck
- What feelings does Elizabeth’s letter stir in Victor before he stops them?
- In his picture, what has already happened, and what is about to happen?
- What, or who, drives him away from hope?
A strong answer A strong thesis names the angel and argues from the page. A student might argue that the angel is the monster: Victor has just called the threat “my sentence”, and an angel’s arm carries out a judgment, which is why he thinks the blow will fall on him alone. The strongest objection is that the apple is “already eaten” and the angel drives him “from all hope”, not from life, so the punisher is his own remorse, as in “for the guilty there is no peace.” A good revision might grant that he makes the creature the arm and his guilt the judge, and ask what that picture leaves him unable to see.
- Looking back, Victor says the monster blinded him to its real plans. Was Victor blinded by the monster, as he claims, or did he blind himself?
What it asks It asks the chapter’s whole question. Victor reads the wedding-night threat as aimed at his life: “Such was my sentence”. He reasons that delay would bring “other and perhaps more dreadful means of revenge”, and he recalls, inside that reasoning, that the creature “had murdered Clerval immediately after the enunciation of his threats.” He thinks the fiend almost “invincible”, agrees to marry in ten days “with a contented and even cheerful countenance”, and arms himself against an open attack. Then the older Victor breaks in: “as if possessed of magic powers, the monster had blinded me to his real intentions; and when I thought that I had prepared only my own death, I hastened that of a far dearer victim.” The student builds a thesis on who did the blinding, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not say what happens on the wedding night, and must not say what the creature intends; the chapter gives only Victor’s reading and his hindsight. It must not call Victor simply foolish without weighing his reasons.
One reading
The monster. The threat names Victor and his wedding night and no one else. The creature had been “omnipotent” in his deeds of blood, so Victor had reason to fear him. He weighed delay and saw that it would bring worse revenge, and he armed himself. A man handed a threat in those words by such an enemy reads it as it was given. Victor asks his listener not to wonder at it, and the older voice says the deception worked “as if” by magic.
omnipotent as the fiend had yet been in his deeds of blood, I should almost regard him as invincible,
as if possessed of magic powers, the monster had blinded me to his real intentions;
Another reading
Himself. The key fact is in his own reasoning: Clerval was murdered right after the threat, and every one of those “deeds of blood” fell on someone near him. He had forgotten the threat, then read it at once as “my sentence”. He welcomed his own death, called the plans “the decorations of my tragedy”, and armed only “my person”. Even the older voice hedges with “as if”. He thought only of his own death because that is where he kept looking.
he had murdered Clerval immediately after the enunciation of his threats.
when I thought that I had prepared only my own death, I hastened that of a far dearer victim.
Listen for
- Hears “as if” in “as if possessed of magic powers”: the older Victor blames the monster and hedges in the same breath.
- Notices that Clerval’s murder sits inside Victor’s own argument for marrying at once, and asks what lesson he takes from it.
- Notices how often the danger is his: “my sentence”, “my person”, “my tragedy”, “my own death”. Hears “None on earth” to his father beside it.
- Notices the picture Victor reaches for when he imagines winning the fight: a peasant whose family “have been massacred before his eyes”, with Elizabeth set aside as the one exception.
If stuck
- What does Victor believe the threat means?
- What does he know about what the monster did right after making it?
- If someone hides a danger and you also look away from it, who is to blame for not seeing it?
A strong answer A strong thesis takes a side and earns it against the chapter’s own pressure. A student might argue that the monster blinded him: the threat named only Victor and his wedding night, the creature had seemed “omnipotent” in his deeds of blood, and delay promised worse revenge. The strongest objection is that the fact that should have opened his eyes is inside his own reasoning, the creature “had murdered Clerval immediately after the enunciation of his threats”, and that he kept reading the danger as “my sentence” and “my own death”. A good revision might grant the threat its deception, then weigh how much of the blindness Victor brought to it, and why the older voice says “as if”.
Vocabulary definitions
- consternation
- satiated
He had vowed _to be with me on my wedding-night_, yet he did not consider that threat as binding him to peace in the meantime, for as if to show me that he was not yet satiated with blood, he had murdered Clerval immediately after the enunciation of his threats.
Filled so full that nothing more is wanted (related to sate and satisfy). Victor says the monster killed Clerval as if to show he was “not yet satiated with blood”. The word pictures an appetite that one death does not end, and Victor uses it while deciding not to delay the wedding.- conduce
I resolved, therefore, that if my immediate union with my cousin would conduce either to hers or my father’s happiness, my adversary’s designs against my life should not retard it a single hour.
To lead toward a result or help bring it about (conducive is the more familiar form). Victor will marry at once if it “would conduce either to hers or my father’s happiness”. The word names the test he sets himself: whether the marriage leads to their happiness, with his own life set against it in the same sentence.- remonstrate
When reason returned, she would remonstrate and endeavour to inspire me with resignation.
To protest, or to reason earnestly with someone about what they are doing (from the Latin for pointing out, the root of demonstrate). When his fits pass, Elizabeth “would remonstrate”: she argues with him, not only comforts him. The word makes her an active voice in his recovery.- demeanour
Elizabeth seemed happy; my tranquil demeanour contributed greatly to calm her mind.
The way a person outwardly carries and conducts themselves; their manner as others see it. Victor’s “tranquil demeanour” calms Elizabeth. The word names only the outside, and a few paragraphs earlier he has told us he hid a sinking heart under “an appearance of hilarity”.- presentiment
But on the day that was to fulfil my wishes and my destiny, she was melancholy, and a presentiment of evil pervaded her; and perhaps also she thought of the dreadful secret which I had promised to reveal to her on the following day.
A feeling that something, usually bad, is about to happen, felt before there is any reason for it (pre-, before, and sentiment, feeling). On the wedding day “a presentiment of evil pervaded her”. Victor reports the feeling and only guesses at a cause: “perhaps also” the secret.- diffidence
My father was in the meantime overjoyed, and, in the bustle of preparation, only recognised in the melancholy of his niece the diffidence of a bride.
Shyness that comes from a lack of confidence (diffidence and confidence share a Latin root meaning trust). Victor’s father sees in Elizabeth’s sadness “only” the diffidence of a bride, the ordinary nerves of a wedding day. The word names what he expects to see in her.