Frankenstein

Chapter 23

Mary Shelley · Mountaineers 10th–12th

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Copywork

Liberty, however, had been a useless gift to me, had I not, as I awakened to reason, at the same time awakened to revenge. As the memory of past misfortunes pressed upon me, I began to reflect on their cause—the monster whom I had created, the miserable dæmon whom I had sent abroad into the world for my destruction. I was possessed by a maddening rage when I thought of him, and desired and ardently prayed that I might have him within my grasp to wreak a great and signal revenge on his cursed head.

This address caused a considerable change in the physiognomy of my own auditor. He had heard my story with that half kind of belief that is given to a tale of spirits and supernatural events; but when he was called upon to act officially in consequence, the whole tide of his incredulity returned.

In his first sentence Victor wakes up twice, once to reason and once to revenge. What do you make of the two arriving together?

For the educator Two passages, five sentences. The first comes just after Victor’s release from the cell. Its opening sentence puts the main statement first and holds the condition back: “Liberty, however, had been a useless gift to me, had I not”, and then two wakings stand side by side in one clause, “awakened to reason” and “awakened to revenge”, with “revenge” as the last word. The second sentence turns on a dash: after it, two matching clauses name the cause, “the monster whom I had created” and “the miserable dæmon whom I had sent abroad into the world for my destruction”. Victor is the one who acts in both, and the clause still ends on “my destruction”. The third doubles its verbs, “desired and ardently prayed”, and its adjectives, “a great and signal revenge”; “signal” here is the older sense, striking or remarkable. The second passage is the turn in the magistrate’s house, the moment Victor has asked him to act. Its first sentence is short and plain, and its two weighty nouns, physiognomy and auditor, are in the vocabulary: Victor watches the face of the man he has made the audience for his tale. The second balances on a semicolon. Before it stands “that half kind of belief that is given to a tale of spirits and supernatural events”; after it, a clause that waits to name its moment, “when he was called upon to act officially in consequence”, and only then the main verb, “the whole tide of his incredulity returned.” Half stands against whole, and listening against acting. For the talk prompt, listen for a student who hears the two wakings as one act, a mind clearing enough to see the cause, and for one who hears revenge arriving to fill the place the madness has just left. Both can point to the sentence.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in your own words, from the landing at Evian to the moment Victor leaves the magistrate’s house. Then pick the one sentence you think matters most, and say why.

Elizabeth asks Victor straight out, “What is it you fear?”, and he tells her only that this night is dreadful. Why won’t he tell her what he fears, even tonight? Character
Later Elizabeth is laid out as if asleep, a handkerchief over her face and neck, but the picture Victor still sees wherever he turns is the first one, her body thrown across the bed. What is in that first picture that he cannot let go of? Inference
Exercise has always eased Victor’s mind, but on the lake he throws down the oar, and months later his vow to hunt the monster calms him for a while. What can the vow do that the oar could not? Theme
Victor says he must tell the rest “in a few words”, and he hurries past his father’s death and his months in a cell. Why, then, does he give the visit to the magistrate almost line by line? Author's choice
The magistrate promises to try and warns Victor to expect disappointment, and Victor calls that a refusal. What would you call it? Character

Make a Connection Think of someone in a story, in history or in your own life who gave everything to one cause after a great loss. What did the people around them make of it?

Vocabulary

transitory: It was eight o’clock when we landed; we walked for a short time on the shore, enjoying the transitory light, and then retired to the inn and contemplated the lovely scene of waters, woods, and mountains, obscured in darkness, yet still displaying their black outlines. Lasting only a short time; passing (from the Latin for going across, the root of transit). The couple walk the shore “enjoying the transitory light” of the evening. It is plain fact about dusk, and it is also the chapter’s first word of loss: the light is going, and Victor’s calm goes with it once night falls.
abhorred: The shutters had been thrown back, and with a sensation of horror not to be described, I saw at the open window a figure the most hideous and abhorred. Hated with disgust and horror; shrunk back from (from the Latin for shrinking away). At the window Victor sees “a figure the most hideous and abhorred.” The word names his feeling as much as the figure: a hatred already full grown, months before he swears revenge.
malignity: The death of William, the execution of Justine, the murder of Clerval, and lastly of my wife; even at that moment I knew not that my only remaining friends were safe from the malignity of the fiend; my father even now might be writhing under his grasp, and Ernest might be dead at his feet. A deep wish to do harm; active ill will (related to malignant and malice). Weeping by the body, Victor fears that his father and Ernest are not safe “from the malignity of the fiend”. The word gives the creature a will to harm, which is how Victor reads him all through the chapter.
venerable: I see him now, excellent and venerable old man! Deserving deep respect because of age, wisdom or goodness. Victor remembers his father as an “excellent and venerable old man”. The word holds honour and age together, and it makes the old man’s quick death, “in a few days”, the harder to bear.
physiognomy: This address caused a considerable change in the physiognomy of my own auditor. A person’s face, especially as a sign of what they think or feel (from the Greek for judging a nature). When Victor demands action, there is “a considerable change in the physiognomy” of the magistrate. Victor reads the man’s face all through the scene, and here it tells him, before any word does, that belief has turned back to doubt.
auditor: This address caused a considerable change in the physiognomy of my own auditor. A listener; someone who hears (from the Latin for hearing, as in audience and audio). Victor calls the magistrate “my own auditor”, the hearer of his tale. Today the word more often means an official who checks accounts; here it means a hearer, and it makes the magistrate an audience before he is asked to be a judge.
traverse: Who can follow an animal which can traverse the sea of ice and inhabit caves and dens where no man would venture to intrude? To travel across, especially over wide or hard ground. The magistrate asks who can follow a creature that can “traverse the sea of ice”. The word makes his doubt a practical one: what stands in the way is the ground, not the tale.

Critical thinking

Even as he swears revenge, Victor calls the creature “the murderer, whom I have turned loose upon society”. If he let it loose, what does he owe, and to whom?
Victor compares his manner to “the martyrs of old”, and the magistrate tries to soothe him the way a nurse would. Is Victor’s revenge a martyr’s devotion, or is it the madness the magistrate sees?