Lovely Literature

"In the mean time I took every precaution to defend my person, in case the fiend should openly attack me. I carried pistols and a daggar costantly about me, and was ever on the watch to prevent artifice; and by these means gained a greater degree of tranquility." (page 142).

Once Victor decides it is time to wed Elizabeth before he is killed or before she finds another man, he takes every single precaution to ensure that he will be alive before their ceremony and hopefully they can then get away before the monster can find them. It amazes me that he was so concerned about keeping himself safe but he didn't stop to think that the monster was killing everyone close to him so to make him suffer but to not yet kill him. It reminds me of a horror movie because after they are married and are residing in Evian, Victor tells Elizabeth to go to sleep and he will be there soon after he checks the perimeter. Soon after, he hears the screams from her room and realizes the mistake he has made. He has made many fatal mistakes in this story and it is a wonder he hasn't realized the implications of them yet. It's amazing to me because he is such a smart, well-educated man and yet he doesn't seem to think ahead. I think the anger, fear, exhaustion, and revenge has been clouding his vision for many years since the monster was created and it has completely altered his life and well being. Victor basically doesn't have a well-being any more and he has given up on anything and everything in his life except for hunting down his creation and destroying it. The only thing I wonder in all of this...and maybe I missed it...was where is Ernest his brother now?

If you were wondering, yes that is the legitimate German pronunciation of "Frankenstein." :]

"It was a place fitted for such a work, being hardly more than a rock, whose high sides were continually beaten upon by the waves. The soil was barren, scarcely affording pasture for a few miserable cows, and oatmeal for its inhabitants, which consisted of five persons, whose gaunt and scraggy limbs gave tokens of their miserable fare." (page 119).

As Victor is touring Europe with Henry Clerval, he realizes that it is important for him to get this monster business out of the way and just create the "bride" for the creature so he doesn't have to toil and slave over it anymore. Remembering the anguish the creation took on his body, mind, and soul before, he is having a difficult time bringing himself to making another monster. He can barely handle himself just thinking about the horrendousness of the monster, and yet he is willing to put himself through pain again so he can try to save his family and humanity from this awful infestation. He sends Henry off and then retreats to this sad little place where no one else lives. He seriously has some depression issues or something because he puts himself in situations in which he will be hurting himself or depriving himself of his basic needs. He needs to have people in his life...not monsters....who he can be happy with and not have to worry about making some creation that would ruin his life. The description of the new setting he is planning on working in is even miserable and decrepid sounding. There is one thing to say for Victor though. When he is determined, there is not much that will deter him.