Interestingly, after Frankenstein is satisfied by Walton's
response that he is "on a voyage of discovery towards the
northern pole," he talks with Walton about the expedition, expressing curiosity and
sympathies about this venture:
He entered attentively into all my arguments in
favour of my eventual success, and into every minute detail of the measure I had taken
to secure it. I was easily led by the sympathy which he evinced to use the language of
my heart; ...and to say, with all the fervour that warmed me, how gladly I would
sacrifice my fortune, my existence, my every hope, to the gurtherance of my
enterprise.
However, as
Walton continues, saying,
One man's life or death were but a small price to
pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I
sought
"a dark gloom" comes
over Victor's face. Here, clearly, is an example of foreshadowing as the reader later
learns. Of course, the irony, too, is that Walton does not realize how much his words
sound like those of the idealistic Victor who would create his own being. To Walton,
Victor speaks in "broken accents":
Unhappy man! Do you share my madness! Have you
drank [sic] also of the intoxicating draught? Hear me--let me reveal my tale, and you
will dash the cup from your
lips!"
This fourth letter
also furthers the completion of the frame around Victor's history as it gives reason to
the
telling.
No comments:
Post a Comment