Frankenstein 4

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

After gaining news of his youngest brother's death, Victor quickly travels back home to his native town of Geneva. There is he met with bad weather on a dark night, the perfect setting for another horror scene. Out of some odd impulse, Frankenstein, instead of visiting his mourning family, decides first to visit the murder sight of his little brother. There within the temporal flashes of lightning, he witnesses his wretched creature. Although, I am merely reading these descriptions from the confines of a book, I note that Shelley, through her diction and imaging, does well in creating a spooky and suspenseful atmosphere when writing of Frankenstein's sighting of the creature. For example, she writes, "A flash of lightning illuminated the object, and discovered its shape plainly to me; its gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect, more hideous than belongs to humanity..." (Shelley 50). Such a scene truly shocks and terrifies me. So with this odd and random appearance of the monster at the murder sight, Victor can only conceive that his brother's death was the monster's doing. This realization ultimately fills Victor with guilt, for he it was not of his own doing, yet he still caused the outcome. However, this guilt is none the same as when he finds that Justine Moritz is wrongfully accused of the murder. Out of the pain and humiliation of the whole trial, Justine cannot endure any longer and falsely admits to the crimes brought upon her. What I find quite strange is if Justine really was not the murderer (which she was not) how did the picture that had originally been with William come to her possession. Perhaps the monster is smarter than previously thought. Also, Victor admits that the first victims of the monster were William and Justine, meaning more are to come.