Frankenstein Reading Journal (Chapters 21-23)

Chapter Twenty:

• With the discovery that Henry Clerval is dead, Victor becomes apparently inconsolable. It appears that the latest murder has finally cracked him, after the deaths of William and Justine. 'I was carried out of the room in strong convulsions'.
• Victor's health, yet again declines.
• 'I was doomed to live'. Victor seems to think that the death suffered by his friends was better than the fate he was to be dealt- he has to live with the guilt.
• Gothic element of nightmares/dreams. 'I was possessed by a kind of night-mare; I felt the fiend's grasp in my neck'.

Chapter Twenty-One:

• 'tranquility'. Victor longs to see the places of tranquility he had witnessed with Clerval.
• 'A thousand times would I have shed my own blood, drop by drop, to have saved their lives'. Victor has clearly wanted to repent for his 'crimes', and would rather have suffered himself than to see them die- shows his morality.
• '[if we get married] nothing on earth will have the power to interrupt my tranquillity'. Elizabeth says this, with the reader and Victor knowing the monster has promised to be with them on their wedding night- no doubt going to shatter any hope of the 'tranquility'.
• 'Memory brought madness with it'. Victor has not stayed healthy in his mind for very long- it shows his further spiral into madness?
• 'pistols and dagger'. Victor is arming himself- paranoia. Another sign of his descent into madness.

Chapter Twenty-Two:

• 'wind... rose with great violence in the west'. Even the weather is showing signs of unease and foreboding. Pathetic Fallacy.
• 'a thousand fears arose in my mind'. Victor is beginning to feel uneasy, knowing the threat the creature is showing him and his new wife. Paranoid.
• On the discovery of Elizabeth's death, Victor focusses on how he is physically reacting. ''the motion of every muscle and fibre was suspended... i could feel the blood trickling in my veins, and tingling in the extremities of my limbs'. He is looking upon himself with scientific terminology- almost how he looks at the creature.
• Creature is seen, but runs before Victor can shoot him. 'swiftness of lightning.' Shows how inhuman the creature really is?