Chapter 9

Summary

Victor is now plagued with guilt and he decides to escape by having a short break which involves boating on Lake Geneva and a trip to the Swiss mountains. He hopes to be able to recover his senses. Victor: “I wept bitterly and wished that peace would revisit my mind only that I might afford them consolation and happiness. But that could not be.   Remorse extinguished every hope. I had been the author of unalterable evils and I lived in daily fear lest the monster whom I had created should perpetrate some new wickedness.”

Interpretation

Victor now returns to a state of deep depression – a relapse to his previous attack in Ingolstadt when he created the monster.

Alphonse is concerned at the extent of Victor’s suffering for he does not realize the burden that his son carries. Victor’s depression is so deep that he considers suicide so that the life he created now threatens to destroy his own.

Although Victor is the center of the story being also the narrator, the reader is now aware that Elizabeth has undergone a change since the murder of William and the conviction of Justine. She is also disturbed regarding Victor’s behavior and questions his sanity. 

The quotation above shows how Shelley explores man’s despair which at this time was a popular subject covered by romantic writers.