This passage comes from the part of the novel describing Victor's travels with Henry Clerval after his encounter with the monster. Victor and Henry have separated, Henry going to London and Victor to the Orkney Islands to fulfil his promise to create a female companion for the monster – which he hopes will free him from the creature's persecution. Frankenstein, however, is afraid that the monster and his mate may breed a species that will threaten humanity, so he destroys his work; but he is spied upon by the monster who swears revenge. Victor sinks the remains of the second monster in the sea, then falls asleep in his boat and drifts to the shore of Ireland. Here, he is taken before a magistrate because a man's murdered body has been found
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It is to Walton that he addresses the first of the rhetorical questions in the passage; these are questions that do not expect or require an answer, but are used to heighten and dramatise the effect of the speaker's words. ‘How can I describe my sensations on beholding it?' is the first of these questions; and the second, beginning ‘Have my murderous machinations…?' is directed at Henry's corpse. The final paragraph of the passage, beginning ‘Why did I not die', consists of a series of rhetorical questions or exclamations that amount to a kind of lament for the position into which his experiments have brought …show more content…
Kirwin the magistrate. The staff in the prison do not understand him, which is perhaps just as well because his first words on seeing Henry's body could be interpreted as an admission of guilt to this and other murders. Once he falls ill, the only way his attendants can understand him is to ‘read' his body language and the tone or manner of what he says. This is enough to ‘affright' them and it could be argued that during this period Victor seems, to most people, alien, strange and terrifying, rather like the monster he has created. The fact that Mr. Kirwin is the only person who fully understands him hints at the role the just magistrate will play in ensuring that Victor is not wrongfully convicted of Henry's
It is to Walton that he addresses the first of the rhetorical questions in the passage; these are questions that do not expect or require an answer, but are used to heighten and dramatise the effect of the speaker's words. ‘How can I describe my sensations on beholding it?' is the first of these questions; and the second, beginning ‘Have my murderous machinations…?' is directed at Henry's corpse. The final paragraph of the passage, beginning ‘Why did I not die', consists of a series of rhetorical questions or exclamations that amount to a kind of lament for the position into which his experiments have brought …show more content…
Kirwin the magistrate. The staff in the prison do not understand him, which is perhaps just as well because his first words on seeing Henry's body could be interpreted as an admission of guilt to this and other murders. Once he falls ill, the only way his attendants can understand him is to ‘read' his body language and the tone or manner of what he says. This is enough to ‘affright' them and it could be argued that during this period Victor seems, to most people, alien, strange and terrifying, rather like the monster he has created. The fact that Mr. Kirwin is the only person who fully understands him hints at the role the just magistrate will play in ensuring that Victor is not wrongfully convicted of Henry's