World Literature

“I pursued my undertaking with unremitting ardor. My cheeks had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with confinement. Sometimes on the very brink of certainty, I failed, yet still I clung to the very hope which the next day or the next hour might realize.”

In this passage, Mary Shelley, gives us a bit of insight on how determined Victor’s character really is, showing us why this experiment is the one worth all his concern. By this far in the book, we are already very familiar with Victor’s fascination with science. But here we are more than able to see how persistent he really was. The passage uncovers that he did in fact have some difficulties in the very beginning. But, He had a vision and Victor did not stop until he got it right. He was so intensely involved that he managed to shut himself off from the world, with what I assume was having very little to no communication at all with a soul outside of his experiment. When he observes, “My cheeks grew pale with study” this only reveals to the reader how intrigued he was and explained why “he clung to hope” when things did not add up. At this point he was so lost at being this perfectionist that isolation just made a lot more of sense to him rather than not until he succeeded.