this apparition seemed to denote that it was not, in reality, so
distant
This phrase, which is the first written in reflexive thought about the
Creature, immediately establishes a threat to presumptions of scientific
facticity, as the presence of this alien existence casts its shadow over
all facile assumptions and assurances, leaving uncertainty in its wake.
Such indeterminacy will increasingly come to dominate the narrative of
events in Frankenstein. The fact that the Creature and Victor are
traveling not over solid land but upon the fragile surface of ice is
exactly emblematic of the problematic nature of reality that Mary Shelley
introduces to the novel here.
