something better -- their child
Although there are occasional instances in the literature of Romanticism
where the world of childhood is privileged --
Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations
of Immortality" is a prime example -- still the timbres here are
unmistakeably Victorian, another sign of the major shift in British culture
during the 1820s. The nostalgic sentimentality, however, rather veils the
way in which Victor displaces upon his parents the mode of his future
conduct in life. His tacit abdication of responsibility will be repeated
in a more overt manner further on in his account.
