Elizabeth Lavenza
No critic has ever traced a protoype of the Lavenza surname, which is, in
any event, a highly uncommon one. More immediately problematic to the reader,
however, is the figurative imagery elaborated in this paragraph, which in
its comparisons to an insect, a bird, and a pet animal, implicitly dehumanizes
Elizabeth. It is possible, though the textual support is equivocal, that
Mary Shelley intends this diction to be less laudatory of Elizabeth than
self-referential, in terms of his facile sexism, of Victor's character.
