the misery that I then endured
In contrast to the shared grief and affection of Elizabeth and Justine,
Victor has immured himself in a barricaded isolation, unable to attract
sympathy and, through his lack of candor, unable also truly to offer it.
That "misery" is the last noun of Volume I, as "disaster" was the first
(Letter 1), brings the reader full
circle within that sense of perilous enclosure.
