loaded me with epithets
That it is to stop a child's naming that impels the Creature almost
accidentally to kill him is significant in several ways. Most importantly,
the Creature is existentially unnamed, lacking an identity that
denominates a particularized selfhood and a socialized connectedness, the
sort of implicit identity by which William himself immediately commands
authority. It was Victor Frankenstein's initial duty as his creator to
accord him that name but he fled from the responsibility. Thus, everywhere
else in the novel, with Victor from his distance actively participating in
the process, the Creature is identified, not by a name but through epithets,
as being outside a human sphere. In a symbolic sense at least, William dies for
his naming, for taking on a function only his brother has the right to
perform.
