to utter sounds
Only at this point, at the end of the chapter, do we become aware that the
Creature has, up to now, no ability to relate linguistically, that he is
still operating on the non-verbal level of the sparrows and thrushes whose
sounds he first discriminated (2.3.2).
Although presumably the De Lacey family speaks during the ongoing business
of the day, except for the "few sounds" (2.3.6) that were uttered by the young man
outside the cottage and by the old man when his music elicited tears, this
account is, as it were, rendered against a backdrop of total silence
except for the interlude of music. Mary Shelley's artistic refinement in
rendering this silence intensifies, in contrast, the importance of words
and of communication for the world of her novel.
