Contents Index

wantonness of power

The Creature knows about the effects of unchecked power through the account of Safie's father's persecution (2.6.1) and the De Laceys' ruination (2.6.5), and he may have gleaned something of its underlying assumptions from William Frankenstein's instinctive reliance on his father's ability to punish arbitrarily (see 2.8.9 and note). Yet, it is to Victor that the Creature speaks, and, since he has used a derivative of "wantonness" in his earlier condemnation (2.8.1 and note), it is perhaps to that particularized sense of irresponsibility that he reverts here.