with what a burning gush
The language of passion erupts at this point with a startling
suddenness, as Victor begins to close with his Creature. That
Mary Shelley expects her readers
to sense some measure of
perverse, almost abstracted eroticism in this "burning gush"
might be inferred from her continual employment of the language
of desire throughout the novel (for instance, the various forms
of "ardour" and "ardent" she marshals with such skill) and the
curious vacuum where one might anticipate passion in the relation
of Victor and Elizabeth.
