how little do you know me
The return of Alphonse Frankenstein to the narrative center of the novel
brings with it the vexed tension between father and son observed in the
early chapters when Victor was an adolescent. Victor's silence here, of
course, is of no advantage in bringing Alphonse to a better understanding
of his by-now adult scion. Perhaps the son's reticence is meant not just
to mark his fear that the truth of his guilt would not be countenanced by
his father but also to implicate this strained history between them.
