the mechanical impulse
A reader can empathize with the sense of relief with which Victor
sheds his anxious, nervous state of mind in favor of a dogged
determination. But the particular language Mary Shelley uses
here indicates that it is also a dogged determinism. In
ridding himself of anxiety and a sense of personal
responsibility, Victor would seem to give up his last shreds of
humanity, transforming himself into a mere machinery of
destruction, an armament of war.
