wandering ministers of vengeance
Upon a moment's reflection the reader will recognize that Victor, by this
term, means the primitive Furies of classical myth. Their most prominent
realization in Greek literature is in Aeschylus's Oresteia, where, as
enacted in the third part of the trilogy, The Eumenides, the Furies
are persuaded by Athena to give over their ritual vengeance to a new and
more civilized system of justice that will henceforth regulate human
behavior. For Victor thus to invoke the Furies suggests his reversion to
a primitive bloodlust incompatible with modern civilization. Although not
yet written, P. B. Shelley's
representation of the Furies in Prometheus
Unbound (see I.444), as
psychological agents of self-victimization who lacerate the psyche, is
wholly in accord with Mary
Shelley's conception here.
- Critical Approaches:
- Themes:
