yet another may succeed
Victor's complete self-contradiction in his last moments mirrors the
novel's ambivalence over the conflicting claims of domestic retreat and
aspiring self-assertion, which are in turn poles that themselves comprise a
dialectical field over which Romanticism continually expresses much ambivalence.
The particular terms of Victor's last utterance have a somewhat chilling
effect: at what, a reader may well wonder, does Victor contemplate
another's success? If in the realm in which he has failed, assuming the
role of God, we may envision from Victor's experience a greater, even a
catastrophic, failure. Even as he moves linguistically to open up
possibility, the lingering effects of his example resist his optimism.
