Latin and English
From this diction it appears that Elizabeth is included among the "we"
of this circle who are instructed in both a useful and a learned
language. Most women of her time were denied such access to Latin. We
recall that French is the operating
language of the Frankenstein household (as it is of Geneva).
Obviously, English is here singled out in order to justify Victor's
narration as being conducted wholly in English. At what point the German
in which he is taught at Ingolstadt enters his educational program is
left unmentioned, but by the age of seventeen he will be fluent in it (1.1.10). No note is made of
whether Elizabeth retained a residual Italian from having spent her early
years in that environment.
