a power as mighty as Omnipotence
To a later reader accustomed to the 1818 edition or to the customary
biographical terrain of Mary Shelley's family associations, these phrases
come with a sense almost of shock. Even within the terms set by the novel
itself they do not seem to ring true to the general distance kept thus far
between the characters and conventional religious expression. The reader
has the choice of construing this interpolation as a sign of a shift in Mary
Shelley's rhetorical palette to accommodate an early Victorian religious
sensibility (which has been asserted by some critics). On the other hand,
this could be interpreted instead as an attempt on her part to prepare us
for the deep, if
primitive, religious faith that will eventually be invoked by Victor to
sanction his single-minded pursuit of revenge against his Creature. In
other words, not all rhetorical alterations portend changes in the author's
own opinions.
- Critical Approaches:
- Themes:
