the apple had already been eaten
Victor here contrues himself in terms of the fallen Adam, by his transgressive actions
forever barred from Paradise. The angel whose "arm [is] bared" is the
figure Blake called "the Covering
Cherub," assigned to make certain that no return was possible: it is to be
assumed that by this figure Victor identifies his Creature as an
instrument of divine destiny.
See also Milton's description of this banishment in Paradise Lost,
XII.632-44
