a hired nurse
Up to this point in the novel nursing has been the domain of friends and
family, and the willingness to engage in it has been the mark of selfless
affection and respect. We recall that Victor's mother Caroline dies from
the effects of nursing Elizabeth Lavenza through an adolescent attack of
scarlet fever (1.2.1) and that Justine
Moritz, in her turn, contracts the disease from attending on Caroline
Frankenstein and herself falls "very ill" (1.5.4) as a result. Although not
vulnerable to consequences so life-threatening, Henry Clerval acts as
Victor's "only nurse" during the months-long nervous fever that
incapacitates him after the Creature is brought to life (1.4.7).
