the most perfect solitude
If the reader regards this phrase ironically, it would seem commensurate
(or nearly so) with death. The last third of Frankenstein is
dominated by the withdrawal of its protagonists behind psychic barricades
that wall them off increasingly from the forces of life. Again, one
senses the context of P. B. Shelley's recently-published Alastor; or, The Spirit of
Solitude behind Mary Shelley's text.
