The story is too connected
Doubtless, Victor, who has in numerous critical situations been unwilling
to explain his case for fear of not being believed, worries about how he
can convey his deposition so as to produce conviction. Yet, once again,
the language reminds us that we are in the midst of a narrative whose
truth is totally dependant on the veracity of the narrator. Victor
likewise makes much of its internal consistency to Walton as he begins the
narration (Letter 4.8). What this
detail adds is the realization that Victor's is truly what Nathaniel
Hawthorne termed a "twice-told tale," having, with the exception of its
final chapter, been already rehearsed in the judge's chamber. The
reiteration of such a tale of fatally transgressed boundaries recalls the
context provided by the same sort of obsessive repetition in Coleridge's
"Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
