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They insisted, therefore, that I should engage with a solemn promise that if the vessel should be freed I would instantly direct my course southwards. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 24)

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Frankenstein probably wishes he were able to direct his course southwards before he followed through with his creation of the wretch.

Let’s hope Walton can learn from Frankenstein’s mistakes.

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a feverish fire still glimmers in his eyes, Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 24)

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There are a couple of things here:

1) The feverish fire continues the fire metaphor throughout the novel. Fire has represented knowledge, as evidenced in chapter 2 when Frankenstein sees the tree blasted and begins to love science.

2) The continued emphasis on eyes evokes the Rime of the Ancient Mariner:

He holds him with his glittering eye -
The Wedding-Guest stood still

Just like the mariner, Frankenstein is feeble. Yet his story is captivating.

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What a glorious creature must he have been in the days of his prosperity, when he is thus noble and godlike in ruin! He seems to feel his own worth and the greatness of his fall. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 24)

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This is evocative of Paradise Lost’s Satan.

He too was glorious and god-like until he took it too far.

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After a slight repose, during which the spirits of the dead hovered round and instigated me to toil and revenge, I prepared for my journey. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 24)

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This belief in spirits guiding him implies a level of insanity.

On top of that, it is reminiscent of Rime of the Ancient Mariner in that the mariner was assisted by the spirits that animated the corpses of the people on his ship:

Beneath the lightning and the moon
The dead men gave a groan.

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Sometimes, when nature, overcome by hunger, sank under the exhaustion, a repast was prepared for me in the desert that restored and inspirited me. The fare was, indeed, coarse, such as the peasants of the country ate, but I will not doubt that it was set there by the spirits that I had invoked to aid me. Often, when all was dry, the heavens cloudless, and I was parched by thirst, a slight cloud would bedim the sky, shed the few drops that revived me, and vanish. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 24)

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This is, perhaps, another example of Victor placing himself in a Christ-like position.
He is being fed by spirits in the desert, just as Christ was after fasting:

Matthew 4:11

Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

(Note that Frankenstein has also been living quite a deprived life recently.)

To think that the spirits are concerned with him to this extent is also quite egocentric.

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21d

Victor’s dismissal of the creature’s efforts to feed him as the work of good spirits also mirrors the reaction of the DeLaceys.

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9 years

I agree: It’s incredibly egocentric! Victor thinks that the spirits are helping, when certainly it’s still his Creature, who wants him to continue to chase him. The Creature is finally getting some attention from his creator, something he’s desperately created since his “birth.”

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my ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 24)

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Cremation seems appropriate. After all, the wretch was sort of born out of fire.

Frankenstein’s love of science came from that initial blasted tree way back in chapter 2:

As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump.

We’ve come a long way since then.

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Evil thenceforth became my good. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 24)

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This is an allusion to Paradise Lost again.

Satan proclaims:

Evil be thou my Good;

(book 4, line 110)

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The die is cast; I have consented to return if we are not destroyed. Thus are my hopes blasted by cowardice and indecision; I come back ignorant and disappointed. It requires more philosophy than I possess to bear this injustice with patience. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 24)

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This is evocative of Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner:

The naked hulk alongside came
And the twain were casting dice;

In Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Life-in-Death and Death compete for the mariner’s life. Life-in-Death wins, (and brags about it

`The game is done! I’ve won! I’ve won!‘
Quoth she, and whistles thrice.)

But Walton sees himself living his own Life-in-Death without following his dream through to the end.

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All my speculations and hopes are as nothing, and like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 24)

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This is a reference to Milton’s Paradise Lost:

Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire

Frankenstein is comparing himself to Satan here. He played god by creating life himself (as God created Adam), but because he aspired to omnipotence, he is chained in his own hell that the wretch creates for him.

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