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For a short space of time I remained at the window watching the pallid lightnings that played above Mont Blanc and listening to the rushing of the Arve, which pursued its noisy way beneath. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 9)
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He knows his creation is somewhere out there, and it is a result of the lighting he first witnessed in Chapter Two when it struck that tree.

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.

Mary Shelley connects these two events with this description.

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but I am not so wretched as you are. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 9)
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This is a double entendre unbeknownst to Elizabeth.

Frankenstein is wretched in that

1) he is grieving William’s death. (What Elizabeth means)

2) he is a horrible person for causing William’s death.

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I, not in deed, but in effect, was the true murderer. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 9)
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Victor has begun to take responsibility for what he has done. He tried to blame fate and even his professor:

I felt as if he had placed carefully, one by one, in my view those instruments which were to be afterwards used in putting me to a slow and cruel death.

But now he is guilt-ridden.

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to dispel the dark cloud which brooded over me. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 9)
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Storms are consistently associated with negativity in this novel.

Normally, there are literal storms accompanying events, but here Mary uses the dark cloud as a metaphor.

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I wandered like an evil spirit, for I had committed deeds of mischief beyond description horrible, and more, much more (I persuaded myself) was yet behind. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 9)
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Victor wanders, much like the Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner was cursed to wander

…like night, from land to land;

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The weight upon my spirit was sensibly lightened as I plunged yet deeper in the ravine of Arve. The immense mountains and precipices that overhung me on every side, the sound of the river raging among the rocks, and the dashing of the waterfalls around spoke of a power mighty as Omnipotence—and I ceased to fear or to bend before any being less almighty than that which had created and ruled the elements, here displayed in their most terrific guise. Still, as I ascended higher, the valley assumed a more magnificent and astonishing character. Ruined castles hanging on the precipices of piny mountains, the impetuous Arve, and cottages every here and there peeping forth from among the trees formed a scene of singular beauty. But it was augmented and rendered sublime by the mighty Alps, whose white and shining pyramids and domes towered above all, as belonging to another earth, the habitations of another race of beings. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 9)
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Compare with the poem, Mont Blanc, written by Mary’s husband Percy Bysshe Shelley.

This is from stanza two:

Thus thou, Ravine of Arve—dark, deep Ravine—
…
Where Power in likeness of the Arve comes down
From the ice-gulfs that gird his secret throne,

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29d

“another race of beings” could be in reference to the creature.

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1 year

Omnipotence – the quality of having unlimited or very great power.

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But I, the true murderer, felt the never-dying worm alive in my bosom, which allowed of no hope or consolation. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 8)
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Again, Victor is taking responsibility for the murder.

The worm metaphor reminds readers of a corpse.

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3 years

Frankenstein’s description of a never-dying worm represents how he feels he is being eaten alive by his own guilt.

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Justine also was a girl of merit and possessed qualities which promised to render her life happy; now all was to be obliterated in an ignominious grave, and I the cause! Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 8)
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Finally, Victor takes proper responsibility for what he has done.

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This speech calmed me. I was firmly convinced in my own mind that Justine, and indeed every human being, was guiltless of this murder. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Chap. 7)
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Frankenstein continues his trend of shirking responsibility.

Really Frankenstein?

Is every human being innocent?
Who was it that created the wretch in the first place?

Oh yeah- it was you.

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