Critical Response 4

During these last readings (chapters 21-23), I was shocked that Victor was accused of the Henry’s death. When Victor saw the body, he reacts with horror for a short time because the victim was Henry. The body had black marks of the monster’s hands around his neck. This scene is in a way scary to me because it made me imagine how horrible it would be to see one’s best friend body in those conditions. As a result of Henry’s death, Victor then falls into convulsions and suffers a long illness. Victor is sick during his time in jail, but of course, he later received a visit from his father; who later helped Victor to get out of jail.

We can see that Victor recovered really fast from the death of Justine, William and Henry. At first, he seem sad, but soon he forget about it and keep leaving his normal life. A quote I found interesting is when Victor said to his father:  “How little you know me. Human beings, their feelings and passions, would indeed be degrade if such a wretch as I felt pride. Justine, poor unhappy Justine, was innocent as I, and she suffered the same charge; she died for it; and I am the cause of this- I murdered her. William, Justine, and Henry — they all died by my hands.” We can draw a conclusion when Victor said “by my hands” because it was Victor’s hands that created the monster, and even though it was the monster who used his hands to kill them, it is Victor’s fault because he was the irresponsible one that created the creature.

I found the end of this book to be really tragic, but I guess this is expected because it is a gothic novel.  At the end of this book, there a lot of sad and horrible moments. For example, When Alphonse found out that Elizabeth is death, he is overcome with grief and later dies. Then, we see that Victor and the monster died as well. One important message I found in this book is that our actions have consequences because if Victor had not created the monster, none of these deaths would had occurred.