Blog entry #2- A memorable moment in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

One moment that really stood out to me in Frankenstein was when Victor Frankenstein found that his closest friend, Henry Clerval, had been killed by his own creation. I remember reading the pages before he finds out about Clerval’s death and wondering what the real significance was to the story. Why was Shelley going into such great detail about this random small town that Victor went to and why were its inhabitants so suspicious of him and so inhospitable towards him? Was it really necessary to discuss this one detour Frankenstein took? What were the odds that Frankenstein would have to deal with yet another horrible situation? I was clearly being too naïve and optimistic about Frankenstein’s situation. I remember then feeling filled with dread as I realized this town’s tragedy probably did have some significance to the story and to Frankenstein himself, obviously. I began to wonder about who would suffer next, but I did not ever suspect that Frankenstein would have to face such a tragic loss or that Clerval had been murdered by the monster. I suspected that maybe Frankenstein looked like the criminal the town was after and would merely be placed in jail for a little while. I wondered if possibly some random man who looked like he would have been associated with Frankenstein but who actually had no connection to him whatsoever had been murdered. I thought that maybe the monster had killed an innocent man who could not bear to look at his demonic face and was killed because of his fears. I was again being far too optimistic, but how was I to know that such horrible events were about to occur! I just didn’t want this poor man to have to suffer any more, as childish as that sounds. I honestly was moved most by this scene because I genuinely felt bad for Victor. Victor says in the book, "The human frame could no longer support the agonizing suffering that I endured" (Shelley 122). It was at this point in the book that I myself could no longer endure the horrific amount of suffering this one man faced. I felt a new sense of sympathy towards Victor. Clerval had been such a central figure in his life and was one whom he even considered a part of his family. I could not even begin to imagine the amount of pain he must have been in after finding him dead. I also felt that this moment began a huge shift in the book. Although Frankenstein had been depressed before, now he truly wanted to be dead. I could only hope that the next chapters would be happier, but I now knew that this one sad man would never truly feel happiness again.