our domestic circle
The repetition of this phrase (1.1.6
and note) calls attention to what would appear
an ideal family: close-knit, affectionate, mutually acculturating. Does
it do so to establish such an ideal as a retreat from the sublime terrors
of the novel? or to suggest that even such a model family could not be
protected from ruination? or, with an underlying sense of irony, to
stress that for all his nostalgia Victor never inculcated the values he
honors as projected by the family? Similar questions surround the other
"ideal" domestic scene of the novel, the De Laceys' cottage (2.3.7).
