benevolence
It is a remarkable achievement of Mary Shelley's that by this point in the
Creature's narrative, this word (and its derivatives) have become fully
ironized. Continually repeated as it is (see, for instance, 2.7.1 and 2.7.5), this Enlightenment concept stands
in a kind of verbal isolation, unsupported by any examples that might
convince us of its dynamic, positive value, or even (outside the
Creature's own actions) that active benevolence exists. Thus the
Creature's ironic conclusion seems altogether appropriate.
