until my own life, or that of my adversary, were
extinguished
Mary Shelley here offers
another accentuation of the adversarial masculinist code that has
dominated Victor's perspective on his Creature and blinded him to
the dangers to which he has exposed his loved ones. The
melodramatic posturing, it should be emphasized, does have a
purpose if we remind ourselves that this first-person narrative
is delivered to a listener, Robert Walton, who at the end of the
next chapter will reenter the novel. Since Victor is well aware
that Walton is preserving this record as an exemplary warning to
later human generations, he has every reason to try to influence
the portrait thus handed down to the future.
