you do not credit my narrative
Mary Shelley here achieves a fine
balance herself between
crediting and subverting the narrative. On the one hand, her
readers (not to exclude Walton) have been at the mercy of this
autobiographical account for the better course of the novel. Its
"connectedness" is in great part what keeps them reading on. Yet
there is the lingering hint of madness threading its way through
the narrative and impinging on its claims to reliability. That
Victor manages to convince Walton of its truth before the actual
evidence appears is, in the face of the skepticism he arouses
here, rather an achievement. But then, we might wish to remind
ourselves that Walton is an habitué of adventure stories
and was wont to believe the North Pole a "region of beauty and
delight" (Letter 1.2).
- Critical Approaches:
- Themes:
