Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Dramatic Irony - Novel Blog 8 (Frankenstein)

"I should regard the threatened fate as unavoidable. But death was no evil to me, if the loss of Elizabeth were balanced with it; and I therefore, with a contented and even cheerful countenance, agreed with my father, that if my cousin would consent, the ceremony should take place in ten days, and thus put, as I imagined, the seal to my fate."

~ Frankenstein, page 141

Oh Victor, you naive man. Talk about dramatic irony. When the creature repeatedly says "I shall be with you on your wedding night," and he has told you many times before that he's going after all your friends and relatives, wouldn't you assume that he is aiming for your wife? Yeah, killing Victor would suck because, well, he would be dead. But it's so much worse to watch all the people you love in your life die around you and know you can't do anything about it. I just don't know how Victor didn't catch this one. I think what makes it really bad is that on their wedding night, he tells her to go to bed and goes downstairs of all places. In that moment, I wanted to scream at him - it was probably the most suspenseful moment in the book, because everyone knew what was going to happen (well, except Victor). I feel horrible for Elizabeth too, because the whole time Victor is all moody and anxious, and a wedding is supposed to be really happy. She probably thinks he doesn't want to marry her or he would rather be with someone else, when in actuality, there's an eight-foot monster that may or may not pop in the window and kill them. And then she bites the dust. What a bitter end. I just think Victor should have been able to see it.

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