• the mechanical impulse A reader can empathize with the sense of relief with which Victor sheds his anxious,
    nervous state of mind in favor of a dogged determination. But the particular language
    Mary Shelley uses here indicates that it is also a dogged determinism. In ridding
    himself of anxiety and a sense of personal responsibility, Victor would seem to give
    up his last shreds of humanity, transforming himself into a mere machinery of destruction,
    an armament of war.