• my enemy

    Here Victor has not only demonized his Creature but has cast him in an adversarial
    role, not acknowledging at this point that hatred can be as powerful a passion as
    love and that antagonism can define a relationship with as enduring bonds as those
    produced through affection. That this most distant of objectified namings coincides
    with an almost hysterical sense of relief, indeed of liberation, for Victor suggests
    the subtlety of Mary Shelley's psychological understanding. This is a moment of major
    moral significance for the development of the novel.