The Lifted Veil; or, the Modern Frankenstein

There are many similarities between Latimer and Victor. To begin with, they both suffer the loss of a mother, that variably affects their future ideology. We have Victor, who after the loss of his mother, was so crushed and hurt eventually dedicates his life to finding a way to avoid death touching those he loves. By being able to create life, he makes it possible to bring to life the ones he loves if anything were to happen to them. He dedicates years to this study, and upon accomplishing it, that very mindset occupies him in every aspect of his life. It has altered him to the point where he would not recognize himself, associating with a wretch more than humanity. If Victor is in fact the monster--taking on a seperate personality that kills all who Victor loves and loves him, we see this alternate personality as a result of the traumatic death of Victor's mother. Latimer early on loses his mother as well, no longer feeling her gentle touch and missing her dearly. It is this loss that alters his upbringing and his attitudes toward other people. He claims to "have never fully unbosomed myself to any human being" (Elliot, 8). Here we see Latimer disassociating himself to the societal world--distancing himself so that he may not be hurt by their death as he was with his mother. He says: "While the heart beats, bruise it--it is your only opportunity" (Elliot 8). He has an idea that to love is to let yourself down, to fall down a path that dead ends. Again, if Victor is the monster, isn't he doing the same thing? They together are warding off love--even Latimer, after being married, does not submit to everything the wife desires but instead stands in his own "indifference", independant alone and strong. Latimer also lives in Geneva and has a scientific education, which falls somewhat along the same lines of Victor's environment. Victor and Latimer adore the scenery of the outdoors and they both bask in the setting sun in the Alps and obtain a "perpetual sense of exaltation". Yet it is the fact that by the end of both stories we see both character's refering to themselves as being wretches. The life they both led had made them feel they obtained wretched knowledge and therefore wretched modes of life. Being a wretch, in his own terms, Latimer states a very interesting line, that characterizes Victor and what he is experiencing: "...when, after our mean striving for a triumph that is to be another's loss, the triumph comes suddenly, and we shudder at it, because it is held out by the chill hand of death." (Elliot, 25) Death inevitably follows the experiment by Frankenstein, whose objective in creating life was turned sour upon accomplishment.