Mary Shelley's use of diction that relates to characteristics of Romanticism highlights the unnatural nature of what Victor works so conscientiously on, his creation. He thinks for the reason for his project: "Life and death appear[s] to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world." When Shelley writes, "ideal bounds," she means the bounds of nature, the laws of God. Victor craves to "break through" nature's rule that all life must die and that the process is irreversible, by creating life from a dead body. Life, death, light, and darkness are all elements of the Romantic period which Shelley uses in order to illuminate how absurd and almost iconoclastic Victor's work is. This purpose is explicitly stated when Victor contemplates, "...if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might in the process of time renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption." Again, Shelley's use of the Romantic idea of "death", an element of nature, conveys the highly unnatural nature of Victor's project: an attempt to defy God's will. Working on his development, Victor calls his place of work a "workshop of filthy creation." As willed by nature, creation is the miracle of birth, a very grateful event to the parents a child is born from, and an important idea of natural Romanticism. Thus in Victor's case, his use of the word "filthy" for his creation portrays how unnatural the enterprise is.
This passage also illustrates Victor's internal struggle between his will to achieve glory and his unethical behaviour through the use of double meaning, successfully creating an ominous tone. In the beginning, Victor reflects that he wills to defy nature's law that death is inevitable and irreversible so he can be a "creator" of a new species and achieve the glory that comes with it. However, he later asks, "Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I dabble among the unhallowed damps of the grave or torture the living animal to animate lifeless clay?" Shelley's use of the word "dabble" indicates playing or toying with, but when preceded by words such as "horrors" and "secret toils" and succeeded by "unhallowed," which can mean both unblessed or unethical, then it is clear that Victor is actually unsure of the morality of his doings, especially when in reality he is grave-robbing. Victor wants to achieve that glory of being a "creator and source" but meanwhile, the things he has to do in order to reach that goal conflicts with his ethics, resulting in an internal struggle between his decency and his will to obtain the splendour of defying God, due to the different interpretations of his words. Furthermore, this conflict between his ethics creates a dark and foreboding tone for the struggle has to do with topics such as grave robbing, secret toiling, unhallowed damps, and torturing. He continues, "I collect bones from charnel-houses and disturb with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame." In this case, the word "profane" can indicate contempt for God or simple indifference towards Him. Again, the author's application of this double meaning further conveys the uncertainty and conflict with morality within Victor. In addition, an ominous tone is created from the conflict having to do with gloomy subjects such as bones and charnel-houses. The utilisation of double meaning creates the internal struggle Victor has between his pursuit of glory and obedience to ethics which in turn produces a foreboding tone.
The concepts brought up by Mary Shelley in this passage are applicable to almost anyone. All of us desire some form of glory and will often work very hard to achieve it but our innate sense to do the right thing will always get in the way, and it is our choice to abide by these rules or to disobey them and face the wrath of God. Indeed Victor is too blinded by his passion and his search for his own glory to listen to his ethics. Perhaps this foreshadows a time in the near future when God does strike back for Victor's attempt to defy the laws of nature.
