Plunger Wars

"I feel as though I were walking on the edge of a precipice, towards which thousands are crowding, and endeavouring to plunge me into the abyss" (pg 63).

 "Often, I say, I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities forever" (pg 62).

As you may remember from the "Death of a Salesman" Socratic Seminar, I really don't like characters who are ultra depressing, and both Elizabeth and Victor are both suicidal (so it would seem).  I find some of the details in this two ever so similar thoughts very interesting though.

• "towards which thousands are crowding" versus "into the silent lake"

This is something that I hadn't realized, but both Elizabeth and  Victor are going through highly emotional events that are basically complete opposites.  Elizabeth is being trapped by everyone around her, including herself, every time they talk about the murder, while Victor is trapped in his silent secret in his beliefs in the true murderer.

• Mr. Costello said, "Mary Shelley likes to repeat words and phrases."

You know, Shelley easily could have varied her word choice and said "jumped" or "leaped," but she decided to repeat the word "plunge" in both scenes.  It's the connotation of the word that you plunge into something bad and that it would be dangerous.

• Simile versus not a simile

Elizabeth's situation was mentioned in a simile, but Victor's was not.  I really have no clue how to interpret that.

P.S. Sometimes I feel like I blog about the most random details I can find.