As Victor Frankenstein and his good friend Henry Clerval
travel to Enlgand, they descend the Rhine River in a boat from Straburgh to Rotterdam,
where they will take a ship for London. On this voyage, they see many ruined castles
and black woods, rugged hills and precipices. But, as they travel farther, they spot
the laborers bringing in grapes in the verdant hills. And, the mountains of Switzerland
Henry finds absolutely sublime, telling Victor,
Oh, surely, the spirit that inhabits and guards
this place has a soul more in harmony with man than those who pile the
glacier.
When he hears the
enthusiasm of Henry for the beauty of nature, Victor declares that Clerval is a "being
formed in the 'very poetry of nature.'"
In the Romantic
Movement, the friendship between two men was exalted as the highest form of love between
two human beings. Here, in this chapter, Victor expresses his love and appreciation for
Henry, praising his wondrous appreciation of nature. Quoting from Wordsworth's "Lines
Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern," Victor alludes to the poem in which Wordsworth
wrote, "I cannot paint what then I was," a line reflective of Victor, whose melancholy
prevents him from enjoying the landscape as does Henry. Nor can the gloomy Victor share
with Henry the transcendental experiences in which his friend revels. For, in Chapter
19, he describes himself as "a blasted tree, [whose] bolt has entered [his]soul," a most
ironic description as it recalls the giant tree Victor witnessed when he was young that
excited him to the study of science.
Sadly, at the end of
the chapter, Victor reminisces and recounts the tremendous loss that the death of his
friend Henry has been, saying "these ineffectual words are but a slight tribute to the
unexampled worth of Henry." Like Wordsworth, the description of the peaceful
landscape in which Henry so delighted restores Victor some in mind and
soul.
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