It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.
Chapter 2 · Victor Frankenstein
Context
Victor describes the specific direction of his childhood intellectual interests, explaining that he was drawn to metaphysical and physical questions rather than subjects like language or politics.
Analysis
The relentless syntactic piling-on—'the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man'—enacts Victor's refusal to set limits on his ambition. Each 'or' and 'and' expands the scope rather than narrowing it, so the sentence itself performs the boundlessness he describes, making his desire feel insatiable and uncontrollable even at the level of grammar.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that Shelley encodes Victor's lack of restraint directly into his syntax—the sentence structure mirrors his inability to focus or stop, which prefigures his later inability to halt his dangerous experiments once they begin.