I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel.
Chapter 5 · Victor Frankenstein
Context
Victor recounts a nightmare in which he embraces Elizabeth, but she transforms into his dead mother's corpse, complete with grave-worms, moments after the creature's animation.
Analysis
The dream collapses Victor's two great loves—Elizabeth and his mother—into a single decaying body, literalizing his unconscious guilt that his scientific ambition is killing what he loves. The transformation happens "as I imprinted the first kiss," suggesting that Victor's own touch causes death, and the grotesque image of worms in his mother's shroud forces the reader to confront the physical reality of death that Victor has been trying to reverse through his experiments.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that Victor's project is driven by unresolved grief over his mother's death—the dream reveals that instead of accepting mortality, he has tried to conquer it, and his punishment is to see death contaminate even his living loved ones.