Great God! If for one instant I had thought what might be the hellish intention of my fiendish adversary, I would rather have banished myself for ever from my native country and wandered a friendless outcast over the earth than have consented to this miserable marriage.
Chapter 22 · Victor Frankenstein
Context
After the Creature kills Elizabeth, Victor reflects in anguish that if he had understood the Creature's true intention, he would never have agreed to the marriage.
Analysis
Victor protests he would "rather have banished myself for ever" than marry Elizabeth, yet this hypothetical rings hollow: he has spent the entire chapter describing how he knew the threat, prepared for it, and chose to proceed anyway. The exaggerated language ("for ever," "friendless outcast") tries to perform a remorse so extreme it cannot be questioned, but it also exposes Victor's pattern of using dramatic rhetoric to substitute for action. He can imagine infinite suffering for himself but could not take the simple step of postponing the wedding.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Victor's hindsight protestations reveal his self-deception more than his regret—he claims he would have accepted any fate to prevent Elizabeth's death, yet the chapter has shown him consistently choosing his own confrontation with the Creature over her safety, making this retrospective horror a refusal to admit what he already knew.