Oh! stars and clouds and winds, ye are all about to mock me; if ye really pity me, crush sensation and memory; let me become as nought; but if not, depart, depart, and leave me in darkness.
Chapter 17 · Victor Frankenstein
Context
Descending the mountain alone at night after agreeing to the Creature's demand, Victor stops at a fountain and, overwhelmed by despair, addresses the natural elements around him.
Analysis
Victor personifies nature ('stars and clouds and winds') as conscious witnesses, then gives them two commands in the anaphoric 'depart, depart'—the repetition miming his mounting hysteria. He wants either total annihilation ('crush sensation and memory') or total abandonment, but not the painful middle ground of continuing to exist and feel. This all-or-nothing thinking mirrors his approach to creation itself: he cannot tolerate ambiguity or partial solutions.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Victor's Romantic address to nature reveals his psychological extremism—he oscillates between grandiose appeals and self-destructive despair, unable to endure ordinary human suffering, which explains why he repeatedly makes and then abandons his responsibilities.