A fiend had snatched from me every hope of future happiness; no creature had ever been so miserable as I was; so frightful an event is single in the history of man.
Chapter 23 · Victor Frankenstein
Context
Rowing back to Geneva, Victor reflects on his loss and concludes that no one in human history has experienced suffering comparable to his own.
Analysis
The escalating hyperbole—from "every hope" to "no creature" to "single in the history of man"—reveals a narcissism even grief cannot suppress. Victor's insistence on the uniqueness of his suffering ironically echoes the Creature's own earlier claims of unmatched misery, suggesting that creator and creation share the same egocentric rhetoric. The grandiosity undercuts sympathy: readers familiar with human history know Victor's claim is absurdly false, exposing how self-absorption warps his perspective even in genuine anguish.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Shelley uses parallel language to suggest Victor and the Creature are mirror images—both claim unprecedented suffering in nearly identical terms, revealing that Victor's failure was not creating a monster different from himself, but one exactly like him in self-pitying egotism.