Here, then, I retreated and lay down happy to have found a shelter, however miserable, from the inclemency of the season, and still more from the barbarity of man.
Chapter 11 · The Creature
Context
After being violently driven from the village, the Creature takes shelter in a crude hovel and reflects on what he is hiding from.
Analysis
The climactic structure—'inclemency of the season, and still more from the barbarity of man'—places human cruelty as worse than nature's harshness, and the word 'barbarity' is loaded: it reverses the expected moral order, calling civilized villagers barbaric while the so-called monster seeks only refuge. This reversal is the rhetorical heart of the Creature's entire self-defense.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that the Creature's narrative strategy is to invert conventional categories of monster and human—he consistently uses language that makes humans the savage aggressors and himself the rational, suffering victim.