Quote Analysis

Having fainted upon discovering Elizabeth's body, Victor regains consciousness and reflects bitterly on the fact that he remains alive despite wishing for death.

Personifying life as "obstinate" and possessed of will—clinging hardest where unwanted—inverts the usual fear of death into a fear of living. The paradox captures Victor's psychological state: survival itself has become a punishment. The aphoristic brevity gives this line the weight of a universal truth, yet it is deeply self-pitying; Victor frames his continued existence as life's cruelty to him, deflecting attention from his own role in causing the deaths around him.

Use this to argue that Victor's narration consistently repositions him as victim rather than agent—by portraying life itself as a hostile force acting upon him, he linguistically evades responsibility, treating his survival as something done to him rather than the consequence of choices he made.