Three years before, I was engaged in the same manner and had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my heart and filled it for ever with the bitterest remorse.
Chapter 20 · Victor Frankenstein
Context
Victor sits in his laboratory at night, about to complete the female creature he promised to make. He pauses and reflects on the original creature he made three years earlier.
Analysis
Victor labels his first creation a 'fiend' whose acts were of 'unparalleled barbarity,' yet he never names a single concrete crime—only his own emotional damage ('desolated my heart'). This vague accusation positions the reader to see Victor's pain as primary while the creature's suffering stays abstract, a deflection that runs through the entire novel. The passive construction 'had created' also distances Victor from active responsibility, as if the creature simply appeared rather than being deliberately made.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Victor is an unreliable narrator who centers his own suffering—he calls the creature barbaric but only describes harm done to himself, revealing his self-absorption and reluctance to face his role as creator.