When I looked upon him, when I saw the filthy mass that moved and talked, my heart sickened and my feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred.
Chapter 17 · Narrator
Context
Victor has just felt compassion for the Creature's arguments, but when he looks at him physically, his feelings reverse completely.
Analysis
The repetition of 'when'—'when I looked,' 'when I saw'—slows the sentence down, forcing readers to experience the exact moment Victor's sympathy collapses. The dehumanizing phrase 'filthy mass that moved and talked' refuses the Creature any human shape or agency; he becomes mere matter performing actions, and the physical revulsion ('my heart sickened') overrides all rational argument, showing how appearance sabotages ethics.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Victor is an unreliable narrator whose prejudice he cannot control—this moment exposes the gap between his intellectual acknowledgment of the Creature's argument ('I compassionated him') and his visceral inability to see past physical ugliness, undercutting his claim to reason.