"Fiend, your task is already fulfilled!" I thought of Elizabeth, of my father, and of Clerval—all left behind, on whom the monster might satisfy his sanguinary and merciless passions.
Chapter 20 · Victor Frankenstein
Context
Adrift at sea and fearing he will die, Victor imagines the creature killing Elizabeth, his father, and Clerval in his absence.
Analysis
Victor exclaims that the creature's 'task is already fulfilled' because he believes he is about to drown, but then immediately pivots to imagining the creature murdering his loved ones—a contradiction that reveals his real fear is not his own death but his helplessness to protect others. The list 'Elizabeth...my father...Clerval' is tender, yet he imagines them only as future victims ('on whom the monster might satisfy his...passions'), reducing them to objects of the creature's violence rather than people he might actively save.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Victor's imagination is fatalistic and passive—even while picturing his loved ones in danger ('all left behind'), he frames himself as already dead and unavailable to help, revealing his tendency to embrace tragic inevitability rather than fight it.