But I was doomed to live and in two months found myself as awaking from a dream, in a prison, stretched on a wretched bed, surrounded by gaolers, turnkeys, bolts, and all the miserable apparatus of a dungeon.
Chapter 21 · Victor Frankenstein
Context
Victor awakens from a two-month fever to find himself in an Irish prison, accused of Clerval's murder.
Analysis
The simile 'as awaking from a dream' is immediately undercut by the hyper-specific physical details that follow: 'gaolers, turnkeys, bolts.' The piling-on of nouns mimics the way sensory reality crashes in on someone waking, but the phrase 'miserable apparatus of a dungeon' frames even these concrete objects as part of a theatrical setup—'apparatus' makes the prison sound like a stage set designed to torment him. Victor sees even his imprisonment as something done to him rather than as a consequence.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that Victor interprets his suffering as spectacle—he describes the prison as 'apparatus,' as if someone arranged it for his torment, deflecting attention from the legal process holding him accountable.