I felt as if he had placed carefully, one by one, in my view those instruments which were to be afterwards used in putting me to a slow and cruel death.
Chapter 6 · Narrator
Context
Victor describes his distress when Professor Waldman praises his scientific progress. Though Waldman means to be kind, Victor experiences the conversation as torture.
Analysis
Victor transforms the professor's words into an extended metaphor of execution: scientific instruments become tools of 'slow and cruel death,' placed 'carefully, one by one' as if Waldman is a torturer preparing his victim. The deliberate pacing ('one by one') mirrors the prolonged agony Victor feels, and the future tense ('were to be afterwards used') suggests Victor already senses he is being punished for what he has done. This metaphor reveals that Victor now views science itself—not just his creation—as an instrument of suffering.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Victor's guilt transforms his entire perception of knowledge—what once thrilled him now appears as an agent of destruction, showing how completely his moral collapse has rewritten his relationship to learning.