Shall each man find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone?
Chapter 20 · The Creature
Context
The creature protests Victor's refusal to make him a companion, pointing out that all other beings have mates while he is denied one.
Analysis
The parallel structure 'Shall each man...each beast...and I' places the creature below both categories—men have wives, animals have mates, and he has nothing. The grammar enacts his exclusion: he appears only in the final position, grammatically isolated by 'and,' while the first two clauses share the same verb pattern. The rhetorical question assumes the injustice is self-evident, appealing to a universal principle of companionship the reader likely takes for granted.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that the creature's parallelism exposes the cruelty of his exclusion—by listing 'each man' and 'each beast' before 'I be alone,' he shows that he is denied what even animals receive, making his claim undeniably sympathetic.