William is dead!—that sweet child, whose smiles delighted and warmed my heart, who was so gentle, yet so gay! Victor, he is murdered!
Chapter 7 · Alphonse Frankenstein
Context
Victor's father has written to inform him that his youngest brother William has been murdered. Alphonse announces the death in his letter, describing William's character before delivering the terrible news.
Analysis
The em dash after "dead" forces a pause that mimics the father's struggle to articulate the unbearable, while the exclamation marks punctuate each short, fragmented statement as if grief keeps breaking his sentences apart. By shifting from past-tense description ("whose smiles delighted") to the blunt present-tense "he is murdered," Alphonse cannot soften the horror into memory—the violence feels immediate and ongoing.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Shelley uses punctuation and tense shifts to dramatize how trauma disrupts ordinary language—Alphonse's letter shows grief as a force that fractures syntax itself, not just a emotion described from the outside.