Felix rejected his offers with contempt, yet when he saw the lovely Safie, who was allowed to visit her father and who by her gestures expressed her lively gratitude, the youth could not help owning to his own mind that the captive possessed a treasure which would fully reward his toil and hazard.
Chapter 14 · The Creature
Context
The Creature describes how Felix, initially motivated by pure moral outrage to rescue the imprisoned Turk, finds his altruism complicated when he meets Safie and realizes that freeing her father might also win him the woman he is falling in love with.
Analysis
The metaphor of Safie as a 'treasure' that will 'reward' Felix's labour turns a human being into an object of exchange, and the Creature—still learning human values by observation—repeats this language without apparent criticism. The verb 'owning to his own mind' suggests Felix half-knows he is rationalizing self-interest as heroism, but the smooth syntax glides past this moment of self-deception, leaving readers to catch the slippage themselves.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that the Creature's education is morally unreliable—he learns virtue and vice simultaneously from the De Laceys, absorbing their blind spots (like viewing women as rewards) along with their kindness, which explains why his later violence coexists with his capacity for love.