Why did I not die? More miserable than man ever was before, why did I not sink into forgetfulness and rest? Death snatches away many blooming children, the only hopes of their doting parents; how many brides and youthful lovers have been one day in the bloom of health and hope, and the next a prey for worms and the decay of the tomb!
Chapter 21 · Victor Frankenstein
Context
Delirious with fever after seeing Clerval's body, Victor questions why he has not died from the cumulative trauma of his losses.
Analysis
Victor compares himself to 'blooming children' and 'youthful lovers' who die easily, using their deaths to argue that his own survival is unnatural. This comparison does two things: it casts him as a victim of cosmic injustice, and it universalizes his suffering by listing other tragic deaths—yet the effect is to make his self-pity sound performative. The image of bodies as 'prey for worms' is visceral and gothic, but Victor applies it to strangers, not to Clerval, whose corpse he has just seen.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that Victor's grief is self-centered—he frames his suffering as worse than anyone else's and uses others' deaths as rhetorical props rather than engaging with his own responsibility.