Summary and Analysis
Chapter 22
Summary
Victor and Alphonse travel from Le Harve, France to Paris. They rest a few days in Paris before continuing on to Geneva. Elizabeth sends a letter to Victor asking if he has another love. When he arrives in Geneva, he assures her that he is ready to marry her. Ten days after his return home, Victor marries Elizabeth. Knowing that the threat made by the monster still hangs over him, Victor leaves on his honeymoon not sure whether the monster will carry out his evil plan.
Analysis
Spent physically and mentally from his ordeal in Ireland, Victor tries to tell his father that he alone is responsible for the deaths of Justine, William, and Henry. Alphonse dismisses these claims as ramblings of his exhausted son. Victor even tells his father "how little you know me. William, Justine, and Henry — they all died by my hands." An emphasis on "my hands" can be made because it was Victor's hands that created the monster, although the monster uses his own hands to strangle his victims.
Elizabeth's letter to Victor questions whether the two will ever be married as promised. She wonders if Victor has found another woman, and he is injured by the thought that Elizabeth is having doubts about his true intentions. What really troubles Victor is the pull between family loyalty and happiness versus the sentence announced by the monster. He agrees to set the date of the wedding to Elizabeth ten days after his arrival in Geneva. Victor promises Elizabeth that he needs to tell her his "tale of misery and terror" after they are married. This foreshadows the events that are to come later in the novel.
After the ceremony, the couple travels to Evian for their honeymoon. The contrast between the joy of the wedding and the threat of the creature weighs heavily on Victor. He arms himself with "pistols and a dagger constantly."