Notes

#1 The creature wants Victor to endure the harsh arctic conditions of the desolate North in order to suffer and experience the same misery that he felt when he was rejected and banished from society.
The creature expresses the desire to witness Victor’s suffering through his hidden messages that lured Victor north. For example, Victor recalls, “Sometimes, indeed, he left marks in writing on the barks of the trees or cut in stone that guided me and instigated my fury. ‘My reign is not yet over’—these words were legible in one of these inscriptions—’you live, and my power is complete. Follow me; I seek the everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and frost, to which I am impassive. You will find near this place, if you follow not too tardily, a dead hare; eat and be refreshed. Come on, my enemy; we have yet to wrestle for our lives, but many hard and miserable hours must you endure until that period shall arrive,’” (Shelley 24).
This shows a difference in the creature’s character because he initially wanted to be accepted by society with companionship and affection, but he now wishes to banish another person from society via destructive self-isolation in the desolate, arctic North, meaning that the creature now seeks revenge and truly became the “evil” monster that Victor thought he was all along.

#2 Victor is similar to a tragic hero because he experiences immense losses and significant anger that motivate him to accomplish his goal, which is capturing and killing the creature.
An example of his grief motivating him is when he remembers how the creature killed his loved ones and continues to live without consequences for the murders. When Victor loses track of the monster he is pursuing and is briefly discouraged, he recalls, “On hearing this information I suffered a temporary access of despair. He had escaped me, and I must commence a destructive and almost endless journey across the mountainous ices of the ocean, amidst cold that few of the inhabitants could long endure and which I, the native of a genial and sunny climate, could not hope to survive. Yet at the idea that the fiend should live and be triumphant, my rage and vengeance returned, and like a mighty tide, overwhelmed every other feeling. After a slight repose, during which the spirits of the dead hovered round and instigated me to toil and revenge, I prepared for my journey,” (Shelley 24).
However, Victor departs from the typical tragic hero archetype because he may be the one at fault for the tragedies that are motivating him. By bringing the creature to life and initially letting him escape into the world, Victor indirectly causes the deaths of his loved ones and his resulting instability; typical tragic heroes have tragic incidents happen to them and do not cause them themselves, making Victor differentiate from the standard archetype.