It's interesting to me that Victor only cries when thinking of how upset Elizabeth is going to be when he's the one who's going to die. He fits the whole "man be rational and women emotional" cultural phenomenon of the time to a tee. He's stone faced going into losing battle, but Elizabeth will be just soooooooooo sad and sooooooooo sorrowful. While I'm on the topic, the characterization of Elizabeth TOTALLY fits in while the "passive wife who's in charge of the emotional side of family," to a point where Mary Shelley is a satirist. Also the use of barbarous to describe the Creature is just textbook Othering in the way that demotes the Creature to a irrational and animalistic creature.

This is wickedly interesting because it shows Victor having characteristics of the Other, the Creature. On the In Group side, there's civil society, industrialization, masculinity/patriarchy, rationality. On the Out Group side, there's the state of nature– a world without positive law, nature (and therefore instinct), and femininity. Prior to this moment, Victor was the true In Group subject and had all marks of a modern man– belief in science and absolute truth. Here, Victor is described as more akin to the Creature by how he's described in animalistic terms. "As by instinct," refers to rationality leaving Victor and "crawling," obviously creates images of moving on all fours á la a dog. This marks the moment that Victor really devolves into someone on the Creatures level and helps the absolutely unhinged end of the book make sense.