"Alas! Why does man boast of sensibilities superior to those apparent in the brute; it only renders them more necessary beings. If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows and a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us." (84-85)
After the Frankensteins' maid Justine is tried and convicted of the murder of young William, a murder his eldest brother Victor Frankenstein quietly believes was at the hands of his monster, his "cousin" Elizabeth attempts to console him:
"Alas! Victor, when falsehood can so look like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness? I feel as if I were walking on the edge of a precipice, towards which thousands are crowding and endeavouring to plunge me into the abyss. William and Justine were assassinated, and the murderer escapes; he walks about the world free, and perhaps respected. But even if I were condemned to suffer on the scaffold for the same crimes, I would not change places with such a wretch." (80)
