Another clue to Victor's duality, his unconscious struggle, Victor becomes obsessed with the writings of Agrippa, Paracelsus and Magnus in his teens, this group of philosophers had been widely discounted for their outdated theories. Ignoring the criticisms of his own Father, Victor tells himself, "I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable, " "the raising of ghosts or devils was a promise liberally accorded by my favorite authors" (Shelley 46). Victor wants to cure disease and raise the dead: perhaps, he wants to reunite Elizabeth with her parents and regain his own mother's love. When Elizabeth becomes ill with scarlet fever, Victor describes to Walton his mother's behavior, "the life of her favourite was menaced, she could no longer control her anxiety" (49). Of course, Caroline contracts scarlet fever and upon her deathbed directly expresses her love to Elizabeth only. As Victor recounts this event to Walton, Victor shares "when the lapse of time proves the reality of the evil, then the actual bitterness of grief commences" (50). Does Victor see Elizabeth as the evil that took his mother away permanently now? Is Victor's isolation and mania a product of his grief? Victor also comments on how Elizabeth is handling the loss of Caroline, her savior, "She indeed veiled her grief" (50). Was Victor really thinking that Elizabeth did not grieve enough for the mother that he lost? .
Victor has unspeakable grief for the loss of his mother; in fact, this level of grief is never again reached for any of his remaining loved ones" deaths. He is due to leave for the University of Ingolstadt soon after Caroline's death yet obtains "from my father a respite of some weeks. It appeared to me sacrilege to so soon to leave the repose, akin to death, of the house of mourning, and rush into the thick of life"(50). Having never fully differentiated from his mother, Victor views his mother's death as his own.
