"'Safie was always gay and happy; she and I improved rapidly in the knowledge of language, so that in two months I began to comprehend most of the words uttered by my protectors.'" -- Page 83
There's a common trend I've realized while reading Frankenstein, and that trend is the deus ex machina, Latin for "God out of the machine", which can be applied in this sense as an unusual amount of convenient coincidences for one novel. In the example used above, when Mary Shelley needs to simultaneously explain how Franky can learn how to speak, read, and comprehend/employ a vast number of cultural and historical references, she introduces Safie and the whole De Lacey backstory, conveniently allowing for Franky to learn how to speak fluently-educated French in under two years. Safie is the deus ex machina, but the conveniences don't stop there. Franky can read; he never learned how to read, and learning how to speak is waaay different from learning how to read. But Mary Shelley, in courtroom judge style, will allow it. Franky always seems to be where Victor is, even when he isn't trying. When he kills Clerval, the body gets left in Ireland. IRELAND. How random is that? Basically, Mary Shelley (or should I say her husband) is a lazy writer, but I'm not a lazy reader! Alas, we clash!
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