Re: Study; watching the theatricals.
Victor knew nothing of silliness or lighthearted childhoods. He suspected, rather than finding himself an anomaly, that their prevalence in fiction was precisely a construct of wishful imagination. For who wouldn't have found joy in such a lack of purpose before purpose could have been foretold? Victor could not remember a time before the grim truth of disease, nor his hereditary call to medicine and manhood. The girlhood experience was surely quite different.
"For those that suffer, death may be a blessing." He knew this to be true after watching his own mother's slow deterioration. "The only peace to be found in a life of pain is upon its end." As for death being heavenly? Victor remained uncertain. A devout atheist, Victor did not take the word literally, as a Christian might imagine death to be hellish or heavenly depending on the absolution of his sins. The question was something that he could ask Caliban, if the urge to know rose above the urge to hide forever.
Eager to take his mind from the existence of his monstrous shadow, Victor observed the acting once more. "And so the living rely on such displays," he gestured to the false vampires, "to witness what they may not yet know." All of the great plays were about death, the tragedy and romance of shadows.
"Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death," he quoted back at her. For playwrights and actors may be satisfied with imagination, but Victor was compelled to truly know.