o hold onto his desire for his mother through Elizabeth. When Elizabeth took over Carolines role, she may also have taken on Carolines spirit in the eyes of Victor. Victor may have felt that Elizabeth had to become Caroline in order to fill the void, and to pay Caroline back for saving her from scarlet fever. This would make is possible for Victor to love them both equally, and in fact as one being. To move beyond the sexual aspects of the dream, you can also examine Victors character. Although Victor professes his love for Elizabeth throughout the novel, there are a few reasons why he may also harbor feelings of hate towards her. By seeing the existence of his mother in Elizabeth, it may serve as a constant reminder to Victor that Elizabeth is in part responsible for his mothers death. By nursing Elizabeth back to health from scarlet fever, Caroline herself catches it and dies. Since Victor also sees his mother in Elizabeth, he may be projecting his feelings of anger towards his mother onto Elizabeth. As a result of Victors sheltered childhood, he was very dependent and close to his mother. In his description of his mother, he idealizes her to a point of her almost being deified. When she dies, he is left feeling abandoned by her. Victors anger towards his mother may have also been a result of his seeing her as a controlling influence of his life. When she first gives Elizabeth to him he may have sub-consciously felt as though she had taken away his ability to choose his own companion. Although Caroline never stated the fact that she wished Victor to wed Elizabeth when they were children, she made that wish apparent when she was dying. She asked Victor to marry Elizabeth as her death wish. This made both Elizabeth and Victor feel morally obligated to fulfill this request regardless of their emotions. When Victor is reluctant to wed Elizabeth, he may have been trying to reconcile feelings of anger because his mother still had control ov...
