F #9

“His constant answer to my unwearied intreaties was the same as that to the Dutch schoolmaster in The Vicar of Wakefield: ‘I have ten thousand florins a year without Greek, I eat heartily without Greek’ ” (p.37). The man from The Vicar of Wakefield basically says how he gets along very well without Greek, and he sees no good as to learning it. In Mary Shelley’s novel, Henry Clerval is explaining to Victor how difficult it was to convince his father to let him go. Clerval says how his father did not see any use in it, so Clerval compares his father to the Dutch schoolmaster. This is yet another example of Shelley relating to other works to give the reader a more realistic sense of the book.