Review the excerpt from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and answer the question that follows:
As the night advanced, a fierce wind arose from the woods and quickly dispersed the clouds that had loitered in
the heavens; the blast tore along like a mighty avalanche and produced a kind of insanity in my spirits that burst
all bounds of reason and reflection. Ilighted the dry branch of a tree and danced with fury around the devoted
cottage, my eyes still fixed on the western horizon, the edge of which the mood nearly touched. A part of its orb
was at length hid, and I waved my brand; it sank and with a a loud scream I fired the straw, and heath and bushes,
which I had collected. The wind fanned the fire and the cottage was quickly enveloped by the flames, which clung
to it and licked it with their forked and destroying tongues.
How does the simile in the first sentence help explain how the narrator is feeling in this scene?