destiny
If we revert to the actual chronology of Frankenstein, we realize
that it was only the day before that Victor had told Walton that his
"fate [was] nearly fulfilled" (Letter
4.9 and note), but left the reasons
for that assurance totally unarticulated. In the present narration he will
slowly begin to explore the range of determinants of his "destiny,"
starting a few paragraphs earlier by acknowledging that it ought to have
been tied to his patriarchal inheritance as a set of understood family
obligations (1.1.3), a duty that is here
to be set in opposition to a self-absorbed obsession with scientific
discovery, which is the evil "genius" he will now delineate.
