a sum of money, together with a few jewels
Does Mary Shelley intend us to see
a comparison or a total
contrast with Safie, who uses virtually the same words to explain
how she escaped her father in Leghorn and made it north to
the De Lacey's cottage in Germany? That episode, impelled by
love, occurs at the center and southern extremity of the novel;
Victor, in this last chapter of his narrative, stands near its
outer edge and sets out for the far north driven by a hatred that
in its passion and compulsion seems a mirror reflection of
Safie's desire: see 2.6.6.
The statement also contains a second bearing, which is that, although it
is not explicitly mentioned by Victor, with the demise of Alphonse
Frankenstein, Victor, as first-born son, has inherited the family estate
and can spend his inheritance in whatever fashion he chooses. No longer
need he follow his father's admonition to attend a university (see 1.2.1) or ask his permission to travel to
the British Isles (see 3.1.4). In
effect, Victor is now the patriarch of his family.
