actuated by selfish and vicious motives
On the face of it, Victor's honest admission that he has been impelled by
less than disinterested motives must raise him in the reader's
estimation, especially since he is close to his death and seems to be
struggling for a truthful objectivity. Yet, a second glance at this phrase
calls for its positioning, and we realize that Victor is referring to the
last paragraph of his narration (3.7.9),
uttered on 26 August, not three weeks before. If the last paragraph of
his account is so indelibly tainted as Victor admits, what are we to
think of what has preceded it? In other words, by what has his entire
narration been "actuated"? If the whole rests on nothing but "selfish and
vicious motives," then the textual indeterminacy so continually hinted at
throughout the novel may in fact be radical.
