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 II:6:19.
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 I:2:1) or ask his permission to travel to the British Isles (see III:1:11). In
effect, Victor is now the patriarch of his family.