Readers have nothing at this point from which objectively to compare Walton's surmises.
From Victor's own narration, however, it will be clear, that he is not particularly
drawn to the natural world the way his friend Clerval is portrayed as being (I:5:17);
indeed, while engaged in his scientific pursuits, he confesses himself wholly oblivious
to the attractions of the natural world (I:3:10). Rather than sense a narrative disjuncture
from this evidence, however, we might consider it a deliberate attempt on Mary Shelley's
part to distance herself and her readers from Walton's increasingly inflated language.
The figure Victor will cut in his own narration is very much darker than the one to
whom we are being introduced through Walton's eyes. The underlying problem of how
perspective shapes reality is thus being subtly reinforced.