• my destiny . . . close The wrenching shift in narrative stance into a present "now" accentuates the difference
    subtly in play up to this moment between Victor's self-accusations and his actual
    avowal of culpability. The man talking to his father knows that he is innocent of
    the crime for which he is languishing in jail. The one speaking in Walton's cabin
    nearly three years later, in contrast, has locked the key on his own imprisonment.