If we revert to the actual chronology of Frankenstein, we realize that it was only
the day before that Victor had told Walton that his "fate [was] nearly fulfilled"
(I:L4:32 and note), but left the reasons for that assurance totally unarticulated.
In the present narration he will slowly begin to explore the range of determinants
of his "destiny," starting a few paragraphs earlier by acknowledging that it ought
to have been tied to his patriarchal inheritance as a set of understood family obligations
(I:1:1), a duty that is here to be set in opposition to a self-absorbed obsession
with scientific discovery, which is the evil "genius" he will now delineate.