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 (III:7:26), 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.