Frankenstein Quote Analysis

Victor concludes his account of the day he met Professor Waldman and committed himself to scientific study. He reflects on the significance of this moment from his later perspective.

The two short clauses, divided by a semicolon, enact a before-and-after structure: "memorable" looks backward at the day's experience, while "decided my future destiny" looks forward to inevitable consequences. Yet "decided" is passive-voiced in effect—the day decided, not Victor. This grammatical evasion erases the active choices he will make in the coming months and years, presenting his trajectory as something that happened to him rather than something he pursued.

Use this to argue that Victor's sentence structure consistently evades agency—he writes "it decided my future" rather than "I decided my future that day," a grammatical choice that encapsulates his refusal throughout the novel to own his decisions.