Robert Walton In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The pursuit of discovery and knowledge are thrilling aspects of human achievement, but can also be very dangerous if not handled correctly. In Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” Shelley portrays these two aspects of accomplishment as dangerous, destructive, and even fateful. Shelley begins her novel with an ambitious seafarer named Robert Walton. Walton is determined to reach the North Pole, where he may “tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man” (6). During his journey, he writes constantly to his sister, Margaret Saville. Unfortunately, due to the laws of nature, sheets of impassable ice enclosing on their ship soon interrupt Walton’s mission. Trapped, Walton meets

Victor Frankenstein: Victor Frankenstein, is the protagonist who describes his life to Robert Walton. In my opinion, Victor shows his ambition, logic and intelligence. His ambition is displayed as he is determined and dedicated to his work that when he starts to work on a creation. Therefore, he moves away from his family as he segregates himself from the society. He continues to work on the creature

Walton's letters to his sister at the beginning of the story foreshadow the feelings and motivations that Frankenstein experiences when he first discovers the "the cause of generation and life." Both Walton and Frankenstein are adventures and obsessive with

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus is a tale of humanity's obsession with creation and science, and continues to draw readers with the novel's many interpretations and heavy emphasis on the classic myth of Prometheus. In most interpretations and readings of Frankenstein, people often attribute Victor Frankenstein to be the “Modern Prometheus” in the story, as a creator of life. However, there is another “Prometheus” to be found in Shelley's novel: Robert Walton; This is the major connection between Victor Frankenstein to Walton. Walton's ambitious, almost obsessive, journey to the northern Arctic to bring the back unknown mysteries and knowledge, something that has been unavailable to mankind makes him Prometheus: The Fire-Stealer.

Walton is like a past version of Frankenstein before he created the monster. He is young, naïve and excited about the task which he will endure. Both Walton and Frankenstein were well educated and both were very close to their sisters. From the letters, we learn that Robert’s passion for a sea-farer’s life stems back to his childhood, where he would read nothing but histories of voyages.

In the letters that Robert Walton sent to his sisters, there is legit evidence that he was encountering difficult circumstances when he met Victor Frankenstein. When Walton's vessel was sailing to the Northern Pole they encountered heavy fog and lots of ice. Walton's exact words were, "...we were nearly surrounded by ice" (8). and he also exclaimed, "...we were compassed round by a very thick fog" (8). Also, while they were trapped in the ice surrounding them, they saw a gigantic figure going on along the ice which befuddled the crew because as Walton had said in his letters, "We were, as believed, many hundreds of miles away from any

Mary Shelley introduces the story of Frankenstein with an exchange of one-way letters from Walton to his sister. In these letters, Shelley introduces the main themes of the novel via the character of Walton and his letters, in that he presents many of the themes later explored in ‘Frankenstein’ such as thirst for knowledge and power, isolation and nature, in his own story. These opening letters thus have an impact on the reader as they will influence their view of the rest of the novel in ways that will bring them to ask themselves important questions valid for any are ad society, and bring them some understanding of what is to come next in the novel.

In the early chapters of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley the character of Walton is introduced through a series of letters he is writing to his sister back in London (the whole novel is an epistolary structure) as he is on a voyage to the North Pole in hope of fulfilling his goal of a breakthrough scientific discovery and “discovering some of nature’s most profound secrets”. Walton is full of hope and scientific curiosity and a passionate determination that he will achieve his goals “I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited,

The novel begins with an explorer, Robert Walton, writing letters to his sister about his travels to the North Pole. Connections to the novel are made within these letter through discussion of loneliness and a desire for companionship, passion for studies, etc… In the last letter, he writes to his sister about a stranger he found and helped and later on became friends with. This stranger later on is going to be known as Victor Frankenstein.

In Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, ‘Frankenstein’, a recurring motif of ambition and the quest for knowledge is present among the characters of Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton and the creature. Victor’s obsessive ambition is his fatal flaw, ruining his life and leading to the murder of his loved ones and eventually his own death. Robert Walton shares a similar ambition

monster avoid pain again and how he is able to sit and think about how

What is a monster? The word "monster" causes one to imagine a hideous, deformed or nonhuman creature that appears in horror movies and novels and terrifies everyone in its path. More importantly, however, the creature described generally behaves monstrously, doing things which harm society and acting with little consideration for the feelings and safety of others. "Thus, it is the behavior which primarily defines a monster, rather than its physical appearance"(Levine 13).

In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein is the true monster, not the creature himself.

The entire story is told through the letters of Robert Walton to his sister, Margaret Saville. Walton’s letters start and end the novel, which sets up the framework for Frankenstein. Walton shares a few similarities with the characters of Victor and the monster. For instance, much like Victor’s character, Walton has an inquisitive nature and he loves to explore. In his first letter he writes, “I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited” (Shelley 16). While Victor has a deep interest in new sciences, Walton has an interest in exploring new places. This curiosity drives both men to take their interests to the limits. Walton’s character also shares some similarities with the

The story of Frankenstein is one that focuses mainly on the idea of losing touch with the reality of what is family and love whilst in the pursuit of knowledge. This can initially be experienced in the beginning of the novel in the letters Walton sends to his sister Margaret Saville. In this case, Walton, in search of a passage to the Pacific, risks his life without much regard for how his sister may feel. During his voyage Walton eventually gets into a situation, being trapped in the ice, that jeopardizes not only his main objective to find the passage, but the relationships he has at home, specifically his sister.