Frankenstein, Letters 1-4
-Robert Walton- 28 year old sea captain.
-Finding a passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
-Sister: Mrs Saville, in London
-Planning trip for 6 years- a dream
-Other dreams- poet or Playwright
-Longs for a friend to share the disappointment should the trip not work out.
-Recognises that this is an emotional and romantic need.
-He does not connect with the other men (important in reference to Frankenstein)
-They spy a sledge pulled along by dogs, the next day they pull Victor into the ship.
-The stranger is ill with fatigue and cold.
-Walton is very depressed and unhappy. He talks about how he may be risking his life for the sake of
knowledge.
-The stranger tells his story in order to change this opinion.
Analysis:
-The unnamed stranger is the narrator, Walton is the audience to whom he speaks.
-Walton has an intense desire for discovery, taking his obsession to the point of risking his life. This
sets him up as an epic hero figure.
-Use of words such as “glorious” and “magnificent” are used to describe his mission.
-Consumed by the need to become immortal by doing something that has never been done before.
-Walton believes himself to be invincible, destined to complete journey despite the dangers.
-Walton is over confident and this upsets the stranger.
-The stranger believes that the quest for new knowledge can lead to self destruction.
-Walton’s values are questionable. He has little experience but refuses to let the dream go.
Letter 1:
“What may not be expected in a country of eternal light? I may there discover the wonderous power
which attracts the needle” (15)
“I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may
tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man” (16)
“You cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer on all mankind” (16)
“nothing contributes so much to tranquilise the mind as a steady purpose- a point on which the soul
may fix its intellectual eye” (16)
“my education was neglected, yet I was passionately fond of reading” (16)
“I also became a poet...I imagined that I also might obtain a niche in the temple where the names of
Homer and Shakespeare are consecrated” (16)
“do I not deserve to accomplish some great purpose?” (17)
Letter 2
“I have no friend” (19)
“when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate my joy; if I am
assailed by disappointment no one will endeavour to sustain me in dejections” (19)
“I bitterly feel the want of a friend” (19)
“it is a still greater evil to me that I am self-educated” (19)
“a youth passed in solitude” (20)
“I cannot overcome an intense distaste to the usual brutality exercised on board ship” (20)
“he is wholly uneducated: he is as silent as a Turk, and a kind of ignorant carelessness attends him
(21)
“There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand” (22)
Letter 3:
“I will not rashly encounter danger, I will be cool, persevering and prudent” (23)
“But success shall crown my endeavours” (23)
“Why not still proceed over the untamed yet obedient element? What can stop the determined
heart and resolved will of man?” (24)
Letter 4:
“He was not as the other traveller seemed to be, a savage inhabitant of some undiscovered island,
but an European” (26)
“’Will you have the kindness to inform me whither you are bound?’” (26)
“His limbs were nearly frozen, and his body dreadfully emaciated by fatigue and suffering” (26)
“I never saw a more interesting creature; his eyes have generally an expression of wildness, and
even madness” (27)
“he is generally melancholy and despairing... as if impatient of the weight of woes that oppresses
him” (27)
“I begin to love him as a brother; and his constant and deep grief fills me with sympathy and
compassion” (28)
“He must have been a noble creature in his better days, being even now in wreck so attractive and
amiable” (28)
“I have found a man who, before his spirit had been broken by misery, I should have been happy to
have possessed as the brother of my heart” (28)
“He is so gentle, yet so wise; his mind is so cultivated, and when he speaks, although his words are
culled with the choicest art, yet they flow with rapidity and unparalleled eloquence” (29)
“I would sacrifice my fortune, my existence, my every hope, to the furtherance of my enterprise”
(29)
“Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature”
(30)
“I have suffered great and unparalleled misfortunes” (30)
“You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your
wishes may not be a serpent to sting you” (31)