Preview

Robert Walton In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
773 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Robert Walton In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Robert Walton the explorer and captain of a ship that is head to the North Pole In a sequence of letters, communicate with his sister Margaret Saville back in England about the progress of his treacherous mission that he is taken. Robert tells his sister about the desire in him to discover something so great. Also how he felt as if he was isolated from the other shipmate who makes him feel lonely because he has no one to confident in also no one to share his ambitious with. The mission of Robert Walton was interrupted by a huge sheet of ice that wouldn’t allow the ship to pass. Trap Walton and his man spotted a sledge that was lead by a huge creature. Ironically the next morning the men spot another sledge that was drawn by all dead dogs …show more content…
Throughout the next couple of days the shipmate spent their time nursing the stranger. Eager for this stranger to talk the shipmate had question about this stranger like who is he where his from and how did he end up on that huge sheet of ice. Walton sees that this man is still fragile so he prevents his men from troubling this man with a load of questions. As time went on Walton establish a friendship with stranger and the stranger being to tell Walton about his life. The stranger that Walton and his men had found was Victor Frankenstein who would narrate the following letters that was sent to Walton sister. Victor begin to tell Walton about his childhood in Geneva with his adopted sister Elizabeth Lavenza and friend Henry Clerval, Also how his mother had die of an illness right before he went off to school , He went on to say how he attend the university of ingolstadt to study natural philosophy and chemistry. Where he then isolated his self from his family, friends and studies he becomes obsess with the discoverer of the secret life after years of researching he is certain that he has found it. With the knowledge that Victors spent months alone in his apartment where he created a monster that was formed by different human body

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The lens through which readers encounter monsters is often a skewed one. This lens could be that of the author, who seeks to embody a monster as a horrific, non-human entity that will cause havoc in an area. Similarly, this lens could be that of a character in a piece, one who witnesses the monster’s wrath and destruction firsthand and hopes to avoid the cruel savage being. Monster narratives rarely unfold from the perceptive of the monster, and, as such, audiences must rely on other sources as to the monster’s course of action. Such voices can carry a bias with them. As in the case of the author, the omniscient perspective provides descriptions of the monster without directly interacting the monster. This perspective could easily fail to report…

    • 1844 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After Justine is found guilty of Victor's brother William's death, he retreats to the Swiss Alps. While at the top of a mountain, he sees a figure coming towards him in the distance. "...I suddenly beheld the figure of a man, at some distance, advancing towards me with superhuman speed. He bounded over the crevices in the ice, among which I had walked with caution; his stature, also, as he approached, seemed to exceed that of man" (Shelley 85). Victor describe seeing something coming towards him from a distance. He later realizes that it is the monster he created, coming to talk to him. Walton experiences something very similar to this. While he is in the North Pole, surrounded with nothing but ice, someone appears at his ship. "Only one dog remained alive; but there was a human being within it whom the sailors were persuading to enter the vessel" (Shelley 10). Although Walton thinks that he and his crew are alone in the ice, they find out that they are not. A figure they see in the distance makes its way over to the ship. Walton, his crew, and the person then engage in conversation and storytelling. Both Victor and Walton believed that they were alone, but found that not to be the…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The beginning and ending of the novel Frankenstein are written in epistolary form as a series of letters from Robert Walton, to his sister. The letters are unusual as they contain very little information about Walton’s sister and mostly detail Walton’s exploits in exploring the Arctic in search of the North-West Passage, in this way resembling journal entries instead of letters. While Walton spends many pages explaining his adventures in a “land surpassing in wonders and beauty,” the few questions asked to his sister are either rhetorical such as “do you understand this feeling?” which is also condescending, snidely suggesting his sisters incapacity to comprehend sublime emotions, or refer solely to himself such as “when shall I return?” In fact one of the few pieces of information collected about his sister is revealed in the last series of letters and that she has a “husband and lovely children,” something common to many women and making her remarkably indistinguishable. Because of the total lack of any real detail about his sister the reader effectively takes her place in a listener-speaker dynamic.…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Walton's letters to Margaret Saville contain details about his voyage to the North pole. In the first letter Robert explains his plan to discover and be the first to inhabit the North Pole. Walton hopes he will be recognized for his voyage and has tons of confidence in himself. He also explains how he plans to get there, he will hire a crew and vessel to help him reach his destination. In letter 2 walton hires a vessel and crew just like he planned but he still desires one more thing. Walton says he has no friend, an open ear, to listen to him, he says “I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me… I bitterly feel the want of a friend.” However he says there is no way this could happen because there is no man out in the…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The dangerous journey Walton embarks on is also a metaphor for the dangerous intellectual journey of Frankenstein's. "It is the marvelous which hurries me out of the common pathways of men, even to the wild sea and unvisited regions I am about to explore" exclaims Walton. In the same sense once Frankenstein discovers the ability to bestow life he "bore onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success." Toward the end of the story Walton and describes his perilous voyage in a letter to his sister saying, "I am surrounded by mountains of ice which…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel ‘Frankenstein’ is said to be written when Mary was just 19 years old and took two years to complete. The novel opens with letters from Robert Walton, who is writing to his sister about his expedition. These letters form the framework of the story in which Walton tells his sister the story of Victor Frankenstein and his monster as Frankenstein told him. Victor is a student of medicine…

    • 1195 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    trrtdddddddddddddddddThe first character that we are introduced to in Frankenstein is Robert Walton. Walton spent a couple of years in preparation for his voyage to the Arctic in isolation. During his voyage, Walton sends letters to his sister sporadically to tell her how lonely he is out there by himself. He is on a ship with many deck hands and crewmembers, but in his letter to Margaret, his sister, he states, " I have no friend, Margaret: when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate my joy" Although Walton has a boat full of men, he still feels lonely and friendless, and wishes he had a friend on the boat to keep him occupied. Once he rescues Victor, his feelings of loneliness slowly disappear.…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Walton” reassuring his sister, Margaret, of his well-being and informing her of his desire to navigate to the North Pole. His desire – as the reader will soon discover that is paralleled with Victor’s – is based on scientific curiosity and to achieve some “great purpose” (Shelley 53). In the second letter, Walton is seen complaining about his lack of companionship. Upon discovering Victor, whom he initially refers to as a stranger, however, Walton regards the stranger as the potential companion he never truly had; this is an example of foreshadowing, in the sense that the creature also longs for a friend or a mate. As told in chapter two, Victor’s adolescence was described to be rather eccentric due to his scientific curiosity eventually becoming fatal for his loved ones. Similarly, Walton’s scientific curiosity has led to dangerous situations, as manifested in the third of his letters, which states: “Last Monday (July 31st), we were nearly surrounded by ice, which closed the ship in on all sides, scarcely leaving her the sea room in which she floated” (Shelley 58). The entirety of Victor’s narrative spoken to Walton is set in the frozen waters of the arctic, where Walton is faced with a stranger relaying his personal past, and finds himself identifying with this stranger’s perilous scientific…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A quick look to catch you up, Robert Walton is a captain on an expedition to find a route to the North Pole. On this journey he sees a big figure which is the monster and a man chasing the monster that happens to be Victor Frankenstein. Victor chase is ended as the ice under him melts and floats by the boat that Walton is commanding, his men pull Victor on board the ship and Victor story begins about what all happened to lead him up this point.…

    • 1493 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After learning that his entire family has been murdered by the creature, Frankenstein leaves Geneva and begins to attempt to track his creation. Frankenstein follows clues left by the creature and his pursuit proves he cannot move on to a normal life, for his own has been eternally branded by the creation and desired destruction of the creature. Frankenstein is determined to find and kill the monster he brought into the world, if he created it, he must end it. This introspective truth of Victor Frankenstein reveals his unconquerable ego and the actions that result because of it.…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Walton, a seafarer, is very ambitious in traveling to the North Pole. He wants to be the first one to get there, no matter what happens to him or his crew. Walton finds Frankenstein in the ocean and rescues him. Frankenstein then goes on to tell Walton his tale. Walton is the first narrator because he writes everything that he can about what Frankenstein says; he writes all the information in letters to his sister, Margaret. Frankenstein then becomes the second narrator as he narrates about his self-isolation during college. The reader understands that as much as Frankenstein wants to acquire more and more knowledge, he is putting himself in danger; not only himself, but the people who he loves the most. As the third narrator, Frankenstein’s creation explains that he was benevolent and kind-hearted. However, rejection, loneliness, and a gunshot wound lead him to denounce love and determine to respond with hatred and violence.…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein there are a lot of examples of how she is warning the readers about the perils of modern science. One of the biggest examples is the creator of Frankenstein, and Frankenstein himself. The fact that someone was taking the role of “god”, and trying to create life is a very scary factor in life. If someone of our kind can gain the power to create their own human life from machines, science, and electricity then they could have the ultimate power. Power is something that all human kind wants to achieve, but also fear. Power goes along with the perils of modern science, which Mary Shelley warns the readers about.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frankenstein

    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The novel opens as Victor Frankenstein recalls his curiosity and fascination with human life. Frankenstein quickly becomes obsessed with experimenting, and he attempts to create a living being out of dead body parts. He succeeds, but his creation turns into a living monster. Exclaimed by Frankenstein, “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn” (Shelley 33). Victor is extremely horrified by his grotesque looking creation and falls into a severe illness. While Victor is ill, the monster escapes to the woods where he watches a family and tries to befriend the humans. But once the monster makes his presence known, the family can’t accept Frankenstein’s ugly appearance. Because all humans he encountered reject him, the monster begins to hate people and believe that they are his enemies. Frustrated, the monster returns to his creator and demands that Frankenstein makes a female companion to cure his loneliness. The creature promises Victor that he will leave with his female companion, travel to South America, and never come in contact with humans again. However, two years beforehand, the creature spitefully murdered Victor 's brother William to get back at him. Holding a grudge against his monster creation for the death of William, Victor refuses to make a friend for the monster. In an effort to make Victor as miserable as himself,…

    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of Frankenstein, it begins with four different letters, written by Robert Walton to his sister Margaret Saville. Robert Walton is a captain aboard a ship on a very destructive voyage towards the North Pole. He then on explains to Margaret the undiscovered territory he stumbles upon, as well as uncover a passage in the northern parts of the pacific and that he is Russia. “This is the most favourable period for travelling in Russia. . . The cold is not excessive, if you are wrapped in fur- . . .” (Walton 1) In the second and the third letter, Robert Walton then on explains and recognizes the fact that he has no friends and has a goal of making friends. He starts to feel lonely. “But I have one want which I have never yet been…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Satan has his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and detested…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays