Robert Walton Flashcards
What are Walton’s feelings towards Victor?
-Walton develops a deep affection for Victor as he helps nurse him back to health.
-He is deeply moved by his eventual death.
What type of narrative are Walton’s letters?
-Walton’s letters open and close the novel, forming a framed narrative to Victor’s story.
-It is through Walton that we hear both Victor and the Monster’s stories as he relays them both from the notes he made as Victor told his tale.
How is Walton parallel with Victor?
-Walton is very ambitious and wants to pursue his exploration to become a pioneer and be remembered as a great man.
-Walton is willing to pursue his course of action at the risk of the lives of his crew. This echoes the dangers of ambition and the self-centred pursuit of scientific goals in Victor’s story.
How does Walton contrast with Victor?
-Walton eventually decides to terminate his exploration and return to England.
-In this way, Walton acts as a foil (contrasting character) to Victor, highlighting the negative impact of Victor’s inability to stop his actions and his downfall.
-Shelley uses Walton’s contrasting actions (abandoning his own unhealthy pursuits) as a template for a more positive course of action than that of which Victor takes.
‘You cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer on all mankind to the last generation…’
Walton seems certain that his expedition will bring benefits to the whole of humanity, as Victor was, showing their ambition.
‘secret of the magnet’
This wording also echoes Victor’s discovery of the ‘secret of life’.
‘I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind.’
Walton feels lonely because he doesn’t feel a connection to any of his crew and feels that the only meaningful friendship to him would be with a person of similar class.
‘how gladly I would sacrifice my fortune, my existence, my every hope, to the furtherance of my enterprise.’
Walton values his expedition above all else.
‘One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought.’
Shelley uses Walton’s words to highlight the corrupting influence of a self-centred pursuit of knowledge.
‘Thus are my hopes blasted by cowardice and indecision; I come back ignorant and disappointed.’
Although Walton feels like a failure, Shelley highlights through comparison with Victor that a less stubborn and more humble response to failure is ultimately more positive.
