2.3.1

Robert Walton

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Robert Walton

Robert Walton is the Arctic explorer who we meet in his letters to his sister, Margaret Saville. Walton finds Victor in a state of desperation and takes him aboard his ship.

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Walton and Victor

  • Walton develops a deep affection for Victor as he helps try to nurse him back to health.
    • He is deeply moved by his eventual death.
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Framed narrative

  • 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.
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Parallel with Victor

  • Walton is important primarily as a narrator. But he also provides a parallel to the character of 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.
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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 which Victor takes.

Quotations

Here are some quotations highlighting key aspects of Walton's character.

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Ambitious

  • '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.
  • 'secret of the magnet'
    • This wording also echoes Victor's discovery of the 'secret of life'.
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Lonely

  • 'I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind'.
    • Walton does not 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.
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Self-centred and corrupted

  • '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.
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Avoids Victor's mistakes

  • '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.

Jump to other topics

1Plot Summaries

2Characters

3Key Themes

4Authorial Method

5Context

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