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Frankenstein robert walton analysis essay
Frankenstein robert walton character
Frankenstein character analysis
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The story of Frankenstein is told by three main narrators. One of the narrators is the character of Robert Walton. He isn’t featured as prominently as the other narrators; however, he is an interesting character in his own right. Robert is an explorer and wants to discover a passage to the North Pacific Ocean through the harsh territory of Antarctica. He is excited, and eager to see what the future has in store for him. Robert tells his own story, along with as those of Victor Frankenstein and the monster, through letters he sends to his sister Margaret.
During his journey, Robert and his crew spot something shocking. Robert describes this discovery as, “a being which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature, sat in the
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sledge, and guided the dogs” (Shelly 8). That hideous gigantic figure was the monster. Robert is in shock and many of his crew think the monster is just a ghost. Two hours later, they spot a man floating in the water on a huge fragment of ice. Robert writes that this man “was not as the other traveler seemed to be, a savage inhabitant of some undiscovered island, but an European” (Shelly 9). This man turned out to be Victor Frankenstein. Robert’s comparison of Victor and the monster is a foreshadowing of what is to come in the book. The way that the gigantic man looks makes Robert assume that he is a monster. Likewise, Victor was assumed to be a civilized upstanding man because of the way he looked. Every character, in the book, had the same opinion of Victor and the monster. They viewed Victor as morally good and the monster as morally bad. Mary Shelley probably wanted the reader to notice the contrast between how the characters felt about the moral value of the two main characters and how the reader evaluated their morality by the end of the book. As the story progressed, the reader was bound to feel more sympathetic with the monster and to view Victor in a negative light. Robert and his crew help Victor recover, and soon Victor and Robert become fast friends.
Robert and Victor are very similar in a lot of ways, but different also in a huge way. Comparing the two characters, Andrew McCulloch’s wrote that there is, “…a series of ironic contrasts and similarities is established between him and Victor Frankenstein” (pg??). Similar to Victor, Robert has decided to go on this quest for glory. Both think their work will result in a benefit to mankind and both are obsessed with their respective quest. Both of them also have quite the romantic streak. They both long to achieve great things, and it causes them to do dangerous things. Robert, according to Andrew McCulloch,” tells us that, for a year, he had ambitions to become a poet and, more tellingly, that his early education consisted of nothing more than reading accounts of discovery and adventure” (McCulloch not just the page #?). Victor, as well, in his early years read about the works of alchemists, and later on read about anatomy and chemistry. It is obvious that both Robert and Victor are ambitions and have somewhat unrealistic expectations about what they can achieve. As Robert wrote, “What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?” (Shelly 7). Robert does possess one quality that Victor does not and that is “redeeming self-knowledge” (McCulloch pg). Robert senses that he needs some guidance and should not rush into his endeavors. As Robert writes to his sister “…but I
bitterly feel the want of a friend. I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve or amend my plans” (Shelly 4). He longs for a friend to understand him and to help him fix his faults. Robert writes that “How would such a friend repair the faults of your poor brother! I am too ardent in execution, and too impatient of difficulties” (Shelly 4). At least Robert knows his faults and that makes him different from the brilliant but sometime oblivious Victor Frankenstein. Robert finds the friend he needs in Victor, and Victor’s narrative about his journey is just “the corrective Walton intuitively knows he needs” (McCulloch). In contrast, Victor Frankenstein did not find such a friend, and, even more tragically, the monster never had a single friend.
The start of Robert Walton and the monster’s final conversation, this paragraph near the end of Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein uncovers the untold perspective of Victor Frankenstein’s creation. Revealing to Robert that Frankenstein’s misery was not the only casualty of the novel, Shelly’s utilization of the monster’s pain illustrates mankind’s hatred and abandonment of the artificial being. Moreover, directing spiteful words towards Victor Frankenstein, Felix De Lacey, and even himself, the monster’s narration reflects the being’s unresolved emotions that have emerged because of society’s cruelty. Although science fiction, the narrative of Frankenstein’s monster exemplifies the literary reproduction of England’s monarchy deserting its own
“From this day natural philosophy, and particularly chemistry, in the most comprehensive sense of the term, became nearly my sole occupation” (Shelley 36). This shows that he devoted all his time to learning and studying about natural chemistry. After a couple years of intense studying, he starts to develop an interest in the human body, and he wants to create life from death. Just like Walton changed from being a poet to an explorer, Frankenstein changed from being a natural philosopher to being a creator of life. Another way Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton are similar is how both of them adore their sisters. Frankenstein’s sister is named Elizabeth and she was adopted by Victor’s mother, Caroline after Elizabeth’s family could not afford to take care of her. “… she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine—mine to protect, love, and cherish” (Shelly 21). Before Elizabeth was taken into Victor’s home, his mother told him that she was going to give him a present for him to take care of. Then, the next day, Victor’s parents brought
Robert Walton’s role within the novel is standing as the neutral character who acts as the filter for Victor’s personal perspectives and biases. He is separate from the action within Victor’s story so can remain unprejudiced in areas where Victor cannot. Similar to Victor, Walton is a man of science wanting to conquer the unknown and appears to go through with his wishes even though his sister tries to talk him out of it. On the other hand, his crew are near to mutiny due to the pressure that is put on them to reach the Artic. However, Walton does what Victor continually failed to do throughout the novel: he listens to the creature’s anguished tale as he describes that he felt no pleasure from hearing ‘the groans of Clerval’ as he suffocated him. Walton, despite at first feeling ‘touched by the expressions of [the monster’s] misery’, confronts the monster, outraged, naming him a ‘wretch’ but carries on listening to his misdeeds and misfortunes. By Walton listening to the monster’s own words, he is able to distinguish that Victor seemed to only have knowledge of the monster’s ‘crimes and his [own] misfortunes’. Walton had become the opposite ...
As in many other stories, Robert Walton performs a primary role, the narrator. As a polar exploring narrator, first of all, Robert Walton holds a third person view when recounting Frankenstein’s tale, which gives a more objective and reliable feeling to the readers. Secondly, Walton’s narration not only gives a just account for the narrative of Frankenstein, but also sets the scene for Victor’s own story and life to begin, to break, and to end. The novel starts right with the letter from Robert to his sister, so readers are brought right into the plot. At the same time, because it introduces the background of meeting Frankenstein, the story has a sense of reality. Then within the time Victor explains his adventure, Robert functions as a joint for different events and breaks of Victor. When approaching the experience of learning about the death of Henry, Victor once said, “I must pause here, for it requires all my fortitude to recall the memory of the frightful events which I am about to relate, in proper detail, to my recollection” (158). Even though Walton is not directly introduced into the conversation, audience can feel that the reference to Walton pulls th...
Robert Walton, an explorer who nourishes Frankenstein back to health and tells the narrative through a series of letters to his sister back in England, also possesses similar traits as Frankenstein, because he is persistent to seek ultimate knowledge at all costs. The monster, who is driven with rage from the betrayal of his creator, is considered the antagonist of the novel, because he kills innocent civilians and takes the lives of Frankenstein’s loved ones as revenge for Frankenstein abandoning him. Apart from these central characters are: Henry Clerval, Elizabeth Lavenza, William Frankenstein, Alphonse Frankenstein, and Justine Moritz. These characters also play a crucial role that alludes to the element of betrayal in the novel, because they either influence Frankenstein and the monster or are killed which drives this element. Shelley’s perspective and opinion about the effects of betrayal are transpired throughout the novel, beginning from Frankenstein’s childhood and transitioning into the monster’s remorse over his
Mary Shelley uses three narrators to convey her story – Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein and the being itself. She uses so many narrators to sympathise with the story and to show different aspects and each view of the story. Victor Frankenstein narrates the story in chapter 5 and is Narrator 2. In chapter 5 Victor sees his creation come to life. At first, Victor thinks that his idea worked. But then, he is horrified that he created this monster and so he runs away. His friend, Henry Clerval, takes care of him when he becomes sick and has a fever for months.
We are shown that this ‘monster’ is a ‘creature’ and more of a human than we think. It is in the complex structure of the novel that Mary Shelley creates sympathy. We shift from Robert Walton to Victor Frankenstein to the monster and finally back to Walton. With each shift of perspective, the reader gains new information about both the facts of the story and the reliability of the narrator. Each perspective adds pieces of information that only they knows: Walton explains the circumstances of Victor’s last days, Victor explains his creation of the monster, the monster explains his turn to evil.
Walton's letters play an important role for the reader may find many foreshadowed themes. As the novel progresses, the reader will realize how Walton and Victor Frankenstein share similar views on their life's roles. Both men are driven by an excessive ambition, as they desire to accomplish great things for the humankind. Walton is an explorer who wants to discover a new passage to the Pacific and therefore conjures "inestimable benefit on all mankind to the last generation" (16). Victor's purpose is to "pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation" (49). These explorers will demonstrate that such pursuit can prove to be very dangerous in quest for knowledge. Walton's ship becomes stuck in the ice and Victor's creation finally kills everyone dear to him. However, this parallel is not the only one: we can easily compare Walton's search for a friend ("I have no friend, Margaret" (19)) with the monster's request for a female because he feels alone ("I desired love and fellowship" (224)). This similarity between man and monster suggests that the monster perhaps is more similar to men than what we may perceive. If it is assumed that Shelley also shared this view when she wrote the novel, maybe she meant that the real monster manifests itself differently tha...
In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley tells us a story about a man called Victor Frankenstein who creates a Creature which he later decides he does not like. The novel Frankenstein is written in an Epistolary form - a story which is written in a letter form - and the letters are written from an English explorer, Robert Walton, to his sister Margaret Saville. Robert is on an expedition to the North Pole, whilst on the expedition; Robert is completely surrounded by ice and finds a man who is in very poor shape and taken on board: Victor Frankenstein. As soon as Victor’s health improves, he tells Robert his story of his life. Victor describes how he discovers the secret of bringing to life lifeless matter and, by assembling different body parts, creates a monster who guaranteed revenge on his creator after being unwanted from humanity.
Shelley’s characterisation of Robert’s showed his personality traits and provide insight into Robert’s character to understand if his underlying quest regards either greedy or noble. Robert states, “My life might have been passed in ease and luxury, but I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path.” This characterisation of Shelley’s clearly emphasises his greed for glory rather than money. As the first narrator in the novel, we discover many parallels between his character and Victor’s exploring greed. After he meets Victor his narrative continues to be told via letters he is writing to his sister. We discover his disregard for the safety of the crew where he carries on his quest in perilous conditions in the quote, “…nor do the floating sheets of ice that continually pass us, indicating the dangers of the region towards which we are advancing.” Namely, greed for glory at any cost, however, his views alternate to show his actions were also for noble reasons. The quote, “you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer on all mankind to the last generation by discovering a passage,” demonstrates this point. Greed is a destructive trait that can be to the detriment of human life, but it is sought so desperately because it can
After Frankenstein discovered the source of human life, he became wholly absorbed in his experimental creation of a human being. Victor's unlimited ambition, his desire to succeed in his efforts to create life, led him to find devastation and misery. "...now that I have finished, the beauty of the dream had vanished..." (Shelley 51). Victor's ambition blinded him to see the real dangers of his project. This is because ambition is like a madness, which blinds one self to see the dangers of his actions. The monster after realizing what a horror he was demanded that victor create him a partner. "I now also began to collect the materials necessary for my new creation, and this was like torture..." (Shelley 169). Victor's raw ambition, his search for glory, has left him. His eyes have been opened to see his horrible actions, and what have and could become of his creations. As a result, Victor has realized that he is creating a monster, which could lead to the downfall of mankind. His choice is simple, save his own life or save man.
The creator of the monster, Victor Frankenstein is a man full of knowledge and has a strong passion for science. He pushes the boundary of science and creates a monster. Knowledge can be a threat when used for evil purposes. Though Victor did not intend for the being to be evil, society’s judgement on the monster greatly affects him. As a result he develops hatred for his creator as well as all man-kind. Victor’s anguish for the loss of his family facilitates his plan for revenge to the monster whom is the murderer. While traveling on Robert Walton’s ship he and Victor continue their pursuit of the monster. As Victor’s death nears he says, “…or must I die, and he yet live? If I do, swear to me Walton, that he shall not escape, that you will seek him and satisfy my vengeance in his death…Yet, when I am dead if he should appear, if the ministers of vengeance should conduct him to you, swear that he shall not live-swear that he shall not triumph over my accumulated woes and survive to add to the list of his dark crimes” (pg.199). Victor grieves the death of William, Justine, Clerval, Elizabeth and his father. Throughout the novel he experiences the five stages of grief, denial/ isolation, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. Victor denies ...
... is misrepresentation of the entire story based on whose point of view it is being told from. Despite Frankenstein and his monster being the core of the story, they are tainted by their own emotions as well as their own backstories. Through their animosity towards one another, they skew the story and are not capable of showing the tale in a light that is completely unbiased. Therefore they cannot encompass all of the themes of the novel because they are not able to show the truth of their own narrations. Walton on the other hand, is only there to bring to light the true themes of the novel therefore making him the most reliable of the three. He shows Shelley’s themes of religion, science, and nature all too well by retelling the story which Victor dies telling him and his lack of previous knowledge to the situation at hand makes him the least skewed of all three.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein and the monster that he creates are very similar. For example, Victor creates the monster to be like himself. Another similarity is that the anger of both Victor and the monster is brought about by society. One more parallel between Victor and the monster is that they both became recluses. These traits that Victor and the monster possess show that they are very similar.
The world is a carousel of color. Yet we often find ourselves confined to the blacks and whites we are taught to see. In doing this, we not only ignore the many shades of greys, reds, and blues in between, we also refuse to acknowledge the larger carousel of light we cannot behold with our eyes. Even the purest white and the heaviest black contain many other shades within the hue that the human eye cannot comprehend. This analogy applies to humanity as well. Humanity exists in the eyes of its own people as only the ends of a wide spectrum, with a generally ignored void in between comprising of all of the colors we choose to ignore. Even the ends of the spectrum that we choose to see contain some of these colors within their clarity and purity.