Sort of inspired by Ashley’s post before reading the entirety of volume 1, I found a lot of parallels between Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein. Walton, an explorer and adventurer, is faced with the dilemma of continuing his travels and risking his own life, as well as his crew’s, or realizing his dream and continuing his journey to the North Pole. I found this to be similar to Victor’s dilemma, one of satisfying his desire to dabble in the mysteries of the natural world, which he seems to know will cause trouble within his seemingly picturesque family, or avoid the subject completely and save himself and his loved ones from harm.
At this point in the novel, Walton isn’t as nearly dejected as the fatalistic Victor, who is retelling his tale to Walton. This was further confirmed by Walton’s liking towards Margaret. He even goes as far as to state “I have found a man who, before his spirit had been broken by misery, I should have been happy to possess as a brother of the heart (pg 28)” I found the characters to be extremely similar, and assume that they will continue to be, despite the fact that they are at extremely different stages in their lives, with Walton at the peak and Victor at the very bottom.
