As evadyne touches on above, Shelley's original novel is related by Dr. Frankenstein to a ship's captain, Robert Walton. The opening chapters of the book are letters from Walton himself, who describes how he comes to pick up Frankenstein while attempting to cross the arctic and then the narrative switches to Frankenstein's perspective. Thus the novel is not presented in a chronologically linear fashion, but rather the novel begins with a portion of the middle of the story. Walton is generally lost from film adaptations of the novel, but it is interesting to note that there are surely certain parallels between the two characters, and here I will explore to what extent the characters are the same personality caught in different circumstances.
An important parallel between the two is their pursuit of a forbidden quest, an irrepressible desire to push back the boundaries of current human knowledge. For
Frankenstein, this means the creation of life from non-life. Walton, on the other hand, desires to explore the polar regions further than any man before him, to “tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man”. To the audience of the time, with their small knowledge of
biology and geography, both of these would be pressing concerns. Should man be allowed to
explore the far reaches of the earth? A modern reader would consider this a trivial concern but
in the 19th century, when large portions of the world map remained blank, it was not at all clear
that such exploration was well-advised. Genetic modification of life, the creation of so-called
“Frankenstein foods”, remains a hot topic today. Nevertheless, the seemingly endless,
unrestrained advance of science was a controversial topic to Shelley’s audience, and so seen
in historical context of it’s publication, it is clear that both characters are in search of some
form of occult knowledge.
Both characters also receive the disapproval of more than just the morals of society at
large, for they are both subject to a certain parental condemnation. Walton’s father banned
him from a “sea-faring life”; Frankenstein is repeatedly chided by his sister Elizabeth for detaching
himself from the family to pursue his scientific goals. The fact that both characters
nevertheless deny the requests of their families demonstrates just how dedicated they are to
their respective quests, and brings us to another parallel between them:
Frankenstein’s dedication is evident from the reader’s first encounter with him; although
he is “dreadfully emaciated by fatigue and suffering”, his first enquiry of Walton’s ship, his only
source of rescue, is “whither [they] are bound” - he feels he is a part of something more
important than his own life. He later makes this explicit himself, saying his endeavour is “more
important than whether one man should live or die.” Walton’s endurance is perhaps not so
maniacal, although his desire to go onwards to the pole even when they are “shut in by ice”
suggests that he too is not lacking in resolution. This might be seen by the reader as a
difference in the characters, with Frankenstein having a more irrational desire to continue, but
I would argue it is simply a matter of circumstance - both characters overcome what hardship
they face, although the hardship itself is of different degrees. We cannot judge Walton to be
less commited simply because he has not had the misfortune to encounter harder times.
It is not that the two men are never disheartened - Frankenstein is “frequently in low
spirits”, and Walton’s exaggerated self-encouragement in his letters suggests he feels his own
spirits are failing. Their dedication is shown in that they continue despite temporary concern
that they cannot succeed.
Another parallel between the characters is apparent in their search for personal glory.
Walton claims that “discovering a passage near the pole to those [far-off] countries” is a
secondary consideration for him, although there is no way to be certain just how much he
really desires the recognition this would bring him. Frankenstein, on the other hand, makes no
secret that he wants to supersede the work of “so many men of genius”, such that he alone
“should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret.” This is a key factor in explaining
their all-pervading desire to uncover this hidden knowledge, although to some extent their
devotion still seems irrational at times.
A further similarity of the characters becomes apparent when one examines their
respective attitudes to their families. The reader can tell that Walton enjoyed a close relationship with his sister, as the epistolary opening of the book is addressed to her, but also it is clear that he wished to escape the “known” world of living with her and his family.
Likewise, Frankenstein remains in contact with Elizabeth even during the height of his obsession with creating his monster, and it is not until he falls ill that this contact is broken. As soon as this occurs, Elizabeth writes to him, saying “one word from you, dear Victor, is necessary to calm our apprehensions.” Clearly, he comes from a close-knit family unit, and his
description of his mother as “angelic” reinforces this. However, like Walton, he moves away from the safety of this closed family unit, and into University. Both characters have ambition to move beyond that which is well known, both in terms of their family and the boundaries of
science.
It is in their personal relationships that the reader encounters the first clear difference between the characters. While Frankenstein “had a friend once”, in Clerval, Walton has “one want which [he] has never yet been able to satisfy” - that is, he has “no friend”. Neither character found it easy to make friends in their young days, but while Walton often has depressed spirits due to eternal loneliness, Frankenstein at least had a single close accomplice in his younger days, and while at University he found “a true friend” in M. Waldman. In this way, Frankenstein has been slightly more ‘successful’ in these stakes than Walton, but their individual natures as outcasts perhaps explains how they come to bond to
each other so quickly. For sure, the chasm between few friends and none is great, and so there is an undeniable difference between them here - but again it is impossible to say how far this is due to circumstance. Would the character of Walton, placed in Frankenstein’s
circumstance, have made the same friends or any? There is no way to infer the answer either way. from the text, without hopeless speculation.
However, this leads back to another similarity between the characters; their depression. Walton confides in Frankenstein that his “spirits are often depressed” and Frankenstein addresses him as “unhappy man” - Walton recognises his own inner sadness, and it is apparent to others also. Likewise, Walton describes Frankenstein as “generally melancholy and despairing” and Frankenstein himself says he has “lost everything”. It is interesting to
note how the characters differ in their reaction to their despair; Walton tells his sister and Frankenstein about it, but does little to remedy the situation. Frankenstein, however, tells his whole story to Walton by way of a cautionary tale, so that he may avoid the same fate. Walton seems to feel the weight of having to not only “raise the spirits of others” but also “sustain [his] own” more heavily than Frankenstein suffers his own pain - and yet it is Frankenstein who suffers a nervous breakdown. Shelley perhaps wished to indicate the contrast between Walton’s chronic sadness over his solitude and the acute suffering of Frankenstein when his
great plan falls apart.
Frankenstein’s failure draws attention to another possible difference in the characters, that is, their initial perception of the creature. When he catches sight of the creature on a sledge, Walton observes simply a “being which had the shape of a man but apparently of
gigantic stature,” and this is close to Frankenstein’s original description of his creation as “of a
gigantic stature” and “about eight feet in height”. That the two characters use the same phrase to describe the creature before his nature is understood emphasises the similarity of the way they see the world. Nevertheless, once he understands the full implications of what he has
created, Frankenstein refers to it as “the demon”, and Walton imitates him. Therefore I would conclude that the difference in the way they describe the character stems from the different levels of understanding they have of its nature - and when they are at the same level, they
describe it in the same way.
There is one final difference between the two characters. Frankenstein’s pursuit ultimately ends in a failure of sorts, because although he accomplishes his initial aim, it ends in personal disaster for him. Walton’s final fate is never revealed but Shelley perhaps
suggests that his quest will bring him an untimely demise like Frankenstein’s, by the extent to which their fates are otherwise mirrored. Nonetheless, it is fair to say that, within the time frame of the novel, Frankenstein experiences failure while Walton at least avoids it, even if he does not taste success.
In conclusion, I would say that Walton can be said to be a mirror image of Frankenstein to a great extent. In many aspects of their character they are alike, and, perhaps as a consequence of that, their histories are similar also. Those few places where their backgrounds appear to differ can, for the most part, be seen as their being at different points along the road of their ultimate fate. Shelley, I believe, makes clever use of this parallel to suggest the ultimate fate of Walton himself. Overall, they certainly have very similar personalities.