Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Mary Shelley's famous novel "Frankenstein" and looks at the similarities between the characters, Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein. The paper relates that the the two primary concerns of the text are the Faustian or Satanic desire for scientific, God-like knowledge, and that of the self or the identity, and how it relates to the others.

From the Paper:

"Mary Shelley's famous novel Frankenstein remains one of the most famous horror fictions of all times. Drawing on some of the literature's greatest masterpieces such as Milton's Paradise Lost or Percy Bysshe Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, as well as on the rich Romantic and Gothic traditions to which it belongs, the novel displays a complex system of meanings, allusions and interpolations. Essentially, the text is made up of three autobiographies: that of Robert Walton who writes to his sister in England and tells her about his North Pole expedition, that of Victor Frankenstein, the scientist who manages to create life in the form of a monster and who tells his story to Walton, and that of the monster who tells his story to his creator, Frankenstein. Not accidentally, these three autobiographers resemble each other to the greatest degree. On the one hand, the same desire for knowledge pursues all three of them: Walton is fascinated by the yet unknown lands of the North Pole, Frankenstein is enthralled by the mystery of life itself and the monster is naturally curious about everything surrounding him. The other thing that unites them, this time only Frankenstein and Walton is their common role as animators: while Frankenstein creates new life, intending surely to make a replica of himself, Walton rescues and reanimates Frankenstein, who is also a replica of himself. Thus, the two primary concerns of the text are the Faustian or Satanic desire for scientific, God-like knowledge, and that of the self or the identity, and how it relates to the others."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Gilbert, S. M. and S. Gubar (1995). Shelley's Monstrous Eve in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Norton Critical Editions). New York: W.W. Norton.
• Johnson, B. (1995). My Monster/ My Self. in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Norton Critical Editions). New York: W.W. Norton.
• "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/maryshel/essays.shtml
• Shelley, M. W. (1995). Frankenstein (Norton Critical Editions). New York: W.W. Norton. -- Introduction to Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Norton Critical Editions). New York: W.W. Norton.
• Thompson, T. W. (2004) "Robert Walton as reanimator." Papers on Language and Literature. 40.3: 296.

More papers on Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein:

• Analytical Essay # 49752 : "Frankenstein: Isolation of the Characters"
• Analytical Essay # 114609 : "Knowledge in "Frankenstein"
• Book Review # 100998 : "Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"

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