Understanding Walton’s Letters
The passage that I will be analyzing is as follows:
But success shall crown my endeavours. Wherefore not? Thus far I have gone, tracing a secure way over the pathless seas: the very stars themselves being witnesses and testimonies of my triumph. Why not still proceed over the united yet obedient element? What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man? My swelling heart involuntarily pours itself out thus. But I must finish.
This is one of the letters that opens up the novel and it struck me because I thought that it could answer one of my primary questions as I read, specifically why the novel starts with these letters. This passage is from the third letters that Walton sends to his sister, the one immediately before the first sighting of Frankenstein’s monster. As we discussed in class, form is something that is used to convey specific effects that the text wants to display. Why would the novel start off with these letters about characters that are not the primary focus? I believe the novel starts this way because of the context surrounding the creation of the plot, as well as acting as a parallel device to traits that we will later see in Frankenstein.
I am aware that the novel was written as a response to a “campfire-story” competition between the writers; Shelley was attempting to write a ghost tale that would rival the other writers and to begin with letters by a character far removed from the actual plot suits this purpose. After all, the story is itself an enigma to Walton; he does not witness any of its events and he witnesses Frankenstein’s monster appear, almost like an apparition. This voyage is an ordinary one, which contrasts with the supernatural tone of the book. The backdrop of a normal setting by characters that are not directly involved makes the story that much more eerie, as if Shelley is purposely breaking through the barrier of a normal existence and an unordinary one.
As for the content of the passage itself, it offers itself as optimistic language that details a mundane voyage. Nothing out of the ordinary is occurring on Walton’s trip, and his feelings are markedly similar to the ways that Frankenstein feels when he attempts to defy the laws of nature. The language speaks to the will of man, that essentially, nothing can stand in its way if it is determined enough. Walton seems boastful here, and indeed acknowledges that his feelings are somewhat involuntary. This is an important trend to notice when Frankenstein and his monster are later portrayed; both characters exhibit outpourings of emotion and behavior that suggest that their will is defiant in the face of nature. Therefore, the passage serves as a foreshadowing and running parallel to some of the trends that the reader will notice later on. In addition to fulfilling the description of a “ghost story” to be shared among friends, it also serves a distinct purpose for the text other than to merely function as an introduction.