Letters

The text is narrated from three perspectives and framed in an epistolary format through Walton’s letters to his sister, Margaret. The opening letters serve to depict Walton as an ambitious, pioneering individual. It is also in these letters that Walton (and therefore the readership) first encounters Victor Frankenstein. Whilst audiences (influenced by Walton’s perceptions) are inclined to sympathise with Victor as someone who appears to have suffered greatly, Shelley intimates that Victor experiences a great sense of guilt for some sort of wrongdoing and thus establishes a sense of foreboding. As the narrative progresses, audiences are inclined to draw an eerie comparison between Walton’s desire for glory, and Victor’s. Importantly, however, these letters also work to establish the key difference between Walton and Victor: as Walton expresses to Margaret, he is lonely and desires companionship. This is a critical difference between the two characters, as it ultimately serves to saveWalton from a similar demise to Victor’s.