Captain Robert Walton In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

In the novel “Frankenstein”, written by Mary Shelley in 1818, illustrates the human nature in which consists of ambition versus responsibility as well as innocent versus evil. At the beginning of the story, Captain Robert Walton is introduced as the first character by narrating in the series of letters that he writes to his sister, Margaret Saville. Walton functions as a foil character for Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist and main narrator. By contrasting and highlighting Victor’s characteristics in the book, they have similarities in the desire of acknowledgment in achievement, loneliness, and differences in the realization of life.
Both the character of Captain Robert Walton and the character of Victor Frankenstein have the ambition to

As being the creator, Victor shows dissatisfaction by rejecting and abandoning his own creation as he is “[being] unable to endure the aspect of the being [he has] created [and] rushed out of the room.” (Shelley 84) He is supposed to take responsibility of creating the “monster” by providing support and care; in fact, he runs away from reality. In opposite, Walton shows his kindness and fatherly by nursing Victor who is found in a sledge. Walton and his crew members take care of Victor with “[wrapping] him up in blankets and [placing] him near the chimney of the kitchen-stove” to keep him in warmth. (Shelley 59) Also, one of the main differences is Walton survives in the novel whereas Victor dies. As Walton listens to his fellow crew members, he has “consented to return, if [they] are not destroyed.” (Shelley 214) With his recognition of life, Walton is able to follow the members’ instincts in which he heads south and returns home. Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” interprets the similarities and differences in between the character of Captain Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein. It shows how human should be responsible in their own actions and ambition as desires may results in the loss in relation and