Letters 1 to 4 · Letter 1 to Letter 4 · Frankenstein

Copywork

I was easily led by the sympathy which he evinced to use the language of my heart, to give utterance to the burning ardour of my soul and to say, with all the fervour that warmed me, how gladly I would sacrifice my fortune, my existence, my every hope, to the furtherance of my enterprise. One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race. As I spoke, a dark gloom spread over my listener’s countenance.

Read the passage aloud. Walton’s first two sentences are long and pile up one thing after another. Why might the passage end on a short one?

Discussion

Narration Tell back the four letters in order, from the cold breeze at St. Petersburgh to the stranger’s promise to tell his history. Say where Walton is when he writes each one. Then choose the moment you think matters most, and say what it changes.

Walton tries “in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation.” Yet he will “put some trust in preceding navigators.” Is he weighing the evidence, or has he already decided? Inference
Walton wants a friend whose “tastes are like my own” and who can “amend my plans.” What would a friend have to be like to do both? Theme
Walton promises his sister, “I will be cool, persevering, and prudent.” A few lines later he asks, “What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?” Then he admits, “My swelling heart involuntarily pours itself out thus.” Does that admission make his promise easier to trust, or harder? Moral reasoning
The stranger weeps and cries, “Do you share my madness?” In the same speech he says, “let me reveal my tale.” Walton writes, “Such words, you may imagine, strongly excited my curiosity.” Why might the stranger’s cry make Walton curious instead of careful? Theme
The stranger once meant his history to die with him. Now he tells Walton, “you have won me to alter my determination.” What was it about Walton that won him? Character
For the educator This question asks why the stranger speaks at all. What he hopes the telling will do for Walton is left to the closing written question.

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when someone told the story of their own troubles to help another person. Why might they tell the whole story instead of just giving advice?

Vocabulary

acquirement: One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race. Gaining something by effort. Walton uses it for knowledge, then uses “acquire” for “dominion” in the next phrase, so the two aims sound like one kind of prize.
For the educator A formal word that has largely dropped out of use. The student can build its meaning from “acquire.”
evinced: I was easily led by the sympathy which he evinced to use the language of my heart Showed plainly. Walton says the stranger’s sympathy led him to speak, so the word points at what the listener showed and not at what Walton felt.
satiate: I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. To satisfy a hunger fully. Walton uses an eating word for curiosity, so the wish to see new lands sounds like an appetite.
inuring: I commenced by inuring my body to hardship. Hardening someone to a harsh thing by long exposure. Walton does it to his own body, so the word is about a cost he chose to pay himself.
paroxysm: Such words, you may imagine, strongly excited my curiosity; but the paroxysm of grief that had seized the stranger overcame his weakened powers, and many hours of repose and tranquil conversation were necessary to restore his composure. A sudden, violent fit of strong feeling. The word says grief took hold of the stranger like an attack, which is why he needs hours of rest afterward.
culled: He is so gentle, yet so wise; his mind is so cultivated, and when he speaks, although his words are culled with the choicest art, yet they flow with rapidity and unparalleled eloquence. Chosen with care from many possibilities, the way flowers are picked. Walton hears the stranger’s words as selected and shaped, which tells us how the listener hears him.

Critical thinking

In the first letter Walton wishes for “some encouraging voice.” In the second he says, “I have no friend.” In the fourth, a stranger comes aboard, and the letters end just before he tells his story. Why might the book open with Walton and not with the stranger?
Walton says that one man’s life or death is “a small price to pay” for the knowledge he seeks. The stranger answers with tears. Later he hopes Walton may draw a moral from his tale. Is the stranger warning Walton against seeking knowledge, or against seeking it at any price?