Letters 1 to 4 — Teaching Companion

What it asks It asks whether Walton’s trust in earlier sailors is a way of weighing what is known or a way of finding support for a hope he already holds. The pole is the first thing he wants to know, so how he treats evidence about it shows what he counts as knowing.

One reading

He is weighing the evidence: he asks leave to trust the navigators, calls his own hopes “conjectures,” and builds a second reason for going in case they fail.

• I will put some trust in preceding navigators
• But supposing all these conjectures to be false

Another reading

He has already decided: he cannot be argued out of the picture, and the pole “ever presents itself” to him as beauty and delight whatever he reads.

• I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation
• it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight

Listen for

• Asks whether the evidence Walton chooses to trust is the evidence that agrees with what he hopes.
• Keeps what Walton knows apart from what he imagines, using his own words for each.
• Sees that “But supposing all these conjectures to be false” can be read both ways.

If stuck

• What does Walton say the pole is, and what does he say it shows itself to be in his imagination?
• What do the navigators he trusts seem to say about the pole?
• What would Walton do if the navigators turned out to be wrong? Find the sentence that answers that.

A strong answer A strong answer might notice that Walton asks his sister’s leave to trust the navigators, and that the pole he goes on to describe, where “snow and frost are banished,” is the one he already pictures. It might argue that he is weighing, since he calls his own hopes “conjectures” and offers a second reason for the voyage. Or it might argue that he has decided, since “in vain” says no argument can move him, and the second reason would carry him north even if the first failed. The more convincing answer says which of his words shows the doubt and which shows the will to go on.

What it asks It asks what kind of friend could both share Walton’s tastes and correct his plans. The two pull apart, since a friend who loves what he loves may only cheer him on. The letters hold two answers, Walton’s own and the stranger’s.

One reading

Walton’s answer: the friend must stand beside him. Only someone who will not “despise me as romantic” can win the trust to “regulate my mind,” and it is affection, not likeness alone, that earns the right to correct.

• I greatly need a friend who would have sense enough not to despise me as romantic
• affection enough for me to endeavour to regulate my mind

Another reading

The stranger’s answer: the friend must stand a step above him, “wiser, better, dearer than ourselves.” The stranger speaks as one who has had such a friend and judges by it.

• if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves—such a friend ought to be—do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures
• I once had a friend, the most noble of human creatures

Listen for

• Sees the pull between the two halves: a friend whose tastes match Walton’s may only agree with him.
• Uses Walton’s own terms, “sense” and “affection,” and asks whether they are enough to correct a man who is “too ardent.”
• Sets Walton’s picture of a friend beside the stranger’s, and says whether one person could fill both.

If stuck

• What fault does Walton name in himself in the same letter?
• What does Walton say a friend would need to have “enough” of?
• Would a friend who loved the same things as Walton be more likely to back his plans, or to see what is wrong with them?

A strong answer A strong answer might start with the pull inside Walton’s wish: a friend whose tastes match his may only cheer him on. Walton gives his own answer in the same letter, a friend with “sense enough not to despise me as romantic, and affection enough” to “regulate my mind,” so love, more than likeness, earns the right to correct. Another answer starts from the stranger, who says a friend ought to be “wiser, better, dearer than ourselves.” On that view the friend who can amend Walton’s plans must stand ahead of him, not beside him. The best answers say whether the two pictures could fit one person, and what each asks of the friend who has to tell Walton no.

What it asks It asks the student to weigh a promise of prudence against the voice that follows it, and to decide what the writer’s own admission does to the promise. His sister can judge only by his words, so the words are the whole case.

One reading

It makes the promise easier to trust: he sees his heart running ahead and says so, he reports the voyage so far in a plain, cool way, and from Archangel he had already promised, “I shall do nothing rashly,” and said he could not bear “the usual brutality exercised on board ship.”

• My swelling heart involuntarily pours itself out thus.
• I shall be well content if nothing worse happen to us during our voyage.
• I shall do nothing rashly: you know me sufficiently to confide in my prudence and considerateness whenever the safety of others is committed to my care.

Another reading

It makes the promise harder to trust: the swell comes within lines of the promise, and “involuntarily” says he cannot stop it.

• What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?
• the very stars themselves being witnesses and testimonies of my triumph

Listen for

• Treats “involuntarily” as a word that can cut both ways.
• Sets the promise beside the next paragraph, line against line.
• Gives Walton fair credit for what he says about the safety of others and about “the usual brutality exercised on board ship,” and still takes his cry seriously.

If stuck

• Which words in the promise would a calm captain use, and which in the next paragraph?
• What does Walton say he cannot help?
• If a friend wrote you that promise and then that cry, which would you believe?

A strong answer A strong answer might argue that the admission helps him. A man who says his heart “involuntarily pours itself out” knows what he is like, and from Archangel he had already named “a love for the marvellous” that “hurries me out of the common pathways of men.” It might argue the opposite: “involuntarily” says he cannot help it, and “cool” means little from a man who speaks of “my triumph” before he has arrived. The strongest answers say what each reading asks of his sister, who has nothing but his words to go on.

What it asks It asks why a cry of pain stirs Walton’s appetite for the tale and not his caution. He never answers the stranger’s question in the letters, so what he writes next is the only evidence of how he heard it.

One reading

Walton hears a mystery, not a warning: the wish that drives the voyage, his “ardent curiosity,” is the one the stranger’s cry stirs up.

• Such words, you may imagine, strongly excited my curiosity
• shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited

Another reading

Walton’s curiosity is partly care: he wants to know the grief that has broken a man he has begun to love, and he says he wishes to ease it.

• partly from curiosity and partly from a strong desire to ameliorate his fate
• I begin to love him as a brother

Listen for

• Notices that “curiosity” is the word Walton used earlier for his own wish to reach the pole.
• Weighs whether Walton is curious about the tale or about the man.
• Keeps the stranger’s tears in view: Walton sees them, so the question is what he does with what he sees.

If stuck

• What does the stranger say Walton will do once he hears the tale?
• Where else does Walton use the word “curiosity,” and for what?
• Is Walton’s curiosity about the tale, or about the man who will tell it?

A strong answer A strong answer might point to the echo: Walton first used “curiosity” for what he hopes to satisfy at the pole, so the same hunger answers the stranger’s cry. It might also argue that the curiosity is partly kindness, since Walton says it is “partly from curiosity and partly from a strong desire to ameliorate his fate.” Either reading should say what the stranger’s tears have already told Walton, and what Walton chooses to write down about them.

What it asks It asks what moved the stranger from silence to speech: what Walton is, or what Walton has done. The stranger names a reason, but “won” is a word for winning a person over, so the student may find a second one.

One reading

What won him is who Walton is: a man on the same course, seeking what the stranger once sought, and heading for the same dangers.

• You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did
• you are pursuing the same course, exposing yourself to the same dangers which have rendered me what I am

Another reading

What won him is what Walton did: he rescued the stranger, nursed him and offered him friendship, and the stranger now calls him “my friend.” The word “won” is about gaining someone’s goodwill.

• you have benevolently restored me to life
• my friend, if thus you will allow me to name you

Listen for

• Separates the reason the stranger gives for telling from the reason he gives for changing his mind.
• Uses both what Walton says about himself and what he does for his guest.
• Notices that “won” is a word for gaining someone over, not only for informing him.

If stuck

• What does the stranger say Walton is doing that he once did?
• What has Walton done for the stranger since the day he came aboard?
• Does the stranger say he will tell his history because of the course Walton is on, or because of what Walton has been to him?

A strong answer A strong answer might start with the reason the stranger states: Walton is “pursuing the same course,” and the stranger hopes his tale can direct him. It might then argue that “won” points elsewhere, to the rescue and the care, since the stranger says Walton has “benevolently restored me to life” and calls him “my friend, if thus you will allow me to name you.” The best answers keep two things apart: what made the stranger willing to speak, and what he hopes the telling will do.

What it asks It asks what the four letters give the stranger’s history that the history could not give itself. The student builds a thesis about the book’s opening choice from Walton’s wish for a voice, his want of a friend, and the man he finds on the ice.

One reading

The letters give the stranger’s history a listener and a reason to be told: he speaks because of this particular man, and for what this man might do with it.

• you have won me to alter my determination
• I imagine that you may deduce an apt moral from my tale

Another reading

The letters make the reader feel Walton’s hope first, so the stranger’s reply lands on a wish the reader has been asked to share.

• Do you understand this feeling?
• These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death

Listen for

• Names at least two things the letters give the reader that the stranger’s own voice could not.
• Uses Walton’s own words, his hopes and his loneliness, and not only the plot.
• Sees that the letters end before the stranger’s history begins.

If stuck

• Who is listening when the stranger speaks, and what does that listener want from the voyage?
• What would a reader know about Walton if the book began with the stranger’s telling?
• What does Walton ask his sister in the first letter, and what does the stranger ask Walton in the fourth?

A strong answer A strong thesis might say the letters give the stranger’s history a listener and a reason: he tells it to this man, for what this man might do with it. Another might say the letters make the reader feel Walton’s hope first, since Walton asks his sister, “Do you understand this feeling?” long before the stranger asks him, “Do you share my madness?” A good objection to the first is that a story can be told with no listener named. A good objection to the second is that a reader may not feel what Walton feels at all. The revision keeps what survives and stays inside what these four letters show.

What it asks It asks the student to decide what the stranger fears in Walton: the seeking itself, or a price Walton would pay without counting it. The stranger’s own words leave both open, and the letters stop before Walton answers.

One reading

He is warning against seeking knowledge at all: he names Walton’s aim, “knowledge and wisdom,” as his own old aim, calls the result “a serpent” that stung him, and says the tale will make Walton “dash the cup from your lips.”

• You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did
• the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been
• let me reveal my tale, and you will dash the cup from your lips!

Another reading

He is warning against the price: he answers the “small price” speech with tears, and he hopes his tale may direct Walton “if you succeed” as well as console him in failure.

• One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought
• that may direct you if you succeed in your undertaking and console you in case of failure

Listen for

• Gives the stranger’s words about “knowledge and wisdom” their full weight before choosing a side.
• Treats the “small price” sentence as the line the stranger answers, and says what in it he answers.
• Writes an objection from the stranger’s own lines, not from outside the letters.
• Revises the thesis because of the objection, not just repeats it.

If stuck

• What does Walton say just before the stranger weeps, and what does the stranger say next?
• Does the stranger ever tell Walton to turn back? Look for the nearest he comes.
• What does the stranger say his tale may do for Walton “if you succeed”?

A strong answer A strong thesis might argue that he warns against the price: he weeps at “a small price,” and by the last entry he hopes his tale may “direct” Walton “if you succeed” as well as console him in failure. A strong objection is his own line, “You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did,” which names the seeking as what hurt him, together with his promise that the tale will make Walton “dash the cup from your lips.” The revision might then hold that he fears what a hunger for knowledge does to a man who stops counting the cost, while admitting that the letters never say which fear is his. A thesis from the other side starts with “a serpent to sting you” and has to explain why, by the last entry, he never tells Walton to turn back. Either way, the revision should change because of the objection.