My father loved Beaufort
The reader cannot help noticing how insistently this theme returns to
the surface of the text. In the abstract it is almost an epitome of the
way in which Mary Shelley creates the structure of her novel as a nest of
Chinese boxes (or Russian dolls). Here, Victor Frankenstein begins a
narrative about his life by emphasizing his father's profound affection for
another man, an account he gives to a young explorer whose deepest
emotional need is for such a friendship. Walton, in turn, feels he
has found the fulfillment of this need in Victor, and Victor
himself tells this narrative out of a sense of duty to that friendship.
Duty likewise drove his father in his attempt to discover and rescue
Beaufort. At the periphery of this replicated order is the central
location in which the narrative unfolds, a ship isolated in
treacherous northern waters where the all-male crew stands on its duty on
behalf of one another. In the end harsh circumstances will force Walton
to respond against his will to his own duty to those men.
- Characters:
- Critical Approaches:
- Themes:
