Do you share my madness
As with other additions made by Mary
Shelley in the early pages of her novel, this renders more explicit
the extent to which Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton share much the
same passion for knowledge. Their seeming differences are really
superficial, accounted for by the terrible cost experience has wrought on
Victor and the sheltered innocence in which Walton has been protected.
Mary Shelley here likewise strengthens her plot line, giving Victor
Frankenstein a strong reason for bestowing the terrible moral of his
autobiography upon the enthusiastic explorer, allowing him, too, to be the
first to indicate that he might be mad. By questioning Walton's sanity as
well, he opens up large problems of reliability that the subsequent
narrative will exploit.
