# What does Walton’s frame narrative do?

> Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

## Answer

Robert Walton’s letters make Frankenstein a story about listeners, not only about a monster. Walton is already risking his crew for glory in the Arctic when he takes the dying Victor aboard. Victor’s confession is meant as a warning, and the continuation shows Walton choosing — under pressure from his sailors and from what he has heard — not to repeat the whole pursuit.

The frame also keeps Victor from owning the book. We receive his self-portrait through an admirer who is disposed to find him noble, then we receive the creature’s rebuttal inside that portrait, then Walton’s last view of both. Ambition stays attractive; that is why the warning can fail. Without the letters, the novel would be a private melodrama. With them, dangerous knowledge is a temptation offered to the reader in the same ice where the story ends.

## Evidence

- [letter-ii](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/frankenstein_se/chapters/letter-ii.md): Walton confesses his hunger for a friend and for discovery.
- [letter-iv](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/frankenstein_se/chapters/letter-iv.md): He rescues Victor and begins to hear the tale.
- [walton-in-continuation](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/frankenstein_se/chapters/walton-in-continuation.md): After Victor’s death, Walton meets the creature and turns the ship toward home.

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