Robert Walton

My name is Robert Walton, and I have been writing letters to my sister Margaret keeping her informed of my voyage to the North Pole. I am a successful Englishman with a great passion for seafaring.

1.) When I was a young child, I was passionately fond of reading novels from my Uncle Thomas' library that described the great voyages made by other adventurers around the world. This had become an every day and night activity (Letter 1). 2.) I am the captain of a ship, heading on a dangerous voyage to the North Pole. I have a desire burning in me to accomplish some great purpose. I want to discover a northern passage to the Pacific, revealing the source of the Earth's magnetism, or simply setting foot on undiscovered territory (Letter 1). 3.) I don't really have any friends, and I feel very lonely and isolated. I'm too sophisticated to find comfort in my shipmates and too uneducated to find a sensitive soul with whom to share my dreams (Letter 2). 4.) In my third letter to Margaret, I tell her that my ship has set sail, and I feel very confident that I will achieve my goal (Letter 3). 5.) In my fourth letter, I described how my ship stalled between two sheets of ice and how my crew and I spotted a sledge guided by a gigantic creature about half a mile away. We also encountered another sledge stranded on an ice floe, and the man on the sledge was emaciated, weak, and starving. We took him on board and tried to nurse him back to health. "The stranger has gradually improved in health but is very silent and appears uneasy when anyone except myself enters his cabin. Yet his manners are so conciliating and gentle that the sailors are all interested in him, although they have had very little communication with him. For my own part, I begin to love him as a brother, and his constant and deep grief fills me with sympathy and compassion" (Letter 3). I now have a friend with whom I can share my dreams.