Frankenstein- Frame Story

Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
Letters- chap XII

In this section, I have come across two frame stories, but I will focus on the first, because the second has barely begun at the end of this section.  The novel starts with the apparent main character, Robert Walton, who gets on a ship with a larger crew to travel through dangerous terrain in order to reach the pole.  The crew comes across a dog sledge- traveler near death and nurses him back to health.  He tells the crew that he had come so far upon the ice "To seek one who fled from me" (Shelley, 10).  He says no more.  But later in the stranger's conversations with Walton, the stranger comments that Walton saved his life, and was considerate enough not to interrogate him about his current situation or how it came to be.  The stranger appreciated Walton's manners, and discovering that they were very similar, the men became close quickly.  It was because of these similarities that the stranger decided to tall Walton the story that he had vowed never to speak of.  The stranger tells Walton he wants him to learn from the story, avoid the mistakes the stranger made in order to avoid his miserable and doomed fate.
So as the stranger's story is about to commence, the reader must keep in mind that the stranger is telling it in confidence to a friend, to help Walton understand how the stranger ended up like this, and to primarily teach Walton a moral lesson.

"Strange and harrowing must be his story, frightful the storm which embraced the gallant vessel on its course and wrecked it- thus!" (Shelley, 14)
And with this, the story within the frame begins.