How does Robert’s desire for a friend affect his relationship with Dr. Frankenstein? How might this relationship affect the reader’s trust in Walton as a reliable narrator? In my opinion, Walton seems like a very biased narrator. The diction he uses in the first four letters to his sister is very eloquent and romantic, like he is illustrating a story or a fairy tale rather than a non-fiction event of just straight-up facts. He also evidently loves his sister very much, saying she lights up his life. This intense love may be a factor which may instigate his desire to be portrayed in a more idealized way through her eyes, which can cause him to fluff up his stories. Additionally, this could be very blinding, and his health may be a disability as well concerning his reliability, because he is in a very distant and irregular place that he is not used to, which could cause some health deficiencies to cloud his judgement. Additionally, Walton is very set on the idea of glory and success, which could cause him to disregard anything that would negatively affect his reputation or hurt his ego. For anyone, especially when you are talking about yourself, you want to seem interesting or exceptional, which will cause you to exaggerate, which Walton probably did with his tellings of his journey and observations as if it were a tale or legend. I do think that Walton is overly ambitious and is being blinded by a desire for other people to glorify him, and Walton's loneliness can cause him to have a bias towards liking Victor, since he doesn’t truly understand how selfish he is, and accepts him because he simply wants companionship. The loneliness, longing, and love of Walton determine throughout the beginning of the novel that he may not be the most reliable or truthful narrator. This shows that Walton craves the affection of others, and wants to establish good relationships with other people because of his loneliness.
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