encounter late in Mary Shelley's novel. It was, as Victor Frankenstein himself acknowledged,
curiosity about the Creature he pursued (I:L4:11) that first animated the interest
of Walton and his crew. In the very beginning Walton had characterized his driving
passion as an "ardent curiosity" (I:L1:2), and it is this trait that most obviously
links him with the obsessive scientific pursuits that Victor early on associated with
the realm of the "lawless" (I:7:1). Yet, it is the same trait that compels Victor
to listen to the Creature's naration (II:2:16) below Mont Blanc and that will restrain
Walton from attacking him (III:Walton:38) upon his reappearance in the final pages.
Thus, what leads to an antisocial solipsism can also be an instrument for transcending
rigid barriers and reestablishing social relationships through sympathy. The strongly
oppositional ways in which curiosity functions in the novel may suggest that this
most human (and Romantic) attribute is inherently neither good nor bad, but is merely
an instrument, neutral in itself, that should never be dissociated from our common
"sense" of the ends it pursues.