How does Robert Walton feel about Victor Frankenstein?

Walton feels intense admiration, tenderness, and affection for Victor Frankenstein. He comes to see him as the friend he has been longing for.

Before Victor appears, Walton is painfully lonely. He writes to Margaret, “I have no friend, Margaret: when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate my joy; if I am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavour to sustain me in dejection.” Victor seems to answer that need. After Walton’s crew rescues him from the ice, Walton is struck by his “benevolence and sweetness,” and as Victor recovers, Walton grows attached to him almost like a brother.

Walton also admires Victor’s sensitivity and eloquence. He describes Victor in glowing, almost reverent language: “Even now, as I commence my task, his full-toned voice swells in my ears; his lustrous eyes dwell on me with all their melancholy sweetness; I see his thin hand raised in animation, while the lineaments of his face are irradiated by the soul within.” This shows that Walton sees Victor as noble, sorrowful, and unusually deep.

Their bond is also shaped by similarity. Both men are ambitious seekers of knowledge, and Walton recognizes in Victor someone who might understand him. Later, after hearing Victor’s story, Walton laments that he did not know him earlier, writing, “I have sought one who would sympathize with and love me.” Yet Victor cannot fully return to friendship, because he remains consumed by revenge against the monster. Walton’s feeling for the stranger therefore mixes love, admiration, pity, and frustrated longing for companionship.

Their relationship connects Walton’s Arctic quest to Victor’s ruined life: both men want glory, but both also desperately want human connection. Victor’s arrival gives Walton the friend he wanted while also warning him what ambition can cost.