The answer to your question can actually be found in the
first letter that Walton writes to his beloved sister, at the very beginning of the
book. After talking about how his travels have been safe up until this point, Walton
reflects on his background and how he came to engage on his mission, and the extreme
dedication to which he set himself to learn all he needed to in order to attempt his
voyage. Note what he writes:
I commenced by induring my body to hardship. I
accompanied the whale-fishers on several expeditions to the North Sea; I voluntarily
endured cold, famine, thirst, and want of sleep; I often worked harder than the common
sailors during the day, and devoted my nights to the study of mathematics, teh theory of
medicine, and those branches of physical science from which a naval adventurer might
derive the greatest practical advantage. Twice I actually hired myself as an under-mate
in a Greenland whaler, amd acquitted myself to
admiration.
We can thus see
the fervent and costly commitment Walton displays to his plan and dream, which of course
finds an apt parallel in the way that Frankenstein himself reveals how he was obsessed
by uncovering the scientific laws of the universe and how he might use them to create
life.
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