ABSTRACT
The longing for companionship, for ‘a true friend’ who would ‘sympathize with me, and [. . .] confirm and support me’, is the fundamental desire of several characters in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818).105 In the story, friendship is the most reliable relationship, presented as equal to family bonds in terms of loyalty and dedication, and as superior to romantic affection. On the discursive level, friendship values act as counterpoint to the solipsistic ambition that drives Frankenstein’s scientific experiments, and Walton’s search for a northwest passage.
