Both Mary Shelley and Gris Grimly suggest that the need for purpose drives all humans, though it does not necessarily drive them to the same ends. Rather, the search for purpose can be both creative and destructive, inspiring the emotions that bring people closer to one another but also contributing to obsession and self-absorption that can drive them apart.

The frame story’s narrative of Arctic exploration immediately establishes this theme. Walton writes, “Nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose—a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye” (3); he and his crew are preparing to take a ship to the North Pole to discover what they may there, and Walton is willing to risk his own life and theirs for the pursuit of science. He hopes to be the first to explore a new land and is energized by the thought of it being so dangerous. At the same time, he longs for human connection, lamenting his isolation in his letters to his sister. His story thus introduces the twin forms that the desire to lead a meaningful life can take: the search for connection versus the search for individual achievement.