St. Petersburgh

St. Petersburgh is the Russian imperial capital from which Robert Walton writes his first letter to his sister Margaret Saville, dated December 11th, 17—. It is the point of departure for his Arctic voyage, a place where he feels the cold northern breeze that "braces my nerves and fills me with delight" and where his daydreams of the pole as "the region of beauty and delight" become most fervent. The city represents the last outpost of European civilization before Walton ventures into the unexplored polar seas, and it is here that he articulates his ambition to "discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle" and to confer "the inestimable benefit" of a northern passage upon all mankind. The contrast between the bustling streets of St. Petersburgh and the desolate ice fields he will later encounter underscores the novel's preoccupation with the gap between human aspiration and the sublime indifference of nature.

Walton's Preparations and State of Mind

In St. Petersburgh, Walton reflects on the six years of preparation that have led him to this moment. He has hardened his body through whaling expeditions in the North Sea, studied mathematics and medicine, and twice served as an under-mate on Greenland whalers. He writes that his "courage and my resolution is firm; but my hopes fluctuate, and my spirits are often depressed," revealing the psychological strain that accompanies his grand enterprise. The city also intensifies his sense of isolation: he bitterly feels "the want of a friend" and laments that he has "no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve or amend my plans." This loneliness in St. Petersburgh foreshadows the deeper solitude he will experience on the ice and prepares him to receive Victor Frankenstein's tale of catastrophic ambition.

Historical and Political Context

The novel situates St. Petersburgh within the broader currents of European history and imperial ambition. In the monster's education through Volney's "Ruins of Empires," the creature learns of the rise and fall of civilizations, including the wars and virtues of the early Romans, the decline of their empire, and the discovery of the American hemisphere. St. Petersburgh, as the capital of the Russian Empire, embodies the kind of political power and territorial expansion that Volney critiques. The city's existence as a window onto Asia and the Arctic aligns with the novel's interest in the limits of human knowledge and the consequences of overreaching ambition. Walton's journey from St. Petersburgh northward mirrors the trajectory of imperial exploration, and his eventual decision to turn back—prompted by the sailors' fear and Frankenstein's death—suggests a critique of the relentless pursuit of glory at the expense of human life.

The City as a Symbol of Threshold

St. Petersburgh functions as a symbolic threshold between the known and the unknown, the domestic and the sublime. Walton's letters from the city are addressed to England, the home he has left behind, and they emphasize the distance between the safety of civilized life and the dangers of the polar regions. The city's northern latitude—"already far north of London"—places it at the edge of the habitable world, and Walton's description of traveling by sledge over snow, "the motion is pleasant, and, in my opinion, far more agreeable than that of an English stagecoach," domesticates the extreme environment even as it signals his departure from ordinary experience. St. Petersburgh thus serves as the last point where Walton can still communicate with his sister and receive letters, a connection that will be severed once he sails. The city's role as a liminal space reinforces the novel's central tension between the desire for discovery and the need for human connection.

Narrative Significance

St. Petersburgh is the setting for the novel's first narrative frame, establishing Walton's voice and his quest before Victor Frankenstein's story begins. It is from St. Petersburgh that Walton writes the letter that introduces the themes of ambition, isolation, and the pursuit of glory that will recur throughout the novel. The city also provides a geographical anchor for the novel's critique of Enlightenment science and exploration: Walton's project to find a northern passage and unlock the secrets of the magnet echoes Victor's project to unlock the secrets of life, and both begin in cities that represent the pinnacle of European civilization. St. Petersburgh, with its cold northern breeze and its promise of adventure, is the place where Walton's dream takes its first concrete form, and it is the place to which he will never return, having been transformed by his encounter with Frankenstein and the monster.