I have longed for a friend
Walton looks back to the desire expressed in his second letter to his
sister (Letter 2.2) and reiterated to
Victor Frankenstein (Letter 4.6), who
replied in despondency over the memory of his dead friend Henry Clerval
(Letter 4.7). In reinstating that
wish, Walton reminds us of how very little time has actually elapsed in
the narrative frame of the novel as well as of how violent and destructive
such intense relationships can become when they are based on hatred rather
than affection.
