In the story, Frankenstein, the author ran a thread of themes through all the characters and events which are involved. Two prevalent themes that are offered are that of dangerous knowledge and passive women. Each character, but specifically R. Walton and Victor Frankenstein, is in pursuit of dangerous knowledge, or knowledge that has perilous circumstance and consequence. Similarly, these men both seek and require the advice, stability, acceptance and comfort of a female counterpart. The voice, memory, wish, or opinion of these important women is connected to them through, passive text or letters written from a distance.
             The story begins with letters R. Walton has written to his sister, Margaret, throughout his self-initiated journey to explore the North Poles. These letters or indulgences set precedent for the running theme of dangerous knowledge. On page 7, Walton is anxious, confused and in need of a confidant regarding the nature of and occurrences on his voyage. He divulges to his sister why he is embarking on a trip which (according to him) she believes is "evil": "...my attachment to, my passionate enthusiasm for, and the dangerous mysteries of ocean...There is something at work in my soul which I do not understand. I am practically industrious-painstaking, a workman to execute with perseverance and labour-" It is not so much the knowledge itself, rather the lure of the unknown, uncharted, unexplored that ravages the soul of the man who seeks it. Shelly portrays through Walton and Frankenstein that the danger of knowledge is more to the soul and physical person, and ultimately the mind. The knowledge that is sought is supernatural and "out of the common pathways of men (pg7)," for a reason. Victor himself acknowledges the danger in obsessing over dangerous knowledge: "A human being in perfection ought to always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility....