In the letters section at the beginning of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, there are four separate letters which each has an individual purpose. The main purpose of the first letter is to simply introduce Walton into the book and describe that he is a very dedicated captain of a boat. This letter makes Walton out to be a guy that likes to discover new places and see new things. Shelley states  I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven, for nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. This expedition has been the favorite dream of my early years  (Shelley 2). This really expresses Walton's passion for adventure and exploration. The purpose of the second letter is to show that Walton is feeling isolated to express the thought of loneliness. In this letter Shelley says "I shall certainly find no friend on the wide ocean, nor even here in Archangel, among merchants and seamen. Yet some feelings, unallied to the dross of human nature, beat even in these rugged bosoms  (Shelley 5) This shows the isolation that Walton is facing on his voyage, and how he wishes to show his share his time with someone. As letters three and four go on only for Walton to describe to his sister what is happening on his journey, it becomes clear that these letters are put into this novel to set up the main part of it. The fourth letter is Walter talking about the stranger he met that happened to fill in the area of loneliness that he had talked about in the second letter. In the fourth letter Walter says "My affection for my guest increases every day. He excites at once my admiration and my pity to an astonishing degree. How can I see so noble a creature destroyed by misery, without feeling the most poignant grief?  (Shelley 11). This quote confirms that the loneliness that Walter describes in the second letter is merely a foreshadowing for him to f