excerpt from Frankenstein
by Mary Shelly
I cannot describe to you my sensations on the near prospect of
my undertaking. It is impossible to communicate to you a
conception of the trembling sensation, half pleasurable and
half fearful, with which I am preparing to depart. I am going to
unexplored regions, to "the land of mist and snow," but I shall
kill no albatross; therefore do not be alarmed for my safety or if
I should come back to you as worn and woeful as the "Ancient
Mariner." You will smile at my allusion, but I will disclose a
secret. I have often attributed my attachment to, my passionate
enthusiasm for, the dangerous mysteries of ocean to that
production of the most Imaginative of modern poets. 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 labor-but besides this there is a love for the
marvelous, a belief in the marvelous, intertwined in all my
projects, which hurries me out of the common pathways of
men, even to the wild sea and unvisited regions I am about to
explore.
The narrator explains that he cannot fully
describe how he is feeling.
The narrator says he is afraid to go but is
excited at the same time.
He shares that it will be dangerous, but he
is attracted to the mystery of it all.
The narrator shares that it is hard work,
but he loves the adventure of the seas.
He will travel to new, unknown areas like
an old seaman does.