Walton’s motives are to find the Northwest Passage. He wants to do what no one has ever been able to do so that he can become a very rich and famous person. He wants to figure out some of the mysteries of the North Pole. Walton says, “I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle; and may regulate a thousand celestial observations, that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities consistent for ever.” Though he outlines his reasons for making this journey I think there is another motive behind his undertaking. He describes his failure as a poet and how he had hit rock bottom after he realized that a poet was not what he was meant to be. Then he had the available funds to try and pursue a dream he, and numerous other people, had always had, which was the quest for the Northwest Passage. With his continual failure taken into account, his motives seem to be less about just becoming rich and famous. It seems he wants to prove himself more than anything. He wants to prove that he can do something important and not fail at it. He doesn’t need or really want the wealth or fame that will come with finding the Northwest Passage. This is seen in the text in his first letter to his sister. “Margaret, do I not deserve to accomplish some great purpose? My life might have been passed in ease and luxury; but I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path.”

Like Walton, Victor Frankenstein is also out to prove something. He realizes that the ability to bring to life something that was once lifeless holds more power than most can imagine. With power such as that he could become rich and famous beyond his wildest dreams. I do not believe that those are his motives for doing the experimentation that he does. He motive is to prove not only what he can do but to prove that the scientists that wrote the books with theories that everyone said are outdated and nonsensical aspirations knew what they were talking about. He wanted to prove that it wasn’t drivel that he was spending his time studying. I believe he really just wanted to show that his findings were true even if they didn’t work completely. He just wanted the knowledge behind what he discovered to be out for people to use and elaborate on. I think this can be seen in the text when Victor says, “I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success.” I think he wanted to at least leave something for someone else to elaborate on. I think this ties into something he said earlier. “In other studies you go as far as others have gone before you, and there is nothing more to know; but in a scientific pursuit there is continual food for discovery and wonder.” He wanted to at least go farther than anyone had gone before.
I think Shelley is trying to show us how common motives like these are. Everyone wants to be successful and show that they are worth something, but everyone has a different way of doing that. She goes to the extreme to prove this point by having Victor and Walton meet in the middle of a frozen ocean, but I think by showing this in such an extreme context it helps hit the point home even harder.
Since I just said that everyone wants to show they are worth something I think it is obvious that people like Bill Gates posses the same motives, but I also feel that they do what they do more for the fame and fortune. They want to leave a legacy. They want to be remembered as these great inventors and technology wizards. If Bill Gates didn’t desire to be rich, famous and powerful, he wouldn’t be seen as somewhat of a software dictator that pushes all of the little people around. If Gates wanted nothing more than to show that he was worth something then he wouldn’t be the cutthroat businessman that he is.