Frankenstein Reading Questions and Thoughts: Letters 1-4 and Chapters 1-4

Questions on Letters 1-4

1. Why exactly does Walton not have any friends or companions?
2. What does a sledge look like? It can be inferred that it is similar to a dog sled, but may have different features or varying shapes.
3. Why does the man found in letter 4 only have one living dog and missing limbs? How did he get like this?
4. Why did the men think brandy would warm up the human body (actually has the opposite affect)? Who created this theory and how was it tested?

Questions on Chapters 1-4

1. Why does the author decide to write from a first person point of view verses a third person point of view?
2. Why do Victor's parents want him to marry Elizabeth? What did they see in her as a child?
3. Did Victor really want to go to the university of Ingolstadt or did his parents pressure him to study there?

Thoughts

Based on letters 1-4 and chapters 1-4, I am trying to determine the correlation between the two at the moment. In letters 1-4, the author speaks about Walton and his journey to discover something new in his voyage to the North Pole, however in chapters 1-4, Shelley speaks about a completely different character. Perhaps these two varying stories are related as both of the characters go through a personal journey and will somehow tie them back together at the end (just my theory). 

I can personally relate to Victor Frankenstein as I believe his is very driven based on his work ethic and interest in the subject he is pursuing, which I can admire about him as a character, however I feel as if he is not very opinionated as he let his parents decide where he will go to college without a proper discussion and many other major aspects of his life such as who he will marry (did not force him to marry Elizabeth but his mother tried to make him promise to).