"Before I come on board your vessel," said he, "will you have the kindness to inform me whither you are bound?"
Letters, Letter 4 · Victor Frankenstein
Context
Victor, rescued from an ice floe and near death, refuses to board Walton's ship until he learns the ship's destination, despite his desperate condition.
Analysis
Victor's insistence on knowing the ship's course before accepting rescue is jarringly out of proportion to his situation—a man "on the brink of destruction" treating survival as negotiable. This illogical priority reveals that his pursuit has become more vital to him than his own life, an obsession so consuming it overrides basic self-preservation instinct.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Shelley characterizes obsession not as intense emotion but as a warping of rational thought—Victor's question shows how single-minded ambition reorders a person's hierarchy of values until self-destruction seems reasonable.