Robert's expedition hopes to reach the magnetic North Pole. Contemporary scientific debates suggested magnetism as the most powerful natural force responsible for life. For a full account of magnetism and electricity in the novel and its offspring, see Iwan Rhys Morus, Frankenstein's Children: Electricity, Exhibition, and Experiment in Early Ninteenth-Century London (Princeton University Press, 1998).

We now know that the magnetic charge of the North Pole causes the needle of a compass to point north. However, until William Gilbert (1540-1603) discovered the magnetism of the earth's poles, it was a common conception that the needle on the compass moved by force of magic. In Shelley's time, the source of the earth's magnetism was a mystery and adventurers like Robert Walton set out to the North and South Poles seeking scientific answers and public glory.