Frankenstein And The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner Analysis

Frankenstein, a novel written by Mary Shelley, is a story about a determined individual named Victor Frankenstein who, without much thought, was able to bring dead matter to life, creating a living being. Another piece of text, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, is an epic poem concerning a Mariner and his journey out at sea. By the descriptions of each text, they seem quite different, however, they share the same underlying theme. As a result, Mary Shelley refers to the poem several times in her story to institute a moral in her novel. By alluding to specific passages from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley exquisitely compares the prideful and impetuous personalities of Victor Frankenstein and the Mariner,

Frankenstein 's arrogant and impetuous character comes back to bite him as he hastily demolishes the creatures companion, even with knowing the risk of doing so. The creature was abandoned ever since he was brought to life, and was forced to fend for himself. Not being able to fit in with human society is what provoked him to ask Frankenstein to create a companion for him. Although it took awhile to convince Frankenstein, he reluctantly agreed and began to create a new creature. However, quite abruptly “with a sensation of madness on [his] promise of creating another like to him, and trembling with passion, [he] tore the thing on which [he] was engaged. (121). In a fit of terror, Frankenstein can be seen destroying the one thing he promised the creature, a friend. This is because of his sudden change of mind. At first, he can be seen skeptical about creating a new being, however, Frankenstein reluctantly agrees. He spent months creating the companion, only to destroy it over “a sensation of madness on [his] promise of creating another like to him”. This uncertainty affected the feeling and happiness of the creature as until then, he was sure of spending the rest of his life with a partner. Unfortunately, his elation was short-lived, as Frankenstein changed his mind. Playing with emotions can have negative impacts on people and can cause them to retaliate which was the case with the creature. He experienced the destruction of his future companion first hand, which affected him emotionally. Because he was in shock, he reacted to this situation by telling Frankenstein that “[He] will be with [Frankenstein] on [his] wedding night” (123). Frankenstein interpreted this to be that the creature would kill him on his