Frankenstein VS Rime of the Ancient Mariner Notes
I.
Walton makes allusion to Rime of the Ancient Mariner on pg.6 “I shall kill no
albatross”
a. Parallel structure between Frankenstein and Rime of the Ancient Mariner
i. Walton encounters the ice and fog and his ship is surrounded by
ice.
ii. The Monster is seen and the ice breaks like the albatross and the
mariner. Is the monster symbolic of the albatross?
iii. Walton brings Victor on board.
1. Is the monster Death and Victor Life-in-Death? In a way
they both “gamble” for Walton’s sympathies.
II.
Victor is the ancient mariner and so is Walton, but Walton is also the wedding
guest hearing the mariner’s tale.
Victor’s tale is also the Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
a. Example: surrounded by ice in the Alps until the monster saves him.
b. Example: The Monster falls into the sea like the albatross
c. The only real story in Frankenstein then is the Monster’s. Is the Monster a
Christ figure?
III.
Foils
Henry/Victor
Victor/Monster
Doppelgangers
Victor/Walton
Victor/Monster
Walton/Henry
Henry acts as Victor’s conscience through much of the novel and so does Walton making
them Doppelgangers of each other.
Henry and Victor bring out what is best and worst in each other as foils.
The Monster is the remainder of what is good in Victor, and is therefore both
Doppelganger and foil. Referenced in the quote “I ought to be thy Adam, but instead I am
thy fallen angel driven from thou for no misdeed.” The biblical allusion shows that the
monster is made in Victor’s image (physiognomy – ugly because Victor is ugly inside)
but still capable of choice and thus a “good” man.
Victor and Walton are doppelgangers because of their obsessive pursuit of activities
outside of societies norm and this concept is cemented in their role as the ancient mariner.
Robert Walton
Man vs Man – Sister,
Father, Frankenstein,
Monster
Man vs Self
Man vs Society – Polar
Exploration
Man vs Supernatural –
“Rime”
Man vs Nature – Fog, Ice,
Seasons
Victor Frankenstein
Man vs Man – Walton,
Monster, Henry, Elizabeth,
Krempe, Alphonse
Man vs Self
Man vs Society –
Harvesting bodies
Man vs Supernatural – God,
Creating Life
Man vs Nature – Natural
Order, Alps
The Monster
Man vs Man – Victor,
Walton, Old Man Delacey
Man vs Self
Man vs Society –
difference/physiognomy
Walton is symbolic of Romanticism
Victor is symbolic of the Enlightenment
The Monster is Nature? Walton empathizes with the Monster at the end and finds his own
personality and Victor, as the Enlightenment, is constantly at odds with nature.