Sunday, February 19, 2017

What are some comparisons between Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?

Both the Mariner and Frankenstein bring suffering to themselves and others through their own hubris or pride: they both start out thinking they can do whatever they want and only later learn to repent of their actions.
The Mariner's ship is saved from an ice jam near Antartica by an albatross, but the Mariner carelessly assumes the right to kill it, despite its kind act. As the Mariner says:

With my cross-bow,I shot the albatross.

As a result of this killing, which shows contempt for God's creatures, the Mariner and his shipmates are cursed and led by spirits to a place where their ship is stranded by unmoving waters near the equator. The crew is parched with intense thirst;

Day after day, day after day,We stuck, nor breath nor motion;As idle as a painted shipUpon a painted ocean.Water, water, every where,And all the boards did shrink;Water, water, every where,Nor any drop to drink.

Eventually, the crew members meet Death and die, while the Mariner is cursed to lead life in death.
Likewise, Frankenstein shows hubris or pride. He violates nature by acting like God and creating life out of dead body parts. He is an ambitious young scientist, and he is so bent on success that he doesn't think through the moral implications of what he is doing. When the creature comes to life, Frankenstein is horrified by its ugliness. Instead of taking responsibility for what he has created, he abandons his creation. Like the Mariner, who lacked empathy for the albatross, so Frankenstein lacks empathy as he deserts his creation. All Frankenstein can do is think about himself:

Now all was blasted: instead of that serenity of conscience, which allowed me to look back upon the past with self-satisfaction, and from thence to gather promise of new hopes, I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures, such as no language can describe.

Because of Frankenstein's rejection of the creature, including refusing to follow through on a promise to build a mate for him, Frankenstein's friends and family suffer the curse of being killed by the creature. This is similar to the crew dying because of the Mariner's deed. The monster kills Frankenstein's brother William, his close friend Clerval, and Frankenstein's fiancee. Frankenstein also suffers the fate of a sort of "life-in-death," becoming starved and sick as he chases the creature to the arctic, determined to destroy it.
Both the Mariner and Frankenstein think they can do whatever they want. They both learn, however, to regret and repent of their thoughtless actions regarding God's creation.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?

In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...