FRANKENSTEIN
ALLUSIONS
Lucas – English 4
Directions
 The novel, Frankenstein, contains
allusions to famous pieces of
literature and stories.
 For each allusion you need to show
how each reference connects with
the novel in at least 4 to 6
sentences on a separate sheet of
paper.
1. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Coleridge
 The poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, chronicles the story of a mariner
who has returned from a long sea voyage. During his voyage, the mariner
shot and killed an albatross (large seabird) that was glorified by the ship’s
crew; they thought the albatross brought them good luck. After the
mariner kills the albatross, the ship sails into uncharted waters. The crew
forces the mariner to wear the albatross around his neck to “bear the
burden” for killing the bird. The crew then encounters a ghostly ship where
“Death” and “Life-in-death” are playing dice for the men’s lives. Death wins
the crewmembers’ lives, while Life-in-death wins the mariner’s life. The
mariner is forced to witness his crew members die one by one. He is also
cursed to roam the Earth and tell his story as compensation for killing the
albatross; he must teach a lesson to those he meets.
 Page 7: “I am going to unexplored regions, to ‘the land of mist and snow,’
but I shall kill no albatross; therefore do not be alarmed for my safety or if
I should come back to you as worn and woeful as the ‘Ancient Mariner.’”
 Page 45: “Like one who, on a lonely road…Doth close behind him tread.”
2. Divine Comedy (Inferno)
by Dante Alighieri
 Dante’s Inferno relates the story of Dante’s journey through the
nine circles of Hell. Throughout his journey, he is guided by the
Roman poet, Virgil. They encounter sinners suffering terrible
punishments and “reaping what they sow.” For instance, those
who participated in wars and bloodshed are doomed to spend
eternity drowning in a boiling hot river of blood.
 Page 44: “…it became a thing such as even Dante could not
have conceived.”
3. One Thousand and One Nights
(Arabian Nights) a collection of folk tales
 During the fourth voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, he becomes
shipwrecked on an unknown land. While he resides there, he
befriends the king, and the king gives him a beautiful wife. However,
Sinbad is unaware of the customs of the new land he now inhabits: if
one’s spouse dies, their partner must be entombed alive with their
deceased spouse. Sinbad’s wife becomes sick and dies; therefore, he
is buried alive with her. Luckily, Sinbad is able to escape from the
tomb.
 Page 38: “I was like the Arabian who had been buried with the dead
and found a passage to life, aided only by one glimmering and
seemingly ineffectual light.”
4. "Tintern Abbey“ by William Wordsworth
 Wordworth’s “Tintern Alley” is a poem that describes the beauty in
nature. Wordsworth is trying to recapture a feeling about a part of the
countryside that he had visited five years before by re-constructing the
memory and tracing it over what he sees on this visit.
 Page 144: "The sounding cataract
Haunted him like a passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their forms, were then to him
An appetite; a feeling, and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm,
By thought supplied, or any interest
Unborrow'd from the eye."
5. “Old Familiar Faces” by Charles Lamb
 “Old Familiar Faces” is a poem by Chalres Lamb that laments the
loss of all friends.
 How some they have died, and some they have left me,
And some are taken from me; all are departed-All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
 Page 30: “I loved my brothers, Elizabeth, and Clerval; these were
‘old familiar faces,’”
6. “Mutability” by Percy Shelley
 The poem “Mutability”, by Percy Shelly, describes how a thought, whether
good or bad, can immediately take hold and shape anyone’s feelings. A
first-person poetic persona who complains that whether we are asleep or
awake, a bad dream or a “wandering thought” interferes with our
happiness. Whatever we think, however we feel, “It is the same,” meaning
that all will pass away and people will change. Thus, the one thing that
endures is “Mutability.”
 Page 84:
“We rest; a dream has power to poison sleep;
We rise; one wandering thought pollutes the day;
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep,
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away;
It is the same: for, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free;
Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but Mutability.”
7. Prometheus (Greek mythology)
 Prometheus was a Titan who created men from clay. He also stole
fire from the sun to give to man. His actions angered Zeus, the king
of the gods, who in turn condemned Prometheus for his actions. He
was bound to a rock for eternity while an eagle constantly pecked
at his liver.
 Page 40: “Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I
dabbed among the unhallowed damps of the grave or tortured the
living animal to animate the lifeless clay?”
 Consider that the subtitle of the book is “The Modern Prometheus.”
8. Paradise Lost by John Milton
 Paradise Lost is an epic poem that relates the story of the fall of man. In the poem, God
creates the Earth, along with Adam, the first man. Adam longs for a companion, so
God creates Eve. Adam and Eve reside in paradise, the Garden of Eden, where they
may eat of any plant in the garden, except the Tree of Knowledge. Satan, a fallen
angel and the king of hell, learns of the new race of man and becomes jealous; he
could have loved this new race, but instead, he is condemned to forever be the
“embodiment of hell.” Thus, he takes revenge on the new race by causing their fall.
Satan tempts Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, and Adam eats from the tree
shortly after. Adam and Eve have now gained knowledge of the evils of the world and
have also caused the fall of man. They are then forced to leave the garden forever.
 Page 87: “Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather
the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed.”
 Page 117: “But Paradise Lost excited different and far deeper emotions. Like Adam, I
was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but his state was far
different from mine in every other respect. Many times I considered Satan as the
fitter emblem of my condition….”
 Page 119: “But it was all a dream; no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my
thoughts; I was alone.”
 Consider the fact that both Walton and Victor pursue knowledge.