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Chelsea Picciotti
Rogers
British Literature
11 May 2011
Dena Rogers and the Essay of Themes
Themes are important in every story. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley has so many
different themes that they conflict with each other. One is the appreciation of nature and the
other is the condemnation of nature. To compare the admiration each speaker has for nature a
relation can be bridged from the poem “Lines Composed A Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” by
William Wordsworth. While looking at the condemnation of nature a comparison can be
traversed to “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Shelley’s Victor
Frankenstein evokes the characteristics of both Wordsworth and the Ancient Mariner in the ways
in which he reacts to nature.
Shelley’s admiration of nature, which directly relates to Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”,
is clearly illustrated when Dr. Frankenstein takes his halcyon walk through the woods. When
Shelley recites a passage from “Tintern Abbey” she embodies the emotions that were once
illustrated by Wordsworth so many years ago. She expounds upon the emotions that rage through
Victor as he takes his walk, these emotions are also prevalent in “Tintern Abbey” as Wordsworth
is revisiting this beloved sight. In these works nature takes the role of a restorative agent. Both
speakers are overcome with the sense of placidity that nature instills in them; Wordsworth
returns to pass on his amorousness for the Abbey to his sister, Dorothy, while Victor visits nature
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to find peace after the deaths of his brother, William, his best friend, Clerval, and the family
servant, Justine.
“The sound 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.” (Shelley 208-209)
Nature takes precedence in these works as a revitalizing force that both men
go to in order to reflect upon their lives.
“These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man’s eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and ‘mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into purer mind,
With a tranquil restoration- feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,
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As have no slight or trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man’ life.” (22-33)
Comparisons between Frankenstein and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” can be
drawn through a multitude of things: similarities between the albatross and the monster, Walton
and the Guest, and Victor and the Mariner himself. The albatross can be compared to
Frankenstein’s creation by noting that both creatures were victims of man’s cruelty and neither
bird nor being asked for what happened to them. Robert Walton and the Guest correlate being
that both men are functioning as the audience to a story of misdeeds. Finally, Victor shows his
disrespect for nature by playing God and creating life; the Mariner disrespects nature by killing
the albatross, a good omen. Also, Victor and the Mariner share a common factor; both are guilty
of misdeeds and end up passing on their story to unsuspecting persons. All of the comparisons
made relate back to the idea of a condemnation of nature.
“Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.”(139-142)
Themes are a relevant part to everyday literature. They make making comparisons
through seemingly different pieces of literature effortless. These prominent nature poets evoked
responses in fellow authors, and Mary Shelley uses them to illustrate Victor Frankenstein’s
strengths and weaknesses. To expound upon his strengths Shelley takes Victor into nature to
adhere to peace sought after the deaths of his loved ones. To symbolize his weaknesses she
exemplifies his lust for knowledge which leads to his creation of the monster, his personal
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condemnation of the natural world. Each tale shines a new light upon the idea of man; how man
can be affected by his decisions and how those decisions affect the world around him.
Works Cited
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Prentice Hall Literature. Boston,
MA: Pearson
Education, 2007. 730-53. Print. The British Tradition.
Shelley, Mary W. Frankenstein. New York, NY: Modern Library, 1999. Print.
Wordsworth, William. "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey." Prentice Hall
Literature. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, 2007. 709-13. Print. The British Tradition.