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Mary Shelley and Samuel Taylor Coleridge are two recognized writers of the Romantic era. The influence of Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere is reflected in Shelley’s Frankenstein in terms of narrative structure, literary techniques and themes. For example, both stories address the act of storytelling from the perspective of the listener as well as the teller. Furthermore, the narrations have a similar structure as narrative concerns. The story of Victor Frankenstein is told within a frame narration, as in The Ancient Mariner in which an anonymous third-person narrator recounts how an old sailor comes to tell a young wedding guest the story of his adventures at the sea. When we refer to a frame narration, we are telling that is a narrative that recounts the telling of another narrative or story that thus “frames” the inner or framed narrative. So in Frankenstein, Walton’s letters shape a frame around the main narrative and Victor Frankenstein’s story, while in The Ancient Mariner, the story told about the mariner represents a frame around the mariner own story.
The novel Frankenstein is written in the first person point of view, but at different points in the book, different storytellers recount the tale. Therefore, it can be found three different narrators, being Robert Walton the first narrator, who in his letters cites, second narrator, Victor Frankenstein’s narration; Victor, at the same time, cites the third narrator’s story. Furthermore, Elizabeth Lavenza and Alphonse Frankenstein narrate parts of the story through their letters to Victor as well, but they are not as relevant narrators as the other characters. With Victor Walton’s character Mary Shelley uses a device denominated epistolary form, novel in the fo...
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...to every human being who, from whatever source of delusion, has at any time believed himself under supernatural agency.”
The narration of the poem is more or less constant up to the sixth part, which opens with a dialogue between two voices. These two voices provide a narrative and stylistic break in the poem. Firstly, the voices can be considered as an omniscient narrator in this part because they have a broad knowledge of everything that has happened up until now, and are able to offer a better explanation of the situation to the Ancient Mariner. Moreover, the way in which the dialogue is presented, makes the structure seems more of a script of a play. The structure of the poem is a key characteristic in displaying the theme, for by telling the story as a personal experience, it helps the reader understand the moral and theme intended as a warning to people.
Mary Shelley uses three narrators to convey her story – Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein and the being itself. She uses so many narrators to sympathise with the story and to show different aspects and each view of the story. Victor Frankenstein narrates the story in chapter 5 and is Narrator 2. In chapter 5 Victor sees his creation come to life. At first, Victor thinks that his idea worked. But then, he is horrified that he created this monster and so he runs away. His friend, Henry Clerval, takes care of him when he becomes sick and has a fever for months.
Shelley, Mary "Frankenstein". The Presence of Others. Comp Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruskiewicz. New York: St. Martins, 1997 230-235.
Paradoxically, the creation does not result in progress but manages to destroy more than what it was made from, in turn, causing more conflict and damage. Whale’s cynical view towards the war was especially exposed in “Bride of Frankenstein” which was made three years after Hitler came into authority. The technology used within this film was beyond its time as was the gender reversal and concept of re-animation after death. This could symbolize the people’s resistance to evolve and improve. The community and people who make it such are also part of the symbolic battlefield that is Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory. It is in this community of regression that the re-born creature is thrust into and immediately rejected. Similarly the returning wounded soldier is not taken in by the community; rather he is shunned and unwelcomed as if he has been de-humanized by the war. The people of the community do not see the soldier as “re-born”, they see him more as an abnormality that was supposed to die in the war. Although many in the community claimed they would rather see dead heroes happy in their afterlife they were often rejected when they returned home. This war that was referred to as “the war to end all wars” produced more hardship for populations. It was at this time that the re-birth from death of the creature undermined the meaning of death and obligation of those who had sacrificed all for their country. In the film “J’accuse” by Abel Gance the town folk flee from the “reborn” soldiers. They are not at all excited or grateful to see their deceased war heroes one last time. The villagers know that they have not shown appreciation for the soldiers sacrifices. They have been living petty civilian lives, taking advantage of soldiers’ bu...
This essay has argued that both works, Frankenstein and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, have similarities in terms of themes and narrative structure. Shelley and Coleridge used various narrators to tell their stories, and by doing that,14 Furthermore, both works are structured in the same form, with the frame narration, a story within a story, which provides a frame of verisimilitude to an improbable tale. In brief, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a constant presence in the novel Frankenstein.
The idea for the novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came to her one night when she was staying in the company of what has been called ‘her male coterie’, including Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley’s whole life seems to have been heavily influenced by men. She idolised her father, William Godwyn, and appears to have spent a good part of her life trying very hard to impress both him and her husband. There seems to have been a distinct lack of female influence, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, having died weeks after her birth, being replaced by a neglectful step-mother. These aspects of her life are perhaps evident in her novel. The characters and plot of Frankenstein were perhaps influenced by Shelley’s conflicting feelings about the predominately masculine circle which surrounded her, and perhaps the many masculine traits that we see in novel were based upon those of the male figures in Shelley’s own life. In this essay I will attempt to show some of these traits.
The following essay is concerned with the frame structure in Mary Shelley`s Frankenstein and its’ functions as it is suggested by Beth Newman`s "Narratives of seduction and the seduction of narratives". To start with, the novel Frankenstein is a symmetrically built frame narrative with a story at its center. This is not always the case with frame structured novels, as there are examples without a proper center (e.g. Heart of Darkness). The elaborate system of frames indicates that this center reveals some kind of a mystery. However, it would be wrong to asume that the center alone contains the meaning of the novel. On the contrary, the meaning of the novel is brought about by the relation between the different stories at the center and the frames around it.
The purpose of this suddenly close relationship is to bring credibility to the narrative of Frankenstein and ultimately bring credibility to the narrative of the monster. This is done be enveloping Walton’s letters around both these narratives. These layers sustain the relationship through the novel and allow the reader to be outside of the story, physically in another location as Walton’s sister is, but to be close and credible.
Frankenstein is the story of an eccentric scientist whose masterful creation, a monster composed of sown together appendages of dead bodies, escapes and is now loose in the country. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelly’s diction enhances fear-provoking imagery in order to induce apprehension and suspense on the reader. Throughout this horrifying account, the reader is almost ‘told’ how to feel – generally a feeling of uneasiness or fright. The author’s diction makes the images throughout the story more vivid and dramatic, so dramatic that it can almost make you shudder.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a story that starts from letters of a man named Wilson to his dear sister Margaret, who is off in sea and stranded within the Arctic in his “expedition of discovery up his native river.” There Wilson meet a man named Victor who he had saved and later on Victor will tell his story to Wilson for he had felt a connection of brotherhood and wishes that Wilson won’t walk the same fate as he had. This was how the audience will later learn
‘Frankenstein’ or ‘The Modern Prometheus‘ is a 19th century gothic novel written by Mary Shelley. Shelley’s interest in the physical sciences had led her to writing a novel that is based on creating human life in an unnatural way. Victor is one if the narrators who has an unnatural obsession with the sciences led him to discover the secret of life; creating the abomination that is his monster. Walton serves as the neutral narrator that has no personal impact on Victor’s and the monster’s tales. It is through Walton that the monster was able to express his feelings at the death of his creator.
As in many other stories, Robert Walton performs a primary role, the narrator. As a polar exploring narrator, first of all, Robert Walton holds a third person view when recounting Frankenstein’s tale, which gives a more objective and reliable feeling to the readers. Secondly, Walton’s narration not only gives a just account for the narrative of Frankenstein, but also sets the scene for Victor’s own story and life to begin, to break, and to end. The novel starts right with the letter from Robert to his sister, so readers are brought right into the plot. At the same time, because it introduces the background of meeting Frankenstein, the story has a sense of reality. Then within the time Victor explains his adventure, Robert functions as a joint for different events and breaks of Victor. When approaching the experience of learning about the death of Henry, Victor once said, “I must pause here, for it requires all my fortitude to recall the memory of the frightful events which I am about to relate, in proper detail, to my recollection” (158). Even though Walton is not directly introduced into the conversation, audience can feel that the reference to Walton pulls th...
Victor Frankenstein is a scientist whose ambition will be fatal. His story is central to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Nevertheless, Shelley gave a frame to Victor's tale as Frankenstein begins and ends with Captain Walton's letters. In this analysis, I will show that Shelley did not insert the letters by chance, but that they add a deeper dimension to the novel.
Mary Shelley’s use of a frame story in her novel “Frankenstein” generates the problem of reliable narration as many narrations do. However unlike most novels, this story is told through three different narrations allowing much room for bias and a slight change in the tale. The title character, Victor Frankenstein, is not trust worthy due to his deep personal loathing for his monster or another narrator. This narrator cannot be taken as an accurate depiction due to its lack of empathetic behavior and constant vying for pity but also acts in a manner that is gruesome. The last narrator proves to be most reliable because he has the least amount to do with the actual story other than to pass along Victor’s story and to carry on what happens when one is tainted by science and the pursuit of too much knowledge.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley combines three separate stories involving three different characters--Walton, Victor, and Frankenstein's monster. Though the reader is hearing the stories through Walton's perspective, Walton strives for accuracy in relating the details, as he says, "I have resolved every night,...to record, as nearly as possible in his [Victor's] own words, what he has related during the day" (Shelley 37). Shelley's shift in point of view allows for direct comparison and contrast between the characters, as the reader hears their stories through the use of first person. As the reader compares the monster's circumstances to those of Victor and Walton, the reader's sympathy for the monster greatly increases.
In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley tells us a story about a man called Victor Frankenstein who creates a Creature which he later decides he does not like. The novel Frankenstein is written in an Epistolary form - a story which is written in a letter form - and the letters are written from an English explorer, Robert Walton, to his sister Margaret Saville. Robert is on an expedition to the North Pole, whilst on the expedition; Robert is completely surrounded by ice and finds a man who is in very poor shape and taken on board: Victor Frankenstein. As soon as Victor’s health improves, he tells Robert his story of his life. Victor describes how he discovers the secret of bringing to life lifeless matter and, by assembling different body parts, creates a monster who guaranteed revenge on his creator after being unwanted from humanity.