Alone and Confused

Many readers tend to skip the inter-textual parts Mary Shelly puts in Frankenstein.  This however is a mistake.  By reading the inter-textual texts in Frankenstein you get an idea what she was thinking or get the idea from when she wrote that part in someone else’s words or in this case what a character is feeling.  Coleridge’s, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, I feel is not looked at nearly enough.  This inter-text was put in the middle of Chapter V of Frankenstein after Victor has made the monster and is running away in a frantic state of mind.  The inter-text Shelly puts in is important to read closely to understand the novel fully and what Shelly is trying to say/show you.  After further research of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner it is apparent that the Mariner and Victor from Frankenstein are both alone.  Part of the reason Victor makes the Monster is because he is alone.  Mary Shelly uses the quote from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner because Victor is feeling the same pain that The Mariner is feeling on being alone for the sins they committed.  It is also a way of foreshadowing.

Victor is scared of his own creation and runs away from it and stays in the courtyard for the night.  The quote from the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner explains what Victor is feeling and that he is scared, lonely and in a frantic state of mind; this is why he can’t sit still.  He doesn’t know what to do and feels the best thing he can do is walk but he is paranoid and keeps looking over his shoulder.  I think Victor is looking for anyone to talk to; he is confused about what he has done.  When Henry Clerval spots him he is clearly relieved and says, “Nothing could equal my delight on seeing Clerval; his presence brought back to my thoughts my father, Elizabeth…” (Shelly 56).  The reason for Shelly putting in the Coleridge text is to explain what Victor is feeling through another texts’ words.  Victor is in a frightened state of mind and by Shelly using this quote it makes more sense because Victor can barely think; let alone speak.

Victor feels very guilty for having creating the monster.  It is clear he is guilty when he is creating the monster because he doesn’t talk to anyone about it and is paranoid.  After looking more into The Rime of the Ancient Mariner it seems the Mariner is alone much like Victor although Victor is at college and misses his family and his love while the Mariner is left alone and alive to be tormented for the sin he committed.  This is why Shelly put this quote.  It explains what Victor is feeling since the Mariner had very similar feelings.  The fifth line from the Coleridge text, ”Because he knows a frightful fiend,” I feel explains the first line “Like one who, on a lonely road,” in that part of the reason he is walking alone is because he is afraid and in fear and has no one to go to.  This is why the next paragraph, when Henry appears, he is relieved because it takes his mind off things and what he has done.

This quote can also be thought of, as Shelly foreshadowing what will happen later on in that most of Victor’s friends are dead because of his actions just like the Mariner’s shipmates.  The Mariner’s shipmates are all killed by Death (a skeleton) and the “Night-mare Life-in-Death” (a deathly-pale woman) from a game of dice they play on the crew’s souls.  The Mariner killed albatross (a Christian soul), who guided him and his crew when they were lost at sea.  The Mariner is kept alive to suffer alone because he killed the Albatross, which the Life-in-Death feels is worse than being killed.  Even though Victor doesn’t kill anyone, he creates life by putting together a bunch of body parts, which in some religions itself would be a sin.  Victor realizes what he has done after he has created the Monster and this very likely could be the reason why he goes crazy.  Shelly puts this quote in because the Mariner also committed a sin and is then left alone as the consequence for his sin.  One of the reasons Victor created the Monster was because he was alone.   However, by the end of the book most of Victor’s friends are murdered by his own creation and he feels responsible for their deaths because they are in revenge for how he treated the monster.  In the Ten Commandments the Bible says “Thou Shall Not Kill” and Victor feels responsible for the deaths because they were done in revenge to make him suffer. In the end Victor is more alone than he was at the beginning.  The main reason I think this inter-textual is significant is for what it means in that it is a foreshadowing for what Victor has done and his punishment ultimately is just like the Mariners.

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