Frankenstein and Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

From the very beginning of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley alludes to Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and a lot of parallels develop between the stories. The clearest parallel could be drawn between the captain Robert Walton and the Mariner himself in Coleridge’s poem. Both characters are captaining a ship in an inhospitable landscape, faced with unforgiving conditions and an equally unforgiving crew. Walton grows closer to mutiny by the day because of his incessant will to continue exploration through the menacing conditions and the Mariner’s crew abhors him for shooting the albatross and bringing them bad fortune. Both these circumstances can be traced back to the unchecked ambition both characters face in their endeavors; Walton to find a revolutionary sea passage and become a champion seafarer and the Mariner to kill the albatross and similarly become a champion seafarer. While we don’t know what is going happen to Walton, the Mariner is forced to wear the albatross around his neck as a way of carrying the burden of his mistakes and bearing a metaphorical cross, so it’s fair to suspect that Walton may end up in a similar case. However, a less evident parallel might be drawn between Victor and the Mariner, as we clearly see Victor fall victim to his own unchecked ambition. His thirst for knowledge and eagerness to tamper in this exploded science leads him to creating a creature which he ultimately grows to detest and he must live with the consequences of his actions much like the Mariner. Either as a consequence of creating the creature in the first place, or of not showing it the genuine compassion it deserved as his progeny, Victor is forced to watch as, slowly, all of his loved ones die around him. The three characters are fascinating in this sense because they all demonstrate differently the danger of unchecked ambition and the consequences that can ensue.