In
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein,
protagonist Victor Frankenstein employs a narrative which parallels that, both
in action and in consequence, of the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by poet
Samuel Coleridge in its striking Romantic themes and its use of creation as a
representation of inherent human responsibility and the likeness between
oneself and one’s actions. “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” recounts the actions
of hubris of an old and weary sailor who casts an albatross from the sky and is
later haunted by the subsequent deaths of his crewmembers. This theme is
visited in Frankenstein through the
confrontation between Frankenstein’s monster and his creator, in which it is
recognized the responsibility that Victor maintains to love that to which he
has given life. His visceral emotions of abhorrence represent his fragility and
inability to do reciprocate the nurture owed to his creature, and thus, in
keeping with Romantic values, would emphasize that the animalistic qualities of
man, such as hatred and fear, render the human an incapable creator with
respect to the ideal might of nature. In “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, the
similarities between love and creation are evident; the Mariner urges that all
manner of man and beast that nature has ideally created should be loved and
valued as equal, suggesting that it is only when man tries to overcome his
natural order that the balance between life and death, or creation and
destruction is compromised. This is too exemplified in Frankenstein’s monster’s
daunting ultimatum: love in life, or death.
Victor Frankenstein and the Ancient Mariner are too similar
in the method of distancing themselves from the consequences of their actions
(rationalization) until they are forced to recognize the magnitude of promoting
life (Frankenstein) or death (“Rime
of the Ancient Mariner”) by their respective hands. In both narratives the realization
(peripeteia) is within the deaths of friends and family; and each subsequent death
bears a greater weight. Death is also visited as an unnatural animation;
life-in-death mirrors the curse of an arrested sleep and signifies the
naturality and peace of true death, and further emphasizes the unnatural
ability of man to play God under science. The grandeur of the natural world in
both narratives further projects the encompassing might of nature as the determinant
of fate, and heightens its role as a deity. In both narratives, the main characters
are arrested in their grief; however, Frankenstein finds peace in his
solidarity, while the Mariner is imprisoned by his solitude. There is a
distinct morality within both narratives; they are informally didactic.
No comments:
Post a Comment