Contrary to popular conception, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is an extremely complex and intricately woven novel. This brilliant author uses many inter-textual references to make connections within Frankenstein. One of the references Shelley makes is to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. This poem is placed within the story right after the death of Dr. Frankenstein’s first creation, and he plans on going to bed, defeated. At the time the poem originally seems like a description of Frankenstein, but it is really foreshadowing what is to come in the story.
The main theme of the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is of a person who is walking a lonely road. At first glance the poem seems like it is about Dr. Frankenstein, because he is feeling very lonely and sorrowful, his mother had died and his work seems to be failing. After the completion of the entire novel, readers should recognize that the Mariner is truly Frankenstein’s monster; while he lives he is forced to wander a lonely path, without compassion or love.
The phrase “doth walk in fear and dread” from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem could possibly describe Dr. Frankenstein and his recent failed creation. He might be walking in “fear and dread” at the thought of being considered a failure by his peers and even his beloved father. This interpretation is trumped by the foreshadowing of the life of Frankenstein’s monster. The monster is forcefully sequestered from society and dreads the fact that he will never be accepted. He also fears that other people will always judge him and he will live an unhappy life of solitude.
The line that states, “And, having once turned round, walks on”, are originally mistaken as a description of how Dr. Frankenstein “once turned” from being alone to having company, the monster, but now “walks on” alone with no companion. The true meaning of this line in the poem “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is about the monster of Frankenstein. The Monster at first follows his master, but then “turns” to “walk on” and has Dr. Frankenstein follow after him.
At the point in the novel, when Shelley inserts Coleridge’s poem, Dr. Frankenstein does not view his creation as a monster. Unbeknownst to the Doctor his life’s work is truly a monster, and as the poem states, “he knows a frightful fiend”. The poem also foreshadows the “frightful fiend” that the monster of Frankenstein comes to know. Later in the story, Dr. Frankenstein seeks out the monster to take revenge for the death of his family members. Dr. Frankenstein is the “fiend” of his creation and continually torments him.
Finally, the poem describes someone or something that, “doth close behind him tread”. Although at this point in the novel Dr. Frankenstein is not being followed by anyone he is being followed by his own faults and failures. The poem seems more accurate as a foreshadowing of events in the monster’s life. At the end of the novel his creator, Dr. Frankenstein, is following him.
Mary Shelley’s use of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” creates an aspect of foreshadowing within her novel, Frankenstein. This poem seemingly tells the life of Dr. Frankenstein, but it actually foreshadows the life of Frankenstein’s monster. Shelley’s novel is much more complicated than it appears, for she uses the poem to help create and develop an intricate story, and to foreshadow the life of the monster of Frankenstein.
