The Albatross' Omen Becomes The Downfall of Frankestein

The story of Frankenstein has infested popular media in all the years since its release. While the references are often wrong because of the movie that named the monster Frankenstein instead of the scientist, Mary Shelley’s Gothic Horror novel is a story known and loved by many, and often called upon when referencing something built from materials from very different sources. But that brings about the question, what influenced Shelley? True to form of this exhibit, I am pursuing the influence the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” had on Shelley’s construction of the story of Frankenstein. 

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and published in 1817, a year before Shelley released Frankenstein. This poem would have been popular fiction with an uncommon brevity, and we see her incorporation of this influence in her introductory character, Robert Walton, a mariner sailing in the arctic with a crew he does not connect with. We even see him make an allusion to the infamous line of the poem in his letters to his sister, assuring her that he had not shot the albatross. While this short line might seem like an innocuous allusion due to Walton’s profession, it is actually a powerfully hidden work of foreshadowing incorporated by Shelley, predicting the downfall of Victor due to his illogical experiment. As the novel continues, we meet Victor Frankenstein and hear his story of crafting the creature and the subsequent death of his family and friends, and we understand the mariner in Coleridge’s poem and Victor chose the ill regarded path, and suffered the consequences for their immature choices. 

The item I have chosen to digitize is an illustration of the infamous line from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” when the mariner chose death. Below is the incredible image drawn by Gustave Dore and I have annotated the image. Each box has an explanation of what that piece of the picture stands for and how Victor and the mariner lost everything.

In conclusion, Shelley utilized the knowledge of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” poem to plant the hint of Victor’s mistake and subsequent downfall. The mast, the arrow, and the albatross combined created a story that represents the immaturity of the mariner and Victor, and how their own decision of destruction, hate, and death led to the loss of everything of any importance.