Ancient Mariner Vs Frankenstein Essay

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Frankenstein are both widely popular written works in the category of gothic literature. Both are masterfully written, and open to a surprisingly similar scenario: a warning passed from a wise mysterious man onto someone young and naive. Frankenstein begins with series of letters written by Robert Walton to his sister. These letters describe Walton’s expedition to the north in search of a new land. He speaks of the months of preparation beforehand, the difficulties of traveling in such cold and unforgiving weather, and a mysterious man who is found in the ocean. This mystery man listens to Walton’s extreme enthusiasm about his journey, but grows uneasy when Walton describes how “One man’s life or death were …show more content…
(!!!!!!!!!!!). The Mariner tells his those who he sees himself in as a way to warn them about doing something they don’t fully understand the consequences of. Exactly like Frankenstein. This parallel provides a sense of unease, and casts a suspicious and gloomy tone over the story, along with the overhanging prospect of inevitable doom. The mysterious warning plants the idea in the reader’s mind that something is going to go wrong, and the fact that they don’t know what it is makes it even worse. This gloomy tone is only intensified in Frankenstein due to the fact that the same warning had been given to the wedding guest in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which is a depressing story where many die. The thought of death mixed in with all the other sources of negativity and unease in both stories just creates a mess of gloominess. This intense bad feeking can only be achieved to this extent when the reader understands the paralell, and knows that something is bound to go wrong, or in the mystery man’s case, something has already gone wrong. Doom seeps through the pores of both stories and elevates the gothic