Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel Frankenstein alludes to the situation of isolation of the protagonist and to the bitter tone of the writing found in Samuel Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” to demonstrate that the emotions both the protagonists felt were logical and are similar to our own emotions throughout our daily lives as well. In the text of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, the Mariner is on a voyage South. After a tragic accident at sea that ended the lives of his crewmen, the Mariner finds himself in isolation, saying, “Alone, alone all, all alone,/ Alone on a wide wide sea!/ And never a saint took pity on/ My soul in agony” (Coleridge IV 233-236). Robert Walton, from the text of Frankenstein, also comes across a period of isolation when he realizes his need to have a friend, “I greatly need a friend who would have sense enough not to despise me as romantic, and affection enough for me to endeavour to regulate my mind. Well, these are useless complaints; I shall certainly find no friend on the wide ocean, nor even here in Archangel, among merchants and seamen” (Shelley 5). The protagonists in both these pieces of literature suffer through a stage of isolation due to the lack of communication with those who accompanied them. The crewmen of the Mariner are all dead, leaving him with no one to talk to.
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Although Robert Walton’s crewmen are alive, he doesn’t have a friend because of his different mindset and personality compared to those of his crewmembers; he’s a romantic who has no fear in expressing himself passionately.They both lack meaningful communication with someone
Although Robert Walton’s crewmen are alive, he doesn’t have a friend because of his different mindset and personality compared to those of his crewmembers; he’s a romantic who has no fear in expressing himself passionately.They both lack meaningful communication with someone