Frankenstein Comparison to the Rime of the Acient Mariner Essay

Both of these are seminal works that illustrate the Romantic period's interest in the irrational and supernatural.
Though Frankenstein is usually considered a gothic masterpiece (which it is) the central idea of the novel is that of man striving for something beyond ordinary life, and the story takes place in the kind of adult fairy-tale world typical of Romanticism. The creation of an artificial human being is rooted in myth, particularly that of the golem in Jewish folklore. Nineteenth-century authors deliberately sought source material in distant legends that expressed primal ideas and fears. Mary Shelley's story is a parable that combines this element based in myth and fantasy with a newer, almost technological concept of man striving for the impossible, for an advance beyond normal earthly life.
Coleridge's long narrative poem is also rooted in fantasy, depicting a meta-world outside reality. There is no rational answer to why the Mariner shoots the albatross. This random act of cruelty has something in common with Frankenstein's unforgivable abandonment of his creation. The appearance of a ghost ship is a concept out of legend, linked by Coleridge to a moral about both man's inhumanity and the randomness of life, symbolized by the shooting of dice for the soul of the Mariner.
In summary though the stories of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Frankenstein are outwardly dissimilar, both use elements of fantasy and legend and depict worlds beyond that of normal human experience. In this they are representative of their period and have been enormously influential upon literature and on artistic thought in general.