Stories of an Ancient Mariner

Stories and tales often hold adventures and missions to be told throughout history. In Frankenstein, Robert Walton is known as one of the narrators that writes to his sister, telling his stories of his adventure in discovering a route to transport goods quicker around the world. He also sails by sea to discover the secrets of magnetism. The ancient mariner in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” of The Norton Anthology English Literature stops a  wedding guest to tell his strange story. In the story there are actions of death and also the belief of a good luck charm. Both of these prompts show that stories are important in history and are mysterious but adventurous. 

Robert Walton’s letters to his sister are full of emotion and somewhat sorrowful. In the book he says, “ My courage and my resolution is firm; but my hopes fluctuate and my spirits are often depressed” (14). He talks about how sometimes he must sustain his own happiness and feelings to raise others up. Walton also explains how he remembers when he first began sailing and going on adventures. Some of those adventures he “ accompanied the whale-fishers on several expeditions to the North Sea; voluntarily endured cold, famine, thirst, and want of sleep” (14). He not only tells his sister, Mrs. Saville about how he is or how hard he works but also tells about a lieutenant of his. He describes him with awe claiming that he is, “a man of wonderful courage and enterprise; he is madly desirous of glory” (16). Walton then tells about how his lieutenant wanted to get engaged to this woman but her father refused to let them wed. He offered money but still got rejected and quitted his country without returning until after hearing that his former mistress was married. At the end of one of his letters Robert Walton tells his sister to continue to write to him for he will read them when he is in need of high spirits.

Works Cited

Shelly, Mary. Frankenstein. Introduction and Notes by Karen Kargiener. Barnes and Noble, 

2003.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” The Norton Anthology of British Literature: The Romantic 

Period. 10th ed. Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor. W. W. Norton, 2017. pp. 448-464.