Tintern Abbey And Victor Frankenstein

Matt Miller

English 101

Professor Meehan

Februrary 24, 2010

Intertextuality in Frankenstein

             In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, her use of intertextuality is very important for the flow of the novel. Of all the different texts that are incorporated in the novel such as, rhyme of the ancient mariner, paradise lost and her introduction. The text that intertwines with the novel best is Wordsworth’s, Tintern Abbey. Tintern Abbey is a poem about a man who has been away from this certain place or object for five years, and he is reminiscing on his past.  He wishes and thinks about the cliffs, the cottage, the trees, and wishes he could leave the city to go back to that certain place in nature. Tintern Abbey’s seven lines that are incorporated in the novel, have a hidden meaning behind them, that somehow relate to Victor, and his emotions throughout the novel.

             The way that Shelley incorporates Tintern Abbey makes the reader think that Wordsworth’s poem relates to Victor. Throughout the novel, there are different times when Victor shows the same symptoms as the character described in Tintern Abbey. The first time Victor leaves home to go study in Geneva, he misses Elizabeth and his father, and becomes ill because of it. This particular moment in the novel is very similar to Wordsworth’s character, both of them living in a place where they feel uncomfortable. In Victor’s case, he wants to go back home, and becomes ill because of it. This is similar to the character in Tintern Abbey, who sees the sublime in his place in nature, not in the big city, and he wants to go back to it. This feeling that Victor has is seen as foreshadowing, and happens multiple times throughout the novel.

In Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey, the character misses the sublime parts in nature. The “sublime” in nature is the serene and surreal, and I believe this is seen during the creation of the monster. During the creation of the monster, Victor is so infatuated with it, with every little detail. His mood is suddenly changed when the monster comes to life.  When the monster comes to life, victor suddenly becomes disgusted and wishes he never had completed something like this. This is similar to Tintern because he thinks about and wishes he was still in his sublime place.

Shelley picks an interesting piece of Wordsworth’s poem to use in her novel.

“The sounding cataract/ haunted him like a passion: the tall rock,/ the mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,/ their colours and their forms, were then to him/ an appetite, a feeling, and a love,/ that had no need of a remoter charm,/ By thought supplied, or any interest/ unborrow’d from the eye.”

This quote is hard to comprehend for most readers, having multiple different ways of interpretation. This quote can be meant for victor, or the monster. The first sentence, the sounding cataract haunted him like a passion, makes the reader believe that Shelley included this to describe Victors feelings after his creation.  Every line from tintern abbey that is used in Frankenstein has a hidden meaning behind it. Every line seems to describe a feeling from Victor or the creature during the novel.

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the use of intertextuality is very important. The use of Wordsworth’s poem Tintern Abbey in the novel is an interesting choice. The lines from the Tintern Abbey in the novel relate to both Victor and the Creature, each line being able to describe how Victor and the Creature fell during different times in the novel.

Advertisement