innocuous phrase. As the Ancient Mariner of Coleridge has been invoked on several
occasions in the novel, the reader may here wish to see Victor, in his passive surrender
to his obsession, as willingly assuming that character's fate. But the idea goes considerably
beyond Coleridge's prototype. The notion of the Wandering Jew, cursed to be an eternal
vagabond for having taunted Christ on his way to the cross, stands behind both Coleridge's
and Mary Shelley's conceptions; and, indeed, that myth may be being evoked here on
a particularly subtle level, as Victor's turning his back on his own will to live
assumes a psychological counterpart to that taunting of the figure of redemption.
The poet figure of Percy Shelley's "Alastor" (1815), who wanders over some of the
same terrain as Victor in search of his visionary love, suggests yet another context.
Behind that figure is probably another conceptual avatar, the peddler in Wordsworth's
Excursion (1814) who is explicitly named the Wanderer, and who in that poet's conception
is able through his internal poise and just relationship with his natural environment
to maintain his balance amid the turbulence of life. Neither of the Shelleys had much
respect for that poem, but, needless to say, Victor's balance in contrast to that
of Wordsworth's peddler is seriously awry.