The
novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley,
is centered on the story of Victor Frankenstein and his creation and subsequent
abandonment of a creature he brings to life from various body parts. Following
the achievement of creating this life form, thus completing his quest for the
glory and knowledge of the secret to life, the hideous creature is no longer
acceptable to Frankenstein and is subsequently abandoned. Left to the world to
fend for itself and learn how to live in society, the creature goes off on its
own and is able to educate itself, but spurned by society comes to resent his
creator and turns to a quest for vengeance. Throughout the story line of the novel
allusions to Milton’s Paradise Lost
are evident, particularly in character traits and roles, and additionally in
specific references to the book. Shelley
parallels Paradise Lost through the
sharing of characteristics between Victor and his creation and Milton’s
characters of God, Adam, Eve, and Satan.
The
story of Paradise Lost is ultimately
a twist on the story of Adam and Eve found in the Bible, and concern’s their
disobedience and subsequent fall from grace. Satan and Rebel angels decide to
Corrupt God’s creations—Adam and Eve, so Satan builds a bridge between Hell and
Earth. God then creates a council of angels and his son (Jesus Christ)
volunteers himself to make a sacrifice for all of humankind. Disguised as a
cherub, Satan proceeds to enter Paradise which in the Bible is called Eden.
Satan perches himself atop the tree of life as Adam and Eve tend to the garden,
and angels soon realize he may be evil. Eve has a dream of being tempted by an
Angel, who is in reality Satan, and God then sends Raphael as a warning, and he
cautions Adam against his unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Satan takes the
form of a snake, and tempts Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and after
Adam finds out and eats the fruit as well, they both turn to a life of lust.
Upon news of this sin, God decides to punish them and Adam and Eve both blame each
other for the sin that has occurred. Adam wonders while God ever created Eve,
and Eve begs him not to abandon her as she believes they can survive by loving
each other. After praying and repenting to God, God sends Michael down to earth
to tell Adam and Eve they must leave paradise. After putting Eve to sleep, he
takes Adam onto the highest hill and shows him the future that God will bring
to the earth, including Jesus, and when Eve awakes, both of them walk into the
new world of Earth. Paradise Lost is
paralleled in Frankenstein through
the characteristics shared between Victor and his creation and Milton’s Characters
of God, Adam, Eve, and Satan.
First,
Adam can be connected to Victor Frankenstein, while the monster can be
connected to Eve. Like Adam, Victor has an intense thirst for knowledge, which
ultimately leads to his sin. Like Adam’s thirst for knowledge that leads him to
sin and eat the fruit, Victor’s thirst for knowledge leads him to create the
monster which is sinful itself due to the placement of himself above God by
playing creator, but more importantly leads to his major sin of abandoning the
creature he has brought to life—an event that like the first sin of eating the
fruit, leads to many other sins. Additionally, like Adam’s anger towards Eve
for her sin, Frankenstein also shows anger towards his creation, who parallels
Eve, for his sinful way of being a “wretched beast”. The monster, Like Eve, was created from Adam,
or in this case Victor. Additionally Eve turns to sin, like the monster’s turn
to evil rage, but still desires love, just as the Monster deep down truly
wants. Besides these major connections, Satan can also be connected to the
Monster due to his evil and revenge, while Victor can also be connected to God
for his role in creation. While these roles parallel, motives do not
necessarily match up.
Perhaps most
thought-provoking parallel used by Shelley is the one that is explicitly stated
by the monster. While trying to understand language, the monster reads Paradise Lost and arrives
a conclusion about his own existence. In Frankenstein,
Victor comes across his creation while alone on a hike, and the creature commands
Victor to listen to his story. The creature tells the story of what happened
after fleeing Frankenstein’s lab, which is essentially a story of how he came
to understand his existence and society’s views on him. The monster says to
Victor “remember, that I am thy creature: I ought to be thy Adam; but I am
rather the fallen angel.” By comparing Victor to God, the monster places
responsibility for his evil actions upon Victor, reprimanding him for his negligent
failure to offer a nurturing environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment