Playing God in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

In his Poetics, Aristotle defines the tragic hero as a man of high social status who invites

the gods to punish him through overbearing pride and/or presumption – hubris. It would be

simple to assign the label of hubristic tragic hero to Victor Frankenstein, but such assignment of a

label would be an oversimplification. The gods in Greek drama punish, albeit harshly, in an

outright manner. The tragic figure is aware that the gods have forsaken him, and he resigns to

live his life under the demands of retribution. Victor Frankenstein’s fate is not so simple; fate is

crueler to Victor and more spiteful than he could ever be to the heavens. The question that

precedes all others, however, is who is or what acts as god in Frankenstein.

It is safe to assume that Victor Frankenstein’s god is that of the Christian tradition,

although interestingly, he never truly mentions it as such. Instead, he invokes the spirits of nature

and swears by the “sacred earth on which [he] kneel[s]” that he will get his revenge (Shelley

173); so it is only fitting that it is nature or the laws of nature that feel offended by Victor’s

transgression and his vulgar presumption that he can emulate its force. What drives Victor to do

so is a complicated issue, but what is rather clear is that the setting of the novel is ideal for such a

crime.

The distinction between nature’s powers and godly powers is a relatively new concept.

For many ancient cultures, nature was inexorably tied to the ultimate spirit; and although men

could speak to the spirits, they were in no way like the spirits. Before altering any object in

nature, one needed permission from these spirits. This changed with the growth of Christianity:

“Christian...

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