Analysis Of Frankenstein And God In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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The success of an apparently non-sexual reproduction, by a single parent, might invite parallels between Frankenstein and God, but the novel is always clear that Frankenstein never actually broaches the status of the Almighty. Even Frankenstein’s proclamation of being a ‘creator and source’ (80) is removed from the event; he must still ‘toil’ and ‘labour’ (81) through much ‘difficulty’ (80) and ‘fatigue’ (79) before his wishes become a reality. In comparison, God’s will is instantaneous and effortless – He simply has to speak to create. Furthermore, Frankenstein is not God since, as Lowe-Evans points out, God cannot be ‘complicit in his creation’s weakness’, nor ‘destroyed by what he creates’, nor be a ‘rebel’ – a role reserved for Satan and
Although Frankenstein dies after finishing his story, which might be seen as a result of his ambitions, in his mind he is guiltless of any crime: ‘I have been occupied in examining my past conduct; nor do I find it blameable’ (214). Moreover, Frankenstein refuses to renounce scientific ambition and invention entirely; he advises an undecided Walton to continue his expedition to the North Pole and assures him that, where Frankenstein has failed, ‘yet may another succeed’ (215) in their scientific endeavors. In the aftermath of his death, Walton praises him as a ‘glorious spirit’ (216) and the monster declares him a ‘generous… being’ (215). It is also the monster who ultimately takes sole responsibility for the murders of ‘the lovely and helpless’, declaring that he has pursued Frankenstein to ‘irremediable ruin’ (220). Therefore, Frankenstein purports to be able to achieve godly powers and in doing so oversteps his limits, but the absence of heavenly forces or an interceding deity means that there is no metaphysical machinery in place that explicitly proclaims his damnation. As a result, the reader judges Frankenstein’s culpability and decides whether he is truly a ‘victim’ (219) of the monster’s crimes. However, the multiple narrators and epistemological framework of the “Chinese box” narrative structure is deliberately destabilizing (Thomas 82).
Recent critics, such as Philips, use the example of the conflation of the name “Frankenstein” as belonging to both scientist and monster, to show that popular culture has been left with the impression of the novel as a byword for the dangers of scientific ambition (188). Mellor points out that Frankenstein, as a cautionary tale, is ‘so profoundly resonant’ that is has become a ‘trope of everyday life’ (9), from so-called genetically modified “Frankenfoods” to criticisms of nuclear and chemical warfare as ‘Frankenstein syndrome’ (Rollin 1). The latest production of Frankenstein at the National Theatre focused on creature’s perspective, playing on audience’s empathy for the character (Billington). However, the first reviewers of the novel tended to be far more favourable in their appraisal of Frankenstein; they did not treat him as a dangerously transgressive scientist, but instead as a heroic and even inspirational figure. In January 1818, for example, The Quarterly Review called Frankenstein ‘a kind-hearted parent’ who suffers trying ‘to defeat the procreative propensities of his ungracious child [the monster]’ (379). Therefore, although the first readers of the text noted the paternal relationship, between creator and experiment, they saw this in terms of a ‘hero’

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