The Biblical Themes Presented in Frankenstein: Creation, Sin, Blasphemy
Frankenstein details Victor Frankenstein's success in reanimating human corpses, but, instead, creates a grotesque, ghastly creature. Also, it is important to note that despite the author's atheistic affiliation, Frankenstein mirrors the stories/themes present in the Holy Bible. Overall, the themes of creation, sin, and blasphemy – all present in the scripture – is depicted through the development of Frankenstein, the way in which he gains his knowledge and confronts the De Lacey family, and the condemnation of his creator, Victor, in the Scottish Orkneys.
In order to present the biblical themes, Shelley utilizes the first several chapters as a tool for establishing Victor
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as a fictional "Messiah". The relationship between God and Victor can first be identified when Victor mentions his ability of "bestowing animation upon lifeless matter" to Walton (Shelley 47). Uniquely, this "ability" does not belong to man; it is something God and God alone possesses and is an important characteristic of God itself – the omnipotence to create and terminate life. Furthermore, the creation of Frankenstein not only demonstrated Victor's godlike "ability", but also represented the theme of creation illustrated in the "Book of Genesis". In Genesis, God created the heavens and earth, land and water, and importantly, man. God, in the story, is essentially the creator and originator of the human race, a new species. This creation of life is reflected in Shelley's novel, when Victor explains to Walton his plan of creating "a new species that would bless [him]] as its creator and source" (Shelley 55). The act of creating Frankenstein and his preparation for a new species ultimately embodies the creation story as Victor, a fictional "God", is the originator of a new species. Additional themes present in "The Book of Genesis" is the theme of sin, and later blasphemy.
In Genesis, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is an apple tree located in God's Garden of Eden, and, when consumed, will open the eyes of the consumer to knowledge and become like God himself, which is declared as sin. When Adam and Eve eat from the Tree's apple, their eyes become open to the outer world, and they realize their nakedness which then results in their banishment from the garden. This story is similar to when Frankenstein hid in the De Lacey family shed and eavesdropped on their conversations. While eavesdropping on their conversations, Frankenstein learns to not only communicate his feelings with others through language and composition, but to also understand his own feelings. Ultimately, his mind has opened to the reality of his current situation: he is desperate, lonely and yearns for affection. Believing he is much more than a monster, when the De Lacey family is gone, except for their blind father, Frankenstein strikes up a conversation with the man as if they are equals, until the blind man’s family rushes in to fight him, effectively “banishing” the creature from the house and the family. Overall, the novel reflects the theme of sin because after eavesdropping on their conversation – or in other words, eating the forbidden apple – Frankenstein believes himself to be like the human family – God – because he has “woken up” to his circumstance – realized his nakedness – and is banished from the house – garden. Frankenstein has metaphorically “sinned”, for trying to become something that he is not – God. And as a matter of fact, Frankenstein’s banishment causes him to resent his creator, or fundamentally blasphemy against God. This is especially prevalent after Victor destroys his monster wife, or “Eve”, in Scotland, leading to Frankenstein waging revenge against Victor, his creator. This theme of blasphemy is depicted in the origin story of Satan. Once
an angel, however, when afflicted with envy to be God, he is cast away, where he now bashes God’s name, and tempts those to follow him. Throughout the novel, the biblical themes of creation, sin, and blasphemy were well represented. Demonstrated in Victor's success in creating Frankenstein, the story is comparable to the seven-day creation story of the Earth. Also, the expulsion of the monster from the De Lacey family home is comparable to sin detailed in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, as well as how the impiety demonstrated toward Victor depicts the biblical theme of blasphemy, in which Satan attacks the name of God. All in all, these biblical themes have not only served the story well but has made the novel a classic and timeless work of fiction.
Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature highlights Frankenstein as the work of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, published in 1818, and it brought into the Western world one of its best known monsters. Elements of gothic romance and science fiction help in telling the story of young Swiss scientist Victor Frankenstein, as he creates a horrible monster by putting together limbs and veins, leading to destruction and his later regret. The creature is left alone in the world, even by his own creator, for his hideous appearance, and through watching humans he learns their ways of living. Haunting Victor due to his loneliness, he forcefully makes Victor agree to make him a female companion, but Victor’s regret and misery enables him to tear up his
In Volume 1 and 3 of Frankenstein, Victor’s reason for creating the “monster” changes drastically; however, ultimately leading to the same consequence of suffering and depression. Through this change in Victor, Shelley argues that all humans have an instinctive notation of right from wrong and learn from their mistakes. Victor left his friends and family to go to college; when there, he had no friends and social life. His top and only priority was his schoolwork; he read all he can about the sciences, especially chemistry and anatomy. When finished with his studies, Victor is ready to start his creation when he confirms his proceedings aloud, “Winter, spring, and summer, passed away during my labours; but I did not watch the blossom or the expanding leaves-sights which before always yielded me supreme delight, so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation. The leaves of that year had withered before my work drew near to a close; and now every day shewed me more plainly how well I had succeeded.
Although humans have the tendency to set idealistic goals to better future generations, often the results can prove disastrous, even deadly. The tale of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, focuses on the outcome of one man's idealistic motives and desires of dabbling with nature, which result in the creation of horrific creature. Victor Frankenstein was not doomed to failure from his initial desire to overstep the natural bounds of human knowledge. Rather, it was his poor parenting of his progeny that lead to his creation's thirst for the vindication of his unjust life. In his idealism, Victor is blinded, and so the creation accuses him for delivering him into a world where he could not ever be entirely received by the people who inhabit it. Not only failing to foresee his faulty idealism, nearing the end of the tale, he embarks upon a final journey, consciously choosing to pursue his creation in vengeance, while admitting he himself that it may result in his own doom. The creation of an unloved being and the quest for the elixir of life holds Victor Frankenstein more accountable for his own death than the creation himself.
Volume II, Chapter II of Frankenstein is a key turning point as Victor and the Creature he created, finally met, however things do not go smoothly as Victor starts to hurl abuse at the Creature. In addition to this chapter we learn that Victor is very hard-hearted as he immediately takes a dislike to his own creation because he had a concept that the Creature he had created was beautiful and fine-looking. Victor also tries to play God just like God in Christianity. God created Adam and Eve - Adam first and Eve after because Adam demanded for another person - we see that later in the book the creature demands a lady creature just like Adam. However, in this later stage of the book, Victor says. He however failed at this because he abandons the Creature which then creates a harsh reality for him and the people around him.
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, illustrates the Romantic idea of the sublime naturalworld as an emotional experience for the characters of the novel. Within the text, Shelleyutilizes an allusion to the John Milton’s biblical story, Paradise Lost, to make a parallel betweenthe characters. Within the passage, the monster compares himself, as well as his creator, Victor,to the characters Adam and Satan. He comes to realize that he is more similar to Satan;ultimately, leading him to his reign of terror and the revenge he wishes to impose on Victor. Themonster realizes that he is similar to Adam in Paradise Lost in that they both do not want to bealone. The monster also realizes that there is good in the world that is deeply contrasted with
Victor Frankenstein creates a creature that he considers to be treacherous. Since the creature was created it obtains no knowledge of what it is or what is happening. Victor abandons the creature and the creature becomes filled with hate as it is constantly rejected by humans. The creature uses nature to survive. The creature also self teaches himself and becomes aware that he is a monster. He then swears to get revenge on Victor for leaving him alone. He gets his revenge by killing Victor's family. Victor then swears to get revenge on the creature, and decides that the best way to do so is by bringing the creature as far away from human civilization as possible. Thesis?!
because of the way he is just abandoned by Victor and the way in which
There are obvious similarities between Victor and his creation; each is abandoned, isolated, and both start out with
In Frankenstein, Shelley creates two very complex characters. They embody the moral dilemmas that arise from the corruption and disturbance of the natural order of the world. When Victor Frankenstein is attending school, he becomes infatuated with creating a living being and starts stealing body parts from morgues around the university. After many months of hard work, he finishes one stormy night bringing his creation to life. However, “now that [Victor] had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart” (Chambers). Right after Victor realizes what he has done, he falls into deep depression and must be nursed back to health by his friend. Victor spends the rest of the story facing consequences and moral problems from creating unnatural life. When he realizes that the ‘monster’ has killed his brother, even though no one believes him, he feels responsible for his brother’s murder because he was responsible for the existence of the ‘monster’. Also feeling responsible, Victor...
In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, a young aspiring scientist, Victor Frankenstein, violates the laws of nature to make his dream experiment of creating life. In the beginning of the novel, Victor is sent to the University of Ingolstadt in Germany to fulfill his science career; leaving Elizabeth his soulmate, his father Alphonse, and best friend Clerval behind in Geneva. Using electricity, Frankenstein shocks his two year long creation to life. The creation known as the monster is abandoned by Victor, and rejected from a human companionship because of his appearance. Because of his abandonment, the monster ravages through Frankenstein’s family and friends, committing numerous murders. The monster is the physical murderer of many innocents
The novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley is a work of fiction that breaks the ethics of science. Ethics is defined as rules of conduct or moral principles which are ignored in the story. The story is about a person named Victor Frankenstein who creates an artificial being. Victor abandons the being out of fear and the being is left to discover the outside world on his own and be rejected by people making the monster go on a violent rampage. Victor’s decision would affect him later on by the monster killing his loved ones causing Victor to suffer. Then Victor chooses to seek revenge on the monster and this choice will bring him to his death. In novel Frankenstein one might say that the main character, Victor, breaks the ethics of science when he plays God by creating his own being.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or; The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, is a product of its time. Written in a world of social, political, scientific and economic upheaval it highlights human desire to uncover the scientific secrets of our universe, yet also confirms the importance of emotions and individual relationships that define us as human, in contrast to the monstrous. Here we question what is meant by the terms ‘human’ and ‘monstrous’ as defined by the novel. Yet to fully understand how Frankenstein defines these terms we must look to the etymology of them. The novel however, defines the terms through its main characters, through the themes of language, nature versus nurture, forbidden knowledge, and the doppelganger motif. Shelley also shows us, in Frankenstein, that although juxtaposing terms, the monstrous being everything human is not, they are also intertwined, in that you can not have one without the other. There is also an overwhelming desire to know the monstrous, if only temporarily and this calls into question the influence the monstrous has on the human definition.
Every artist draws inspiration from somewhere, and the inspiration shows in their work. When looking deeper into the life of Mary Shelley, it is easy to say that the inspiration she drew to create her novel Frankenstein, came from her own personal experiences. Frankenstein is riddled parallels to Marry Shelley’s own life. It was not just by mere coincidences either, Mary Shelley makes various references to family members (specifically by name), places she visited, and situations she faced, herself, all of these experiences are documented in her novel Frankenstein.
For my final project of the novel unit, I chose the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley and first published in 1818. Frankenstein is a tale about an ambitious young scientist who in his practice oversteps the boundaries of acceptable science and creates a monster which destroys everything Victor Frankenstein loved and held dear.
Mary Shelley in her book Frankenstein addresses numerous themes relevant to the current trends in society during that period. However, the novel has received criticism from numerous authors. This paper discusses Walter Scott’s critical analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in his Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Review of Frankenstein (1818).