Mary Shelley's Use Of Biblical Allusions In Frankenstein

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; Or The Modern Prometheus, Frankenstein’s Creature often compares itself to religious characters and relates to the bible. For hundreds of years, society and European literature utilized religion with religious connotations and importance to stay virtuous through religious belief. Contrary to the past, Shelley’s attempt to compare the Creature to biblical and religious forms, such as Adam and Satan, sees the bible and religion through a secular, romantic lens. With evidence through English and European history, Shelley’s Frankenstein, and providing empirical evidence through English romantic literature, I will argue that Shelley’s use of Biblical tropes in Frankenstein reimagine the bible and religion’s role in

defining the relationship between men and women. This argument allows us to outline the shift from gothic religious beliefs to modern religious implications that continue to this date.
Mary Shelley’s most profound incorporation of religious belief in Frankenstein is the relationship between the Creature and the Genesis story. While Victor Frankenstein flees from the Creature and from the trial of Justine, he ends up meeting the Creature in the mountains. During their discourse, the Creature says “that I am thy creature: I ought to be thy Adam”, inferring that Victor entails some form of divinity in the eyes of the Creature (Shelley 118-119). Furthermore, Shelley’s understanding of the Genesis movement, a pivotal theme in both the church and the Romantic movement, creates new assumptions about the role Adam and god both play in the event. As Adam was created by god with “no link to any other being in existence”, the Creature similarly feels disconnected to any other forms as he struggles to find companionship, resorting to liken himself with Satan (Shelley 143). The Creature sees Satan as a better form of himself besides Adam because of the neglect he feels from Victor, similar to Adam being sent out alone from the Garden of Eden. However, the Creature requests a female companion after his desertion from Victor while many blame Eve’s actions in the bible as the cause of their banishment from the Garden of Eden. This moment sets the stage for Shelley to address her beliefs about the relationship between man and woman as the Creature seeks a woman, alleviating the blame on Eve and women in general.
To understand the wave of modern insight of the romanticization of the bible, an account of the Church of England and Romanticist Era is imperative. The Age of Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason, was a time period during the 18th century spilling into the early 19th century. John Locke, an English philosopher who coined the term “tabula rasa”, is known for sparking the Enlightenment movement throughout Europe through his idea of separation of church and state. It was also a time during the expansion of human thinking, understanding, philosophy, and scientific research (Forward). Meanwhile, religious toleration, freedom of the individual, and economic freedom grew in England, specifically during Shelley’s creation of Frankenstein (Forward). The rise of acceptance, albeit still intolerant, led the way for romantic thinkers and writers to spread their ideas about religion and socioeconomic issues within their writing.
Alongside the Age of Reason and the transformation of the Church of England, Romanticist literature and thinkers took the stage from the 18th century to the 19th century. In Duncan Wu’s compilation of essays about Romanticism, “A Companion to Romanticism”, David Duff examines the historical context of the revolution of Romanticism in the 1800s, during the time Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. The main goal of Romantic writers was to “project their readers onto an imaginative place where the particularities of time and place are forgotten” (Wu 23). The dark gothic setting that Romantic writers incorporated was valuable to set the mood to contemplate new and radical ideas as it opens up avenues for skeptics. David Duff defines the main goals of the Romanticist movement which:
“Embraced fundamental questions about the nature of society, the basis of government, the doctrine of ‘rights’, the notion of political justice, the relation between sexes, even the very concept of ‘reason’, was, for many British intellectuals, the principal medium through which the whole revolutionary phenomenon was registered and analyzed, and political attitudes formed” (Wu 25).
As seen through Duff’s definition, Shelley embraces these issues within Frankenstein. Romantics were not reluctant to embrace radical changes directly and Shelley utilized Gothic themes to express her views in a welcoming and appropriate manner engaging in the Romantic literary discourse.
Nevertheless, religion’s role in society at the end of the 18th century leading into the 18th century has never been more prominent. English history is coated with numerous changes within government through the adaptation and evolution of religion. Mark Cladis, a professor of Humanities at Brown University, researched in his essay, British Romanticism, Secularization, and the Political and Environmental Implications, the relationship between religion and governmental institutions within England. Cladis argues that “political agitation, then, tended to go hand in hand with religious agitation” since the “Church of England was closely wed to the government” (Cladis 287). Cladis continues to make two intriguing points within his essay about Romantic writers. One of which is that Romantic authors “tended to advance a theology that was part panentheistic, part Christian orthodoxy” (Cladis 287). This is not comparable to Shelley’s own writing in Frankenstein as she frequently denounces the role of god as she replaces god with Victor in terms of creating life. Secondly, Romantic thinkers strived to help the “cultivation of rationality” that assist in nurturing “communities in the context of dynamic social and natural environments” (Cladis 287). In terms of Shelley and Frankenstein, this definition of secularization of religion and literature perfectly encompasses Shelley’s goals in using biblical tropes in her writing. Shelley attempts to combat the stigma of women in society and in families through the usage of the bible and religion and the changing political climate within England.
During the end of the Enlightenment, romantic literature rose and brought new ideas about religion. Mary Shelley’s husband, Percy Shelley, had some vehement views about religion, especially atheism. Percy mentioned in his A Defense of Poetry that the applications during the Romantic period “the human mind would never, except by the intervention of these excitements, have awakened to the invention of the grosser sciences” (Keen 193). Percy Shelley’s views align perfectly with the Romantic agenda in order to comprehend the human experience. However, Percy Shelley blames religious limitations on the lateness of philosophical thought. Despite blaming religious constructs, Percy makes frequent remarks to biblical characters, similar to Mary Shelley, where he compares mankind’s suffering “to the curse imposed on Adam” (Keen 194). It is clear that Percy had some kind of influence or shared common knowledge with Mary as they have similar backgrounds and writing techniques, such as incorporating biblical icons.
Similarly, Mary Shelley’s lineage derives from multiple writers and philosophers such as her father, William Godwin and her mother, Mary Wollenstonecraft.

Shelley’s mother passed away shortly after giving birth, leaving Godwin’s own philosophy and actions as means of influence on Shelley. In addition to Percy Shelley’s vehement thoughts on religion’s limitations, Godwin was a devout atheist, advocating for liberalism and individuality. And examination of Shelley’s family can be seen in the work of Julie Carlson, a professor of English at University of California, Santa Barbara. Carlson notes that Godwin was both a positive and negative influence on Shelley.

“The events of Godwin’s life were tamer but no less controversial, including his marital embrace of ‘fallen’ women, his rejection of Mary and Percy until they married, his relentless harassment of them for financial and emotional support, and his eventual bankruptcy. Such stories speak to the imaginations of readers both then and now, in part for what they bespeak about modern family life” (Carlson

1-2).
Mary Shelley honed in the concept of the “‘fallen’ women” in Frankenstein, but turned it around to validate her claim about women (Carlson 2). In Frankenstein, Victor and Frankenstein Sr. relied on women more than the other way around. Elizabeth and Victor’s mother were vital for the establishment of family values and the mental health of other men. Even during Justine’s trial, Justine takes full responsibility for Victor’s own actions, referencing the harassment Shelley witnessed from Godwin.
Another motif in Shelley’s Frankenstein is her usage of the dichotomy between Adam from the bible and Satan.

Satan was a prominent figure in religious rhetoric as an evil icon taking on the meaning of the worse of creatures. However, Romantic philosophers utilized Satan as means of transferring radical ideas. Percy Shelley “had employed Satan as a symbol of political goodness” in his writing and as a “rebel in a political context” (Faxneld 532). The goal of Romantic authors in using Satan is to directly attack already established norms in society and politics. Satan also allows the authors to express contradictions within political, religious, gender, and social rules since Satan was the symbol for “toppling world power”, hinting at a socialist movement (Faxneld 532). Mary Shelley is using the technique of “startling people by using symbol they instinctively consider evil could be a way to make think more carefully about manners of preconceived notions” (Faxneld 554). Similar to the Romantic technique of responding the the human as a whole, Shelley tries to manipulate something that is common knowledge to most people during the time to persuade the public toward her

beliefs.
Despite Percy Shelley’s use of Satan and his own definition alongside many other Romantic writers, Mary Shelley intended to use Satan as another means of delivering her beliefs. Mary uses Satan when the Creature approaches Victor in Frankenstein, demanding a female companion. According to the Creature, the Creature has two foreseeable paths: resembling Adam or taking the form of Satan. In Shelley’s own eyes, she sees Satan as a form that humans are ought to take if the political aspects in her writings are not met. Satan “is transgressive, in that it expresses political values palatable to few readers of the day” (Schock 2). Furthermore, Satan tackles the “surrounding culture” of the audience while it “rests unselfconsciously on an anterior appropriation” (Schock 2). In Frankenstein, the Creature hopes to rejoin society since it was outcasted by both its creator, Victor, and shunned by society. The Creature is seen as chaotic and inhuman, similar to how Adam felt during his expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Shelley is attempting to hint that if society does not change its ways and beliefs toward acceptance and tolerance, then innumerable amounts of violence will occur. By using biblical characters such as Adam, god, and Satan, Shelley contrasts good and evil in a way that is palatable to most viewers in a more sympathetic tone.