In the passage, Milton’s book Paradise Lost was used as both an allusion and inter-text. Milton’s take on the Christian creation story triggered an existential crisis within the creature, leading him to question his “birth” and his place in society. The excessive amount of Genesis reference presented in the mere few sentences includes naming Adam, God and Satan and use it as a parallel of his situation. The creature sees himself as am allegory of Adam, since both being the first creation of their respective creators: Victor Frankenstein and God. Victor Frankenstein’s ability to create and “birth” parallels him with God. On the other hand, Victor orphaning his “Adam” once he saw the incompleteness in his thought process and flaws in his creation,
God in pity made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image, but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance.” The creature shaped himself and his understanding of the world based on the book Paradise Lost, in which he grasped the concept of avenging and punishing his creator by taking away the significant others in the creator’s life. Satan lured Adam and Eve out of Eden and the creature murder his creator’s family member one by one. Another similarity between the creature and Satan is that both are immensely jealous of human race. No matter it is Adam, Satan or the creature, they are clearly the creation of a creator, and this concept means that in one way or another, they are not of the same status a the “good”. When look into the adjective the creature used to describe Adam and himself, an interesting pattern can be noticed. Adam was described as “perfect creature”, “happy”, “prosperous”, “beautiful”, “alluring”, and “guided by the especial care of his Creator”; all these contradict with his self depiction. When talking about himself, he used a selection of negative vocabulary, such as calling himself “wretched, helpless, and alone”, “solitary”, “detested” “filthy type of yours, more horrible from its very resemblance”, “a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust”.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, he was complimenting the beauty of his work when he noticed “by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” (49). Instead of taking any action, he flee off the room and leads to the creature’s escape, “fresh” to the world, with no guidance for it to live or a strong desire from Victor Frankenstein to bring it back. God built Garden of Eden for Adam to live in, established rules and give responsibility for him to take upon ,where as Frankenstein went to great depth to avoid his creation simply because it is hideous, neglecting that the humanity in him. Like Adam was given Eve as a mate, the creature long for companion too. “Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and detested” demonstrated his sturdy desire to not be a loner, outcast anymore. Declining the creature’s need and request of social interaction, it provoked the twisted world view in the creature inherited from the three sets of books he read and lead to him declaring war to his creator, similar to what Satan and Lucifer did when they were turn against by God. From this, it is obvious that Victor Frankenstein fails to attend his responsibility to his creation. In this
The creature goes on to say that “To be a great and virtuous man appeared the highest honor that can befall a sensitive being; to be base and vicious, as many on record have been, appeared the lowest degradation, a condition more abject than that of the blind mole or harmless worm.”(52) He is speaking of his creator, Victor Frankenstein, as he believes the “virtuous” part of him is the “god-like” way that he had permeated him with life but the “base” part of his creator is the violent way in which he shunned him and left him to fend for himself to the natural world.
In the book of Genesis, God is creating the world and eventually creates his children Adam and Eve. Like Adam, the creature in Frankenstein was created by another being, in this case Victor Frankenstein. As a creation, the monster has had no choice in his own development just like Adam didn’t. Frankenstein abandoned his creation and left it to fend for itself and cope with abandonment as it learns the workings of the world. This is similar to Adam’s excommunication from the Garden of Eden as he himself was cast away from God. The creation says, “Remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed,” (Shelley 84) which shows how even though Frankenstein is the parental figure he has disowned the creation similar to the story of Adam. In the book of Genesis, as a result of God’s negligence as a parent, Adam acts in rebellion towards God. Likewise, the creature’s abandonment leads it to act in a malicious manner towards Frankenstein and other human beings. The negligence of the parental figures led both of their children to have eccentric behavior as they had to develop their own understanding of the world without any guidance from a parental
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
Although the Creature later went on to commit crimes, he was not instinctively bad. Victor’s Creature was brought into this world with a child-like innocence. He was abandoned at birth and left to learn about life on his own. After first seeing his creation, Victor “escaped and rushed downstairs.” (Frankenstein, 59) A Creator has the duty to teach his Creature about life, as well as to love and nurture him. However, Victor did not do any of these; he did not take responsibility for his creature. One of the first things that the creature speaks of is that he was a “poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, (he) sat ...
Dr. Frankenstein is ashamed by his creation because of how it does not look like Fabio. True, the creation is not beautiful, but that leaves no excuse for dr. Frankenstein to not like his creation. Well, dr. Frankenstein hates how is creation looks and that is clearly showed when he describes how ugly the monster is. “his yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath”(Shelly). This quote is showing the “god” describe it’s creation. That description is not showing much love. Supposedly, dr. Frankenstein thinks that human identity itself is “made up” in a restorative relation to another self; without one’s other, humanity lacks humanity. The creation clearly wants his “god” to be his other, the one to show him the way to good things. Instead, Victor choses to abandoned his creature which makes him a creator, not a
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein originated as a ghost story told among her close friends. "It was a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils" (Shelley 34) is the first line Shelley conceived when she began composing her famous novel. In this sentence, the "accomplishment" to which Victor Frankenstein refers is the creation, which receives animation on this "dreary night." By calling the creation his "accomplishment," Victor unintentionally names the creation. However, by the end of this "dreary night," Victor names the creation no less than six times, each time getting progressively more derogatory, and more insulting. This evolution of Victor’s attitude about the creation occurs during the time immediately following the creation. In these few hours, Victor’s imagination creates an increasingly grotesque image of the creation. This developed condemnation that Victor imposes onto the creation is similar to all of the creation’s other encounters with human beings. This repeated rejection causes the creation to realize that "All men hate the wretched; how then must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things" (Shelley 65). Eventually, therefore, the creation accepts its role as a monster based solely on the reactions it receives from other human beings. However, these spiteful reactions are inspired by irrational fears that result from the human nature of the characters to form preconceptions about the creation based on their prior experiences.
The Creature, after learning what it is to love, requests that Victor creates a companion for him. Victor rejects the creature’s proposition, as Victor now understands the consequences of animating what shouldn't be alive, the Creature wants nothing more than for Victor to suffer, to feel the pain that he, as a wretch, faces. The Creature does so by devoting his life to the destruction of Victor’s. In chapter 24, the Creature states “But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes the malignant devil.” The creature is viewed as entirely evil by the characters of the novel, despite the scenes in which his benevolent nature is shown. It is ironic that Victor and his creature are foils of one another, yet they suffer a similar fate: their desire to destroy one another led to their ultimate
Victor Frankenstein was the creator of the monster in the book. He was an ambitious man who had high hopes and dreams for himself, but this characteristic was the cause of his downfall. He had a ruthless desire to obtain forbidden knowledge- a knowledge that only God was worthy of having. This lead him to lock himself in his laboratory, disregarding his family, friends, and health. His one purpose was to create life. In his quest to create a human being and bestow the power of life, Victor eventually did create a creature, but this lead to a situation
Throughout time man has been isolated from people and places. One prime example of isolation is Adam, "the man [formed] from the dust of the ground [by the Lord God]" (Teen Study Bible, Gen. 2.7). After committing the first sin he secludes "from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken" (Teen Study Bible, Gen. 3.23). This isolation strips Adam from his protection and wealth the garden provides and also the non-existence of sin. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, is able to relate to the story of Adam and the first sin to help her character, the Creature, associate with Adam. The Creature is able to relate because "[l]ike Adam, [he is] apparently united by no link to any other being in existence" (Shelley 124). In other ways the creator of the creature, Victor Frankenstein, also identifies with the tale of the first human, but with a different character, God. "God created man in his own image" (Teen Study Bible, Gen. 1.27) and unlike Frankenstein "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Teen Study Bible, Gen. 1.31). Frankenstein brought a life into the world but did not take the responsibility to lead and guide his creature to benefit himself or the created. Unlike God's creature who did in turn prosper. Instead of prosperity Frankenstein receives a life of loneliness and responsibility of many unnecessary deaths. The Creature, like his creator, lives his life in isolation from society. His only goal is to be loved and accepted by those around him. Through these circumstances the effects of isolation and loneliness are brought to life by the creature and the creator thought their pasts, social statuses, emotions, and dreams and fantasies.
Imagine being brought into the world to be completely thrown away by whoever created you, for being born. Now, this is the perspective of the Monster that Frankenstein created. The Monster was immediately hated as soon as he came to life. His own creator found him to be repulsive: “ I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” Pg 59 PP 3. This hatred caused the monster to feel awful and run away in despair. Victor Frankenstein felt that he was justified to give up on his creation because it was ugly. This is completely unfair to the Monster because it has not done anything wrong, yet Victor Frankenstein feels he has the right to immediately turn his back on his creation. This is something that is frowned upon in society, but is sometimes the case. If this betrayal had not have happened, the Monsters nature could have been completely different. The Monster merely acted out because he was so greatly betrayed. In all honesty, the monster had good intentions in his heart, and he had a great soul. This great soul became diminished by the instant rejection as soon as he came to life. Now the Monster tried to keep it's spirits high but then things just seemed to get worse for him. Once the Monster
This thirst for this knowledge was something that would not be quenched until it was completed. He acknowledges the consequences of the amount of time saying ¨The summer months passed while i was thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit¨ (Shelly). It was this investment of time that causes all of his family to worry and he didn 't seem to care at the moment since he was so invested in this project of his. This causes his loss of innocence because he goes so far to reach and attain this power to create life, he even goes as far as digging up graves to get the required parts to finish this beast. Much like Satans arrogance and thirst for knowledge in Paradise Lost. He wants to mess up everything for God, so he sets out for Eve and her emotions ¨His words replete with guile into her heart too easy entrance won¨ (Milton 9.733-4). This guile or craft is much like Victors creation, it is a distraction from the real world to feed his curiosity, like Satans curiosity of Eves emotions, but losing their innocence in return. On the other hand, the Monsters loss of innocence comes from the knowledge literature has to offer. The book that strikes him the most is, you guessed it, Paradise Lost by Milton. He tries to relate what he has read to his identity saying that he is like Adam, being created by someone, but cursed like Satan saying he ¨was the fitter emblem of my condition¨
As creators of another creature, God and Victor Frankenstein are very similar, in that they both lose part of their "family," and they let the war between them and their creations go on too long. Victor says, " I collected bones from charnel houses; and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame." This shows that he creates the monster out of corpses, just as God creates Satan. Furthermore, Victor is disgusted with his own creation, "the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart." Victor rejects the monster, similar to God's disgust with Satan's pride. The monster wreaks havoc on the Victor's life, "; I called myself the murderer of William, of Justine, and of Clerval," leaving him with a burden of guilt, just as God loses his angels to Satan, Victor loses his family and friends to the monster. Victor at some point feels even more guilt because he didn't destroy the monster earlier. If God could so easily order the fallen angels to be pushed out of Heaven, why did he let the war go on for three days? This truly is remarkable, two novels of different time periods, with characters of startling resemblance.
The epic genre has existed for centuries and it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. However, as culture and values change so does the epic tradition. Milton played a large role in introducing the Christian worldview to the epic tradition through the epic poem Paradise Lost. Instead of continuing the tradition through humanistic values, Milton applies his faith to the epic genre and allows Christian values and truths to permeate through the text of Paradise Lost.
Victor Frankenstein, the main character in Mary Shelley’s novel, is the creator of the monster. When Victor created the monster, he believed he created the monster for the betterment of humankind, but he actually created the monster because he desired to prove to the world that an average human can do Godly acts. The desire to create the monster goes back to Victor’s childhood. As a young kid, Victor’s passions always lied in science and chemistry and in college; he became obsessed with the idea of creating life out of inanimate objects. He then decided to specialize in Alchemy. Within Shelley’s book Frankenstein, Victor said:
After hearing the monster’s side of the story Frankenstein started to show some compassion for the being and agreed to it’s desire for a mate. Now that Frankenstein has learned the full story of his creation he feels the need to take responsibility for it now with the line, “did [he] not as his maker owe him all portions of happiness” (Shelley 125), less the monster start to attack humanity out of