Overtones of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a novel that has several other books incorporated in it as well. This is a literally tactic Shelley uses to accentuate specific motifs and circumstances in the novel. Paradise Lost by John Milton is an essential part of this novel that she uses more than once. It occurs all through Frankenstein, three times to be exact including the introductory epigraph, during the creature’s agony of being unattended to on this earth, and in his learning of society.

Because Shelley integrates Paradise Lost she is also including God and Adam, another book of inception that correlates the production of life that Victor presents to his creation. There is a very special bond between the creature and Victor. The reason this particular relationship is considered to be so different is that of how much hate the creature builds up towards his creator Victor from of all the pain and sadness he has caused him due to neglect.

Using Paradise Lost in this novel, Mary Shelley impedes the big picture and implication of Frankenstein.

The epigraph in the introduction of Frankenstein is the same one I have chosen for this paper. This quote gives the book an interesting start and foreshadows the concept of creation and a creator before the story even starts. For years, there has always been some inquiry into whether Victor had the right to give life to a creature that has emotions and walks around like a normal human being. He becomes so consumed and involved in trying to create life that he never thought about the circumstances of such and how it would affect his community.

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He created this life and then found it so cruel and impure that he ran away and abandoned it. It is almost like he was punishing himself for thinking he could create a life and there be no consequences. Also, the creature was disregarded and left to fend for itself in a world he has no idea of and he never asked for this life in the first place.

Adam was made by God, was a replica of God, and was perfect in Paradise Lost.  The creature did not have the lovely benefit of bringing crated by Victor in that same way. He was made by various parts of dead people’s bodies by a mad scientist named Victor. The creature was bullied and treated like scum because of his hideous, monstrous appearance. And even though the creature eventually ends up doing kind things for others, these brutalities still occurred. In the course of a few days, the creature matures and gains knowledge of this world and looks for revenge on Victor for giving him this life and then abandoning him. The conversation Victor and his creation have on top of the mountain precisely relates to the epigraph. During their conversation, the creature approaches Victor in a respectable way, but we also catch a little bit of hurt and anger from the creature as well. The creature talks to his creator about how he has accepted he is his creation, but how he is upset he put him on this earth without a mate. Just like the epigraph represents between Adam and God, the creature had no part in his creation at all and he is simply just the result of Victor’s experiment.

Victor actually agrees and is moved by the creature’s pity party but over time, never decides to create him a mate. The request for a mate is very similar to Adam’s adjuration in Paradise Lost. Just like the creature, Adams prays to God for a mate. God is the creator of all in Paradise Lost and Victor is the creator of this creature, but obviously, they differ tremendously. Victor’s agenda was to create life and achieve his goal in doing so with not even caring about the impact that may have on society and even himself. Sadly, the creature learns about the world in his own way through envy and disgust. Everything he ever had good in him flips completely around to retribution and alienation. Victor is purely just a human with constraints like us all, while God in Paradise Lost in the most powerful subjection in all of creation. It is not the creature’s fault for the way he acts throughout this novel but he pays the price of Victor’s abandonment, which we see in the epigraph.

Since Victor will not agree to the creatures wish of a mate, it becomes extremely agitated and is now filled with anger. The creature feels like since he did not ask to be created that he will at least ask Victor to make someone for him. The creature is treated so horribly and he completely has a heart full of pain and hates Victor. It gets incredibly evil and develops a dark side. Usually, evil is to darkness as good is to light. The epigraph has it easy to believe that the creature is evil or at least has a dark side. Truly, the creature is most likely this way because it was created by Victor. God in Paradise Lost was completely capable of making a perfect human and unlike God, Victor is not capable. He made a disgusting creature. It goes through a series of personalities throughout the novel. Through all of these different personalities, we see how he could relate to both Adam and Satan.

Adam was a perfect being and Satan turned his back on God and created war between himself and God. We actually see this in the novel ourselves. The creature says, “Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence”. Then he goes on to say, “but I was wretched, helpless and alone.  Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition” (Shelley, 116). The creature was so angry with the loneliness that Satan grew on him and so he acted in evil ways.

Victor did a great job in his dedication to creating life but failed in his ability to care for what he created and deal with the aftermath that his actions create. He wanted to be like God but did not do so when he made the decision to not give his creation a mate. The creature also did not ask to be created which is why he turned evil. Just like Satan, in response to the loneliness, the creature took part in disturbing acts that eventually resulted in Victor’s agony. By including this Paradise Lost epigraph in Frankenstein, Shelley creates a good vs. evil relationship along with a creator vs. creation relationship.