Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein And The Modern Prometheus

Many people in history have tried to play the role of God by taking other people’s lives and trying to do what has never been done before, creating a new species. In the novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein accomplished this goal by creating the monster thus playing the role of God. There are even many hints and lines in the story that are related to biblical stories and ideas to compare Victor as God or a father figure towards the creature. It gave Victor something to do with his life and even to this day people want to be like Victor and have the power of God.

Playing God usually ends up in catastrophic events, and can even lead to the loss of one’s life. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein’s obsession with creating life ultimately leads to the death of many of his loved ones. In Frankenstein, Victor, Robert, and the creature all share some trait that shows how they try to play God.

     In the stories Prometheus and Frankenstein the protagonists both tried to play God in their own way. They did this by trying to create their own being or race to worship them. In the story Prometheus, the protagonist Prometheus takes all the human beings under his wing and teaches them the beginning of civilization and changes their lives completely. "He grudged men all the gifts that Prometheus had given them and he was angry with Prometheus for granting to

When Victor Frankenstein began the process of creating a living being from an inanimate object, he expected the creature to be the beautiful beginning of a new

There is a contradiction in the beginning of Frankenstein’s downfall when he was formulating his creation - if humans should obtain the power to “play God” given medical tools (used for good) to create a living creature consisted of corpse body parts (which is seen as immoral). In page 39, Frankenstein states the reason behind his commitment to something wicked, “The materials at present within my command hardly appeared adequate to so arduous an undertaking, [...] yet when I considered the improvement which every day takes place in science and mechanics, I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success.” In this dialogue, we can draw that Frankenstein is merely an ambitious character that did what he did because of the elements and philosophy he had within reach. The myriad of components combined would have never

But what are we to make of Victor Frankenstein? We know that he is in fact a human being. However, he displays several traits that lessen the level of his humanity. The first of which being his desire to make his creature in the first place. By bestowing life

Victor Frankenstein played the role of God in hopes of getting rid of death and disease so no one else would know the suffering that he felt after the death of his mother. He is a learned man and became fixated on acquiring the ‘secret of life’. Finally he finds the secret, but is unhappy with his results, a foul mangled monster. As a result, Victor is enraged, guilt ridden and consumed with the lust of destroying his creation. As a result of Victors remorse and anger the monster is ridden with suffering and sadness. Henceforth the monster and Victor make a deal for the monster to obtain a companion. Be that as it may, Victor goes back on his part of the deal and the monster is enraged and wishes to make Victor feel

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein we are introduced early in the story to one of the main characters Victor Frankenstein and subsequently to his creation referred to as the monster. The monster comes to life after being constructed by Victor using body parts from corpses. As gruesome as this sounds initially we are soon caught up in the tale of the living monster. Victor the creator becomes immediately remorseful of his decision to bring the monstrous creation to life and abandons the borne creature. Victor describes his emotions and physical description of his creation as follows:

In the Bible, the book of Genesis 1:27 states that "God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." Creating both men and women in His image, God is the only person who can do this successfully, giving us unconditional love and never abandoning us throughout our journey in life. On the other hand, Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist creates a life form due to his love of natural sciences. His desire to create this life form only for an experimental purpose unknowingly leads to disastrous outcomes for both Victor Frankenstein and his creation, the monster. In Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, the protagonist, Victor Frankenstein uses his knowledge

Just as Eve is told that she will be a god if she partakes of the fruit of knowledge, Frankenstein works to create a being to worship him as a god. He says, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (55). The creation of the monster draws some parallels between Frankenstein and God in Paradise Lost. Frankenstein’s act of “bestowing animation upon lifeless matter”

When man decides to assume the role of God, consequences are bound to plague such an ambition. In the case of Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the product of such an ambition is a creature born of the dead. Despite the frightening process of his creation, the creature wakes into the world as a benevolent being. He simply longs for acceptance and friendship, but due to his unsightly features, the world is quick to condemn him as the monster he appears to be. With an unbearable sense of rejection in his heart, the monster begins to turn wicked. Soon enough he is responsible for multiple deaths in the name of revenge. Although many treat him unfairly, the monster is fully aware of his actions

Mary Shelley, in her book Frankenstein, makes several allusions to the fact that Victor Frankenstein is usurping the role of God in bringing his creature to life. The point of the book seems to be that a human who attempts to usurp the role of God will be heavily punished. Victor Frankenstein is severely punished. He loses everyone he loves before perishing himself in the arctic wastes. But did he really "play God" or did he merely unleash his own id and destroy himself?

In the Novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley Victor Frankenstein creates a creature out of parts off of dead bodies. He does this because of his want to feel like a God, he wants to experience an entirely new experience. While religion is never out right stated in the novel

The book of Genesis was created by God to express his image of companionship, but also bring awareness to the idea of sin. Shelley forms Frankenstein around Genesis, however, she separates the two by stating, “Frankenstein’s monster is created as a test of Frankenstein’s power” (Shelley 34), implying that the monster is simply created to challenge the power of his creator just as God’s power was challenged by Adam and Eve. Following the creation of the monster, Victor wants absolutely nothing to do with it. The monster is composed of decomposing human bodies and therefore it is not anyone’s ideal image and has no one to look up to in the aspect of, “let us make man in our image, according to our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Due to the monster being created with the limps and interior of dead bodies, it promotes an extraordinary element of not having an original origin. Victor takes advantage of the fact that the monster is not a

Throughout Mary Shelley's, Frankenstein, the characters of the novel parallel to biblical allusions. Victor takes on the role of God, as he works to “pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation” (33), thus displaying a God-like power. The power Victor holds allows him to create a being solely from his own imagination, therefore giving him similar characteristics to God in the “Story of Creation”. However, Victor differs from God as Victor does not allow the Monster to stay in his life, as Adam and Eve stayed in the Garden of Eden, but abandons the monster directly following its animation. The abandonment significantly affects the