Mary Shelley 's ' Frankenstein '

In the gothic novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley weaves an intricate web of allusions through her characters’ expedient desires for knowledge. Both the actions of Frankenstein, as well as his monster allude to John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Book eight of Milton’s story relates the tale of Satan’s temptation and Eve’s fateful hunger for knowledge. The infamous Fall of Adam and Eve introduced the knowledge of good and evil into a previously pristine world. With one swift motion sin was birthed, and the perfection of the earth was swept away, leaving pain and malevolence in its wake. The troubles of Victor Frankenstein begin with his quest for knowledge, and end where all end: death. The characters in Frankenstein are a conglomeration of those

Mary Bysshe Shelley, the writer of Frankenstein, used lots of different Allusions to common text from the time to help readers understand relationships between Victor and his creature as well as Victor’s motivation for creating the creature. Shelley uses allusions to Paradise Lost to help the reader understand the relationship between Victor Frankenstein and his creature. Paradise Lost discusses the relationship between God and Adam as well as Satan and God and how he treats them as their creator. The relationship between the creature and Frankenstein can be described as a mix between the 2 relationships discussed in Paradise Lost. The creature sees himself as Adam because he was created in his creator’s own image and made to be a creation of man.

Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" narrates a story about a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, and his creation of a monster set apart from all worldly creatures. Frankenstein's creation parallels Milton's "Paradise Lost" and God's creation of man; Victor Frankenstein is symbolic of God and the monster is symbolic of Adam. The parallel emphasizes the moral limitations of mankind through Victor Frankenstein and the disjunction and correlation with "Paradise Lost". Shelly links the two stories together through Victor's creation of the monster and his "fall" from humanity which I will focus on initially. More importantly, the main divergence of the two works lies in the representation of God in "Paradise Lost" and Victor in "Frankenstein". Both the

The combination of his own motivation and the encouragement of his professor Waldman, Frankenstein possesses a “supernatural enthusiasm” for the study of galvanism and has no check on reality except for the disapproval of his father (Shelley 56). Frankenstein thinks that he can ‘play God’ in his studies at Ingolstadt and is a “disciple” of the ‘religion’ of galvanism that Waldman preaches (Shelley 54). Frankenstein believes that his exploration in the “hiding-places” of nature was a heavenly and glorified thing, however it turns out to be “thing such as Dante could not have conceived,” and is more related to hell than the pursuits of God (Shelley 58, 61). Frankenstein uses his power to mock God, and insinuates his power of making ‘life’ equal to God’s power of creating human birth. This mockery of God causes his own ruination, and thus loses his family and friends to the one thing he throws his whole life away on, the Creation.

In the true Garden of Eden, Eve is instructed by God that she is not to eat from the forbidden Tree. However, being tempted by Satan himself she is forced to make an age-old decision, one in which all know the outcome. Satan tempts her with the prospect of knowledge, saying, “[…] your Eyes that seem so cleere,/ Yet are but dim, shall perfetly be then/ Op’nd and cleerd, and ye shall be as Gods,/ Knowing both Good and Evil as they know”(PL 8.706-708). In Frankenstein, Victor is an “Eve,” dabbling in affairs reserved for God alone, and seeking a forbidden knowledge. This knowledge is the ability to create life, and, in the process, bring death to Death. He relates that “[he] might in process of time […] renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption” (55). This search to put an end to Death is Eve’s motive as well. Satan tells her that “[she] shall not Die” if she eats of the fruit, but only lose her humanity to become a god, if death be considered that.

     Even upon first glance, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and John Milton's Paradise Lost seem to have a complex relationship, which is discernible only in fractions at a time.  Frankenstein is Mary Shelley's reaction to John Milton's epic poem, in which he wrote the Creation myth as we perceive it today.  His characterizations of Adam and Eve and the interactions of Satan and God and the impending Fall seem to have almost taken a Biblical proportion by themselves.  By the time that Mary Shelley read Paradise Lost, it was indeed a stalwart in the canon of English Literature, so it should not come as a surprise to the reader the it should play such a large part in her construction of

In Mary Shelley´s Gothic novel, Frankenstein, the Monster once claimed, “The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.” Frankenstein, since the 1910 film adaptation, has known a series of several adaptations that changed drastically, not only the plot but one of the main characters, the Monster, from stealing its creator´s name to being portrayed as a cold villain. Though, in the original storyline, the biggest threat to society is the creator itself, the one pretending to play as God, Victor Frankenstein. This essay will discuss the nature of the main characters of the novel and conclude who is the “real monster” in the end.

In this passage, the monster creates a link between “Paradise Lost”, a book he has read, and the life he is leading now. The title of the book is strongly connoted as it alludes to the original sin in the bible, when Adam and Eve are thrown out of Paradise for eating an apple from the forbidden tree after having succumbed to Satan. The religious reference used by Mary Shelly enables the author to amplify the idea that the loss of innocence and destruction is a theme that is recurrent in every period of time. This reference offers an anthropologic analysis on how men inevitably destroy their innocence and purity. Throughout this passage, an intrinsic bond can be detected between Adam and the monster and between God and Frankenstein.

In the nineteenth century gothic novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses numerous allusions within her novel that can easily be interpreted by the reader. These allusions make it easier for readers to understand the characters and compare their circumstances throughout the story. The most significant and most used was from John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost. It is known that, “…Paradise Lost stands alone in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries atop the literary hierarchy, and Milton’s epic is clearly rooted in the history of Puritanism and in the bourgeois ideal of the individual, the ‘concept of the person as a relatively autonomous self-contained and distinctive universe’” (Lamb 305). This book has numerous parallels that readers can easily interpret to Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein and his monster can both be identified with several characters from Paradise Lost. Among these characters are Adam, Eve, Satan, and God. Paradise Lost is even mentioned in the novel, after the monster that Victor creates reads the epic as if it was a history book. The Creature states, “But Paradise Lost excited different and far deeper emotions. I read it, as I had read the other volumes which had fallen into my hands, as a true history. It moved every feeling of wonder and awe that the picture of an omnipotent God warring with his creatures was capable of exciting” (Shelley 124). He is able

In Frankenstein, A perfect marriage and family are idealistic and dreamt upon, but are not seen as realistic or possible. Things such as scientific literature, new philosophy, and scientific breakthroughs were highly respected. In addition, literary classics such as Milton's Paradise Lost act as a guide for the morals and actions of the characters. For example, Victor Frankenstein's creature often relates himself to the Romantic's view of Satan(an abused creation), while relating his creator to God, who cast him away. Victor Frankenstein is often bothered by his consciences, preventing him to feel right or wrong.

In the Gothic novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley integrates the rhetorical devices figurative language, imagery, and tone to impart the concept that the desire to acquire knowledge and emulate God will ultimately result in chaos and havoc that exceeds the boundaries of human restraint.

The book Frankenstein is one of the most passionate novels ever written. Mary Shelley’s incredible ability to portray grief and suffering at such a young age and in such a vivid way is ineffable. However, in the review of the Knight’s Quarterly Review, Shelley’s classic work is attacked in its content and character.

In the introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, which was originally published anonymously in 1818 and which over the intervening years (thanks partly to a series of low-comedy theatrical adaptations) had become a bestseller, Mary Shelley offered a persuasive and romantic explanation of how her book came to be written. The account of where and how Mary Shelley’s novel originated may be among the most famous creation stories in literature; we know, or think we know, the circumstances and the pressures under which a very young woman turned a sort of parlor game into a book that would long outlive her.

The connection between Frankenstein in paradise lost elevates the story emphasizing doing the forbidden and the consequences that come with it. As the monster interacted more with humans he said, “Increase of knowledge only discovered to me more clearly what a wretched outcast I was. (Shelley 119)” Victor created his monster and released him into the real world, but it wasn't soon until his “Paradise” was lost and he realized he didn't fit in. The monster was loathing on the idea that he was abandoned by Victor when he says, “ I remembered Adam’s supplication to his Creator.

Paradise Lost shares many parallels with Frankenstein. Two different characters from Milton’s poem can be compared to Victor Frankenstein’s monster. The first of the characters is Lucifer; the fallen angel can closely relate to the creature from Shelley’s story. Both were forsaken by their creators,