Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is a book steeped in metaphors, parallels, and relations to other works of fiction and non-fiction, featuring authors and thinkers such as Milton and Wollstonecraft. While much of this is readily visible within the book and footnotes, it is the hidden arc, or rather the twisting of the story of Genesis from the Bible, whose meaning permeates deep within the structure of the book. Shelley uses the Genesis story of the creation of man by God as parallel to the creation of the monster by Victor, albeit twisted in such a way that it becomes a type of anti-Genesis story, where the figures of God and man are distorted. The first way she does this is through the creation of the monster himself, where Victor plays the
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However, to add to the pain the monster feels from the isolation and ostracization faced at the hands of his creator, and furthermore society as a whole, arrives when the monster relays his journey to Victor. At the very end of his monologue, he tells Victor that, “What I ask of you is reasonable and moderate; I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself: the gratification is small, but it is all that I can receive, and it shall content me” (Shelley 157). Here, the monster asks for an Eve to his Adam, a being made in the likeness of him to accompany him in life as a confidante and lover, for he knows no other human will ever bear to be able to look at him. Victor accepts, at first, but then changes his mind, destroying the work he had started on the female to the despair of the monster (Shelley 175). Unlike God, who heeds Adam’s wish to have a companion even amongst the animals and plant life (Gen. 1:18-22), Victor refuses, once again isolating his own creation from a better life. God did not discriminate nor ask if Adam should be entrusted with another thinking human being, unlike Victor did to the monster (Shelley 174). What then is to be noted of the relation between Victor and the monster and God and Adam? The lack of compassion, the lack of care, and the lack of love for the creature Victor created are all influenced by the fact the creature he made was not in the likeness of man, but …show more content…
A common thread, however, is the relation between the book of Genesis and its story of God and Adam, and the relation between Victor and Adam, albeit one that becomes almost opposite to the original story though still intrinsically tied to it. The original creation of the monster contrasted by God’s creation of Adam, the shunning of the monster and his request for a creature similar to him as contrasted by Adam and the creation of Eve, and the recognition of the monster being not just Adam but also Lucifer and thus definitively spinning the story in Genesis on its head, solidifies some of the threads that weave together to form Frankenstein and its many layers of depth. There are many ways to read this novel, but the relation and contrast of Adam and God and the monster and Victor runs much deeper than seen if read just
However, to add to the pain the monster feels from the isolation and ostracization faced at the hands of his creator, and furthermore society as a whole, arrives when the monster relays his journey to Victor. At the very end of his monologue, he tells Victor that, “What I ask of you is reasonable and moderate; I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself: the gratification is small, but it is all that I can receive, and it shall content me” (Shelley 157). Here, the monster asks for an Eve to his Adam, a being made in the likeness of him to accompany him in life as a confidante and lover, for he knows no other human will ever bear to be able to look at him. Victor accepts, at first, but then changes his mind, destroying the work he had started on the female to the despair of the monster (Shelley 175). Unlike God, who heeds Adam’s wish to have a companion even amongst the animals and plant life (Gen. 1:18-22), Victor refuses, once again isolating his own creation from a better life. God did not discriminate nor ask if Adam should be entrusted with another thinking human being, unlike Victor did to the monster (Shelley 174). What then is to be noted of the relation between Victor and the monster and God and Adam? The lack of compassion, the lack of care, and the lack of love for the creature Victor created are all influenced by the fact the creature he made was not in the likeness of man, but …show more content…
A common thread, however, is the relation between the book of Genesis and its story of God and Adam, and the relation between Victor and Adam, albeit one that becomes almost opposite to the original story though still intrinsically tied to it. The original creation of the monster contrasted by God’s creation of Adam, the shunning of the monster and his request for a creature similar to him as contrasted by Adam and the creation of Eve, and the recognition of the monster being not just Adam but also Lucifer and thus definitively spinning the story in Genesis on its head, solidifies some of the threads that weave together to form Frankenstein and its many layers of depth. There are many ways to read this novel, but the relation and contrast of Adam and God and the monster and Victor runs much deeper than seen if read just