Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (1818) by Mary Shelley

There are a number of themes and ideas that are conveyed in Mary Shelley‘s famous story, Frankenstein. One is the dangers of having an overly ambitious thirst for knowledge and power to the neglect of human relationships. Another is the injustice of judging others based on their outward appearance rather than their heart. But one of the ideas that kept coming to my mind as I read Frankenstein this second time around was how Victor Frankenstein’s dealings and relationship with his creature contrasts with God and how He deals with man as His creature.

The story starts out with Victor Frankenstein envisioning himself in a God-like role as a creator of life. In his ambition, he is motivated by the glory he would attain, and the devotion his creation would owe to him: “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs.”

When men try to become God, it never turns out well! In contrast to God’s declaration after creating Adam that all that He had made was “very good,” Victor Frankenstein writes in his journal, “I had been the author of unalterable evils.” After Victor sees that the creature to whom he has given life is ugly and deformed, rather than having compassion on him and desiring to maintain, and later reconcile, their relationship, he rejects the Creature outright, and eventually seeks to destroy him. Throughout the story, Frankenstein refers to his creation as a “demon,” “fiend,” “devil,” and “monster.” He never gives him a personal name or does anything to instill in him an element of humanity. The Creature, on the other hand, is continually reaching out to the world around him in search of understanding, kindness, acceptance, and a sense of belonging. It is only because of the constant rejection he experiences that he becomes alienated from society and retaliates in anger and hatred, eventually seeking revenge against his creator whom he feels is ultimately to blame for his exclusion from society and his miserable existence.

God made man as a social creature; one of His first acts after creating Adam was to give him a “helpmeet” or life partner – another creature that was alike in important ways, yet different and complimentary to Adam. “And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him” (Gen. 2:18). God knew that this was both needed by Adam as well as beneficial to him. Before Eve was given to him, Adam found no creature like him among the animals he named and was surrounded by. Frankenstein’s Creature likewise sensed that he was different – something “other” than the creatures he encountered. The Creature makes the observation,

I found myself similar yet at the same time strangely unlike to the beings concerning whom I read and to whose conversation I was a listener. I sympathised with and partly understood them, but I was unformed in mind; I was dependent on none and related to none…Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred.

He came to realize that he needed and desired a companion that was like him, and he appeals to Dr. Frankenstein to create for him such a being. He pleads his case with Dr. F:

“I am alone and miserable, man will not associate with me, but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me,” he tells Victor. “My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create.”

But Frankenstein denies him this, causing the creature to feel even more alone, isolated, and bitter. The Creature in Shelley’s story blames his creator for his lonely existence. He says to Frankenstein, “Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy monster, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” As a result of his failure to respond to the needs of his creature, Victor Frankenstein makes an enemy of him, resulting in the eventual loss of those most dear to him, and becoming the victim of his creature’s wrath.

As God’s creatures, we by nature continually seek for understanding, acceptance, and love from the world around us. Meanwhile, we neglect, spurn, and even hate the Creator who gave us life. Yet in His compassion, our Creator seeks out those who ignore and hate Him, and rather than desiring to destroy us (as Frankenstein does his creature), He sent His own Son to die for His enemies in order to reconcile them to Himself and to make them His own children. Romans 5:10 says “…while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.” God makes those who were at enmity with Him to be His children. He loves the unlovable, becomes a Father to them, and makes them His heirs. In order to accomplish this, His son, Jesus, willingly took on the wrath that deservedly should have been extended to His rebellious creatures. However, in the end Jesus emerges, not as a victim like Victor Frankenstein, but rather as the conqueror who overcomes both His and our enemies: Sin, Death, and Satan.

Have you read Shelley’s Frankenstein? What was your impression of it?

Related Pages and Articles

• Project Gutenberg e-Book of Frankenstein (www.gutenberg.org)
• The Life and Works of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
• 6 Things I Never Knew about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (www.fee.org)
• Frankenstein at 200 (www.theguardian.com)