Paradise Lost and Monster Thesis

Creation Without Love: The Problem of Frankenstein

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein assumes the role of God by attempting to create new life. He is not, however, prepared for the consequences, and the outward hideousness of his creation compels him to reject the monster. Inwardly, Frankenstein's monster possesses a soul and longs for love and learning. The fact that he must seek both surreptitiously (and is yet still rejected) compels him to lash out -- both at society and at his creator. Along the way, the monster identifies with Milton's Satan -- another creature who lashed out at his creator after feeling spurned. This paper will show how Frankenstein's monster feels rejected by "god" (both the actual God of creation and also Frankenstein in the role of creator-god for the Creature) and how this leads to tragic consequences -- namely, both Frankenstein's and the monster's eventual isolation and death in the frozen Arctic. In short, when love is removed from the act of creation, the creature turns on the creator with a desire to destroy that which never should have been -- because it was made without love.

Even before the novel begins, Shelley uses a quote from Milton's Paradise Lost (the epic poem the monster will later discover and read) which sets the stage for the proceeding action. The quote is one that focuses on the Self and the indignation of the creature lashing out at God for having the wherewithal to create him without his permission: "Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / To mould Me man? Did I solicit thee / From darkness to promote me" (Milton 10.743-5). The quote comes from Adam but might just as well have come from Satan, who wants to know why God would create things only to spurn them. The underlying issue of the poem is that Satan feels unloved by God and thus spreads misery among the rest of God's creation. In Paradise Lost, the Godhead is depicted not as a loving God but rather as an unjust God -- an important point to remember because just as the monster and his actions parallel those of Satan in the poem, Frankenstein's actions parallel the actions of Milton's unjust/unloving God. The monster senses his connection to Milton's fallen -- "I remembered Adam's supplication to his Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him" (Shelley 131) -- and his vow to destroy his creator Frankenstein is an extension of his wrath at finding himself to have been created by a creator who has no love for his creation. In him is all the hatred of Satan. Shelley frames the novel within this conceit: a good God or Creator must create out of love -- or else all of creation will rebel just as Satan does in Paradise Lost.

That Frankenstein creates without love is apparent early on in the novel: he is consumed by an unhealthy passion -- an obsession really -- the isolates him from the rest of human society. He is driven by a seemingly mad compulsion to show that he can create life just as God can: indeed, he longs for a "glory" that rightly belongs to God -- one of the oldest prayers of the Church being "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost . . . ." Frankenstein writes to Margaret of his all-consuming passion: "Do I not deserve to accomplish some great purpose? My life might have been passed in ease and luxury; but I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path" (Shelley 17). Frankenstein is admitting that he wants fame and honors to be bestowed upon him for his achievements in science. His actions are oriented not towards others but towards himself: he seeks to glorify himself. Such a disposition is not one that is fit for creating, as it lacks the requisite goodness and love that a creator should possess for his creation. Frankenstein…