Frankenstein

“Did I request thee maker from my clay

To mould me man,

Did I solicit thee from darkness

To promote me?”

from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, X, 743-745 (Adam to God)

• The monster is shunned by his creator, Dr. Victor Frankenstein. He has ill will toward Frankenstein for abandoning him. The monster feels he is both Adam and Satan, both who were abandoned by God, the creator.

Themes:

• birth/rebirth/creation: God and mother: Frankenstein upset a rule of nature
• nature’s healing power: romantic notion that there lies divinity in nature
• quest/journey: search for meaning (Walton, monster, Frankenstein)
• Isolation: not being part of society/family
• Illness v. health
• Knowledge, when used incorrectly, can be dangerous
• Responsibility of parent to child

Allusions:

• Prometheus: Titan who stole fire from gods to give to humans; role of creator
• Cornelius Agrippa: German magician/theologian/astronomer/alchemist

Narrative structure

• epistolary: a novel told in letters (Robert Walton, Victor, and members of his family)
• bildungsroman: a novel of self-development; a quest story