Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein explores the effect of society on The Creature’s personality and discusses various underlying themes. The novel is often compared to other works from the Romantic Age. However, when comparing it to another masterpiece, the creation story in Genesis, the similarities and differences between Victor and The Creature become evident. Victor and The Creature represent God and Adam respectively. In Genesis, God breathes life into Adam and creates him in His image. He places Adam in a utopia and gives him authority over everything. Adam uses his knowledge to determine right from wrong, with God’s unconditional love always there to support him. In contrast, Victor assembles body parts from different corpses to create a hideous monster while he is consumed by madness. He abandons The Creature in a world filled with ugliness, violence, and hate. There is no love between Victor and his creation, only hatred and fear.
An all-powerful perfect being created Adam and saw that he was lonely, so the being made a mate for him. When Adam sinned, he acknowledged his guilt, followed God’s commands, and left the garden. Despite Adam’s rebellion, God always loved him. On the other hand, a flawed mad man created The Creature with the sole purpose of satisfying himself. The Creature pleaded with his creator to make him a companion to share his love with, but when Victor refused, The Creature swore vengeance, resulting in mutual hatred. One significant similarity between Adam and The Creature is that their creators reacted drastically at crucial moments in their respective stories. Victor felt sympathy for The Creature as he listened to his story in a cave, while God became angry with Adam for eating the forbidden fruit. However, even though Adam broke the rules, God’s love for him never wavered. In contrast, Victor hated The Creature throughout the book, declaring that he would never create another being as deformed and wicked as The Creature.
Although there are numerous differences between these two tales, both of them convey morals and lessons. Frankenstein conveys the message that man should not attempt to defy God and that judgements should not be based on physical appearances. The creation story, on the other hand, teaches that man should show respect towards his authorities. Victor, a flawed version of God, made the error of abandoning his “son” from birth and continued to reject him throughout his life. The Creature, however, was flawed not due to any fault of his own but because he was left alone in an unpleasant world without any guidance or teaching. Mary Shelley effectively utilized a deep and gothic theme to convey multiple points and made it engaging by drawing parallels between the main characters and those from a well-known story.
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