Frankenstein by Mary Shelley tells the story of the scientist Victor Frankenstein and his creation of a monster that is separated from all worldly beings. Naomi Hetherington examines the work in her essay from the point of view of theology, and the divine principle of the creator. Naomi Hetherington is a member of the Department for Lifelong Learning. The author has received several awards for excellence in teaching during her tenure at the Department of English and Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London. Moreover, Naomi Hetherington is considered an honorary fellow in the School of English, including for her services to interdisciplinary biblical studies. She is a Fellow of the Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies, which gives her the unique privilege of reviewing and interpreting Mary Shelley’s outstanding work. Hetherington’s essay is titled “Creator and Created in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” and argues that Frankenstein’s creation is a parallel to Milton’s Paradise Lost and God’s creation of life. Hetherington adequately concludes that Victor Frankenstein is a symbol of God through the creation of a new being, and the monster is a symbol of Satan due to his deeds.
I agree with Hetherington’s position, since Victor takes on the role of God and creates a new creature, while his monster goes out of control. Hetherington throughout the essay emphasizes the parallel of humanity’s moral limitations through Victor Frankenstein and the separation and connection to Paradise Lost. For Hetherington, Shelley ties the two stories together, thanks to Victor creating the monster and his “fall” from humanity, weaving a tangled web of allusions through her characters’ insatiable desire for knowledge (Hetherington 6). When Frankenstein goes beyond the proper science and refuses to call his son his own, he becomes a cruel overlord of what he sees as satanic. At the same time, his Being sees Frankenstein as Satan sees God: a tyrant who rightfully deserves to be destroyed. Because Satan cannot tell justice from revenge, Frankenstein’s monster feels he has no choice but to take revenge on his unjust creator.
Hetherington says that in the first place it is Satan, in the form of a monster created by Frankenstein, who can evoke in the reader a sympathetic understanding of his fate and deeds. The monster seems sincere in his emotions and desires, especially in his desire to help the De Lacy family. The monster acts as an altruist when he saves a drowning girl and warms his creator with fire. Unlike Frankenstein, who forgot about his family because of his ego, the creature enjoys positive emotions.
The monster created by Victor Frankenstein, like Satan, rejects his creator’s ideas and yearns for more. Hetherington’s opinion is supported by The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany, stating that the monster manifests a thirst for emotions and satanic resistance to its desires and needs. According to the second author, the creation thinks that now it can cease to belong to the creator and get to know the family, despite its disgusting appearance (Edinburgh Magazine 252). The monster had no choice but to become evil, as Satan did. As he said: “Satan had his companions, fellowdevils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and detested” (Shelley 124). In the end, however, they are both considered terrible creatures.
Mary Shelley’s outstanding story is built like a web of allusions. It is expressed in the fact that the characters go from their insatiable desire for knowledge. Additionally, Frankenstein’s entire life and creation of his own monster refers the reader to John Milton’s poem “Paradise Lost”. Shelley influences the characterization of Victor and Creation so that these characters present, like their own, challenges to religious authority figures. The moral decline of both characters is observed in the fact that Victor is doing what only God should do. Additionally, Shelley alludes to the ambiguity of the image of Satan in Milton’s poem.
Works Cited
Hetherington, Naomi. “Creator and Created in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” The Keats-Shelley Review vol. 11, no. 1, 1997. pp. 1-39.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Ed. Brantley Johnson. New York: Simon, 2009. Print.
The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany: A New Series of “The Scots Magazine”. U of Maryland, 1818. pp. 249-253.