Connections Between Frankenstein and the Bible Essay

Love, hate, revenge, and murder. All of these themes impact the way a book can be read and will be read. Frankenstein is a novel that is full of devices that constantly make reader question the entire motive for characters. It features dynamic characters, who exhibit their humanity in the most exciting ways. They exhibit humanity, by loving each other, hating the monster, the monster murdering his creators friend and loved ones, and Frankenstein path to avenge the loss of his family to the monster. On the same side you also have BAIL (Bible as in Literature). It features many of the reoccurring themes seen in many great works of fiction. Once again many characters exhibit the many characteristics and they provide the solid backdrop for the book. There are many similarities that can be pegged as relevant between the two. The most relevant being the pursuit of dangerous knowledge, the sublime nature of the world, the connection between creation and creator, and the possibility of redemption.

The pursuit of knowledge is at the heart of Frankenstein, as Victor attempts to surge beyond accepted human limits and access the secret of life. Though, in his pursuit he seemed to forsake his soul and everything he loved suffered. Through his pursuit of playing God, he did not realize that his actions would result in the downfall (death) of him and everyone he loved. Also his pursuit of this dangerous knowledge resulted in the creation of a monster, maybe not completely bloodthirsty, but a monster that was willing to kill. Likewise, the first sin of Adam and Eve was in the pursuit of a dangerous knowledge. Eve was swayed by the serpent, into believing that by eating the fruit in the Garden of Eden, she would gain all of the knowledge of God. This also led to the downfall (death) of he characters. From Adam and Eves first disobedient act in the garden, each biblical book affirms that human evil is the inevitable result of the human act of questing for knowledge, not of Gods malice or neglect.

The sublime natural world, as a source of unrestrained emotional experience for the individual, initially offers characters the possibility of spiritual renewal. Mired in depression and remorse after the deaths of William and Justine, for which he feels responsible, Victor heads to the mountains to lift his spirits. By the end, as Victor chases the monster obsessively, nature, in the form of the Arctic desert, functions simply as the symbolic backdrop for his primal struggle against the monster. BaiL exhibits the same level of detail of the natural elements around the characters, the elements always seem to change when the characters need a message sent to them. The elements tend to change the mood of BaiL overall. In the beginning the book in Eden the characters Adam and Eve, are happy. The weather is all sunshine, and it is never mentioned that it rains. After they commit their first sin, the sky cracks with thunder (BaiL 45), and God wrath is known to them. In the rest of Genesis the weather is shown as bleak, and the characters realize that they have lost their spiritual connection with God.

I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on. This is how the creation in Frankenstein speaks of himself, and how his life will be loved. In Waltons final letter to his sister, he recounts the words that the monster speaks to him over Victors dead body. This eruption of angry self-pity as the monster questions the injustice of how he has been treated compellingly captures his inner life, giving Walton and the reader a glimpse into the suffering that has motivated his crimes. This line also evokes the motif of abortion: the monster is an unwanted life, a creation abandoned and shunned by his creator. On the opposite side of the spectrum, you have God and the creation of mankind. Unlike the creation in Frankenstein, the creator continues to do his best to cultivate and raise the creation into a creature worthy of saving. And unlike the titular character Frankenstein, God continues to shower his creations with undeserved mercy and gives them the chance to rise above their stations in life.

God typically responds to human behavior with retributive justice, meaning that people get what they deserve. God punishes the evil and blesses the righteous. The theme of mercy and redemption, which develops throughout the biblical stories, contrasts with this standard of retribution. Redemption appears in many forms in the Old Testament. Sometimes, one person forgives another by simply forgetting or ignoring the others offense. When Jacob returns to his homeland after cheating his brother, we expect hatred and vengeance from Esau. Esau, instead, welcomes Jacob with a joyful embrace, reversing Jacobs expectations no less than Jacob has already reversed Esaus fate. Just like in the bible Frankenstein, show the themes of a Chance of Redemption. Victor is given a chance to redeem himself in the sense that he has a chance to destroy his monster at each turn, but each time he stops himself, and does the opposite, which culminates in the end of his life.

The themes in the two books link and drive these two books apart in the end. While they do have similar themes they are used completely differently. In Frankenstein, the redemption angle is used to show how mans vanity will prevent him from doing the right thing, whereas in BaiL, it used to show that mankind has a chance to save itself.