The Role Of The Creature In John Milton's Paradise Lost

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is Gothic Romantic novel written in an epistolary style—the story itself is told throughout a series of letters and is a frame story. It is about a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who ambitiously creates a monstrous being, who on the inside is kind and just wants to be loved, yet on the outside, is scary and evil-looking. In fact, Victor refers to the creation of this creature as a “catastrophe,” and he refers to the creature as a “wretch” (35). The novel progresses and tells the story of the relationship between Victor and his creature. The creature specifically experiences a major character change, and by the end of the novel, is completely opposite of how he was when he was originally created. Mary Shelley writes this novel and focuses on the creature in order to teach the reader that things are not always what they seem. The creature that Victor creates can be compared to two characters within John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost. Milton’s Paradise Lost is about the Fall of Man, but specifically focuses on Satan as a fallen angel. Milton describes how Satan was created as a beautiful angel, perfect and stunning, but he was too proud. …show more content…
But, because of the way Victor treats him, he turns into a violent and scary monster by the end of the book. Throughout Mary Shelley’s entire Frankenstein novel, there is a common theme that things are not what they seem. Shelly uses allusions and parallels to John Milton’s Paradise Lost to compare Victor’s creature to Adam and Satan. She uses this device to show that the creature was beautiful on the inside, but hideous on the outside. At the end of the novel, the creature promises to kill itself, leaving the reader to determine whether he will, in fact, do it, because he followed through with his other threats over the course of the