Frankenstein And Slavery In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

This aspect can be depicted through, John Milton’s, Paradise Lost, which expands on the initial chapters of Genesis through the story of Adam and Eve. Paradise Lost follows the story of Adam and Eve getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden after Satan tempts Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, the main character, Frankenstein, creates a monster out of dead body parts and electricity. As Frankenstein grows to resent his creation, the monster becomes an outcast of society due to his difference in appearance. The monster vows revenge against his creator for making him this way and leaving him miserable and alone. Through a series of retaliations against each other, both the monster and Frankenstein …show more content…
As Frankenstein’s hatred accumulates, he feels the burning desire to kill his creation, the monster, and his feelings of revenge leads Frankenstein to feel chained by his passions, he admits,“Or (so my fond fancy imaged) some accident might meanwhile occur to destroy him and put an end to my slavery forever” (Shelley 165). As Frankenstein describes his lifestyle as being in “slavery,” he proves that he feels trapped due to his wishes of revenge. His use of the phrase, “so my fond fancy imaged,” leads to the idea that revenge, one of his impulses, decides his fate. He mirrors the role of a slave to its master, as he becomes a slave to his passions, illustrating his lack of control over his actions. Frankenstein describes his longing for his creation’s death by an outside force, and as he shows his apprehension to destroying the one thing to which he gave life, he tries to hang onto his innocence. Comparatively to Frankenstein, the monster’s language mirrors the ideals of revenge of Frankenstein. As the monster plots revenge against his creator, he threatens, “Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery. I will revenge my injuries; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards my arch-enemy, because my …show more content…
After Frankenstein finds himself devoting his life to the destruction of the monster, his emotions restrain him, as he thinks of his goal as being a task sent from God. Frankenstein argues, “The destruction of the demon more as a task enjoined by heaven, as the mechanical impulse of some power which I was unconscious impulse of some power of which I was unconscious, than as the ardent desire of my soul” (Shelley 222). Frankenstein feels ruled by his emotions as he declares, “mechanical impulse,” causing his passions to control him as he is a machine. The use of the word “unconscious,” in relation to Frankenstein’s impulses depict his physical loss of reality, causing Frankenstein to not fully be present throughout. Through the biblical imagery Frankenstein argues that his task of revenge against the monster is an act of God as he says, “enjoined by heaven.” This is an allusion to Paradise Lost, as it employs.. As “heaven,” is “enjoined,” Frankenstein uses personification to show the direct control that heaven, which can be a symbol of God, has on Frankenstein. As Frankenstein’s passions confine him and restrict him from his own free will, his obsession over the monster is the main reason for his downfall. Equally, the monster proves similar to