Did the creature ever want Frankenstein to create him? Did he ask to endure the ridicule, confusion, loneliness and ignorance he endured? Likewise, Adam too didn’t ask to be made, he didn’t ask to be expected to be obedient and then tempted. Did any of us ask to exist? Basic human nature inspires those alive to repeatedly ask these kinds of questions, as exhibited in both John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Mary Shelley uses Milton’s work to further explore the answers for this timeless question.
There are many similar themes in both Frankenstein and “Paradise Lost.” The struggle between the creator/creature is a common in both works. In fact, the epigraph to the novel, “Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / …show more content…
The creature directly confronts Frankenstein and questions this, “Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?” (154), just as Adam also did. Shelley alludes to “Paradise Lost” throughout the novel by character comparisons and also by using it as one of the pieces of literature that the creature uses to educate himself. The creature discovers a lot about himself and his own existence by reading this. He recognizes that he is “like Adam…apparently united by no link to any other creature in existences” (153) however he also recognizes that his creator wasn’t as nurturing as God was to Adam, and he the assumes that because of this he must be “wretched, helpless, and alone.” (153) Another reason Mary Shelley uses it, is to assist the description of the creature by two distinct characters, Satan and Adam. Their traits both happen to manifest within the creature too. Like Adam his existence was not created naturally and from nothing but his creator’s ambition and ingenuity, but also like Satan he recognized that he too, when watching his protectors, the De Lacey family “the bitter gall of envy” (153) was drawn out of him. Regarding this book as fact, the creature analyzes himself in every way through Satan and Adam and even claims the he might
There are many similar themes in both Frankenstein and “Paradise Lost.” The struggle between the creator/creature is a common in both works. In fact, the epigraph to the novel, “Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / …show more content…
The creature directly confronts Frankenstein and questions this, “Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?” (154), just as Adam also did. Shelley alludes to “Paradise Lost” throughout the novel by character comparisons and also by using it as one of the pieces of literature that the creature uses to educate himself. The creature discovers a lot about himself and his own existence by reading this. He recognizes that he is “like Adam…apparently united by no link to any other creature in existences” (153) however he also recognizes that his creator wasn’t as nurturing as God was to Adam, and he the assumes that because of this he must be “wretched, helpless, and alone.” (153) Another reason Mary Shelley uses it, is to assist the description of the creature by two distinct characters, Satan and Adam. Their traits both happen to manifest within the creature too. Like Adam his existence was not created naturally and from nothing but his creator’s ambition and ingenuity, but also like Satan he recognized that he too, when watching his protectors, the De Lacey family “the bitter gall of envy” (153) was drawn out of him. Regarding this book as fact, the creature analyzes himself in every way through Satan and Adam and even claims the he might