Frankenstein: An In-Depth Analysis from Past to Present When evaluating and analyzing a novel, one must examine its qualities to determine the category of literature to which it belongs. When Mary Shelley first published her novel Frankenstein, the story was considered peculiar and avant-garde for her times, rendering it a popular subject of analysis. Since its original publication in 1818 until nowadays, professionals and students alike continue to study and critique Shelley’s timeless novel. Prominent among such critiques is Naomi Hetherington, an author on this topic who contributed her essay to the Keats-Shelley Review in 1997. Hetherington, in her essay “Creator and Created in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,” successfully proves that this
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In Christianity, signifies a person’s audacity to attempt to role of God, and is therefore severely punished. This concept is one of the core ideas in Frankenstein; William Frankenstein attempting to defy the laws of nature and create a living being as if he were God. After he successfully achieves his dreams and his oversized monster is created, he is horrified by its existence. As Frankenstein himself says, he was “unable to endure the aspect of the being I created, I rushed out of the room” (Shelley 59). This action directly leads to his downfall. Throughout the rest of the novel, Frankenstein faces constant suffering and misery as he knows his creation is responsible for the heinous murders of his loved ones, and eventually claims his own life as well. Furthermore, Shelley’s subtitle to her novel Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus, shows how the concept of the over-reacher in Frankenstein is directly related to the Greek Legend of Prometheus, who also rebelled against the will of God and was rightfully punished. Frankenstein himself even identifies himself with Milton’s Satan, declaring that “All my speculations and hopes are as nothing, and like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell” (Shelley, qtd. in
In Christianity, signifies a person’s audacity to attempt to role of God, and is therefore severely punished. This concept is one of the core ideas in Frankenstein; William Frankenstein attempting to defy the laws of nature and create a living being as if he were God. After he successfully achieves his dreams and his oversized monster is created, he is horrified by its existence. As Frankenstein himself says, he was “unable to endure the aspect of the being I created, I rushed out of the room” (Shelley 59). This action directly leads to his downfall. Throughout the rest of the novel, Frankenstein faces constant suffering and misery as he knows his creation is responsible for the heinous murders of his loved ones, and eventually claims his own life as well. Furthermore, Shelley’s subtitle to her novel Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus, shows how the concept of the over-reacher in Frankenstein is directly related to the Greek Legend of Prometheus, who also rebelled against the will of God and was rightfully punished. Frankenstein himself even identifies himself with Milton’s Satan, declaring that “All my speculations and hopes are as nothing, and like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell” (Shelley, qtd. in