In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and in The Book of Genesis, Victor Frankenstein and the Christian God both create intelligent beings that are seemingly dependent upon their masters mentally and emotionally.

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Dana Kornblum

Cultural Studies

November 1, 2002

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and in The Book of Genesis, Victor Frankenstein and the Christian God both create intelligent beings that are seemingly dependent upon their masters mentally and emotionally.  Victor and the Creature are obvious representations of God and Adam, and the events in the two accounts parallel and differ from each other in many ways.  In both creation narratives, Shelley and Moses address the concern with the use of knowledge for evil purposes, the treatment of one’s “son,” and the Monster and Adam and Eve’s contributions to the downfall of humankind.

In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve use the knowledge that they acquire in total disregard to their creator; through their curiosity, they defy God and His commandments. The couple had been warned about eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God told them, "you must not touch it, for when you eat of it, you will surely die." (Gen. 3:3b) Unlike Victor Frankenstein, God wished for His creation to prosper and bear fruit; He watched over them as His own children. In Chapter 2 of Genesis, Moses describes God bringing life into Adam’s body as He lovingly, "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." The defiance that Adam and Eve committed against God angered Him greatly because of the trust that He had given them. Because of these acts, Adam and Eve, like the monster in Frankenstein, were rejected and punished by the One who created them.

God’s treatment of the ignorant couple was not filled with negligence, resentment, or fear. He created Adam and Eve with a calling and purpose, and though they were ignorant of the world around them, this ignorance was a gift of protection from the temptations of the material world. God was hurt by the couple’s disloyalty, and used curses to relay the anger and sadness He feels because of their betrayal of His trust, saying, "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; from dust you are, and to dust you will return." (Gen 3:17b-19) The consequences of Adam and Eve’s actions in the Garden of Eden, by record of this sacred creation narrative, have affected the human race from that time to the present. God states that, "Man must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, eat, and live forever. Man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil." (Gen 3:22-23)

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Once a person forms or creates a human with the capacity to think, feel, and understand the surrounding world, there is a certain sense of duty that the creator must uphold as long as he or she is able.  Creation of human life is irreversible. Victor Frankenstein comments, "The accidents of life are not as changeable as the feelings of human nature." (34)  After Frankenstein gives the creature life, Shelley gives him a being that will bless him as his “creator,” but also fears no repercussions from his maker if he transgresses.  Frankenstein’s Creature, then, blames Frankenstein for the ills ...

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