Dr.
Frankenstein dreams of the bows of society and all the riches that go with
that, 'working feverishly for more than two years day and night' in order
to accomplish something no one else had even seriously contemplated. His
feverish and obsessive desire to create what no one has ever created leads
him into a mindset that becomes a permanent part of his psyche. Much of
that psyche has to do with the overwhelming sense of guilt that he has
created a being that needs his assistance and guidance in order to achieve
what he had most desired for his creation. Even if the reader discounted
the allusions to God, and placed instead a failed father-son relationship,
it is evident that at times the Doctor is devastated that his creation
could have gone so horrifically wrong.
The reader cannot easily ascertain that God would have such abhorrence
for his own creation, but it is easily recognizable that such abhorrence
can easily come from a father to his own son, especially if that son had
been the instigator of such horrible deeds as the creature had done. On
page 107 the creature discovers why his creator has such abhorrence for him
stating; "I saw and heard of none like me. Was I then a monster, a blot
upon the earth, from which all men fled, and who all men disowned?'
Shelley's choice of words here (disowned) lends credence to the
supposition that she was referring more to...
Would, did God disown Satan, or did he banish him
for all time to place so horrible that only those who have also committed
such hideous acts go? Dr Frankenstein did neither of those, and in fact,
the Dr felt so much remorse that it tortured him the rest of his life, and
the lamentable fact was that there was not much he could do about it, and
neither could the creature.
Shelley seems to write that man can never assume God's mantle because
God created the human race with not only a conscience but also a sense of
guilt that will forever restrain mankind from attempting to become God.
This is evident not only in the overwhelming sense of regret and remorse
shown by Dr Frankenstein, but the same sense is found in the Dr's creation
as well, who also felt remorse in the end exclaiming, "That is also my
victim...in his murder my crimes are consummated, the miserable series of
my being is wound to its close" (Shelley, 2003, p. 193).
Mary Shelley does an excellent job of presenting exactly how a man
justifies his actions under the guise of seeking knowledge, and how that
same man can spend an entire lifetime paying for those justifications.
Works Cited
Shelley, M. (2003) Frankenstein, New York: Barnes & Noble
Thompson, T.W., (2006) Shelley's Frankenstein, The Explicator, Vol. 64 No
2, pp. 81 -84
