The Message of Frankenstein

A monster, formed from bodies of the deceased, with black thick hair, pure white teeth, and yellow waxy skin, is alive, alone, and friendless in the world. Written by Mary Shelly, who was only seventeen at the time, Frankenstein is set in the seventeen hundreds, which was a period of intense discovery, and the main characters are an ambitious young scientist, the monster he creates, and his family living in a country called Geneva. Secretly devising his plans and obsessively working to create the monster, Dr. Frankenstein represents Mary Shelly’s view of God. In the story, the monster represents man. If we look carefully we will be able to determine Mary Shelly’s view of nature.

The biblical world view of God is that he is loving and immanent. In Frankenstein, the character that represents God is Dr. Frankenstein who created the monster. Although Dr. Frankenstein is the creator of the monster, just as God is the creator of humans, there are significant differences. Immediately after Dr. Frankenstein creates the monster he is so distraught at the hideous appearance of the monster that he runs away from it. In the Bible God says, “Never will I leave you never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5. Dr. Frankenstein is far from immanent. Loathing his creation, Dr. Frankenstein passionately desires to destroy it. Whereas our God calls us his beloved children, Dr. Frankenstein calls his creation “miserable wretch” and “demonical corpse.” Completely void of any love for his creation, Dr. Frankenstein doesn’t even compare to our God, who loves us more that we can imagine. This unloving, insensitive, man who runs away from his creation does not follow the biblical view of God.

The biblical world view is that man is made in the image of God and man has free choice. The monster represents man. Hideous and unnatural looking, the monster isn’t human. “A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as the wretch,” says Dr. Frankenstein. When Dr. Frankenstein made the monster, he didn’t make it in his image. In the story, the monster has free will, but sin is not pictured to be the result of his choice. Eventually the monster, who is pictured to be relatively innocent and good- natured in the beginning, felt so rejected and alone that he turned into a violent and horrible being. Therefore, it was others that made him into the villain that he became and it wasn’t his choice. If we examine the view of man pictured in Frankenstein, we will see that is doesn’t follow that biblical word view.

Subtly scattered throughout the book, Mary Shelley’s view of nature (the physical world) is a different one than the biblical world view. In the Bible it clearly says that we humans are God’s most prized creation, his very best. Elevated to a place which is higher than humans, nature is like its own being, affecting the characters and causing them to feel certain emotions. Phrases such as “Nature gives sublimity of thought and peace” are used. Nature takes on a dominant role of comforting the characters and being the thing that gives peace and tranquility.

In Frankenstein, Dr. Victor Frankenstein incorrectly represents God. The monster dysfunctionally represents man. Nature takes on an important role in the book since nature is elevated to at throne higher than humans and sometimes as high as God. When reading Frankenstein the most important thing to remember is that although Frankenstein has been passed down as a “great American story” and has been made into horror movies that are fun to watch, the original book Frankenstein has messages that are being displayed by the author that do not follow the biblical world view such as God portrayed as unloving and insensitive and that man is only a product of his environment.