My Thoughts on Frankenstein

 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is fundamentally about the tragic relationship the creature has with his creator, Victor, mirroring biblical humanity and exploring the idea of morality and divine limits. The heavy biblical allusions contrast Shelley's themes of secular morality and scientific limitations. Initially, the book focuses on the concept of knowledge without the restriction of morality or religion as the scope and consequences of Victor's obsessive drive towards the imitation of god are revealed. He is shown to be a reckless and selfish person in the process and his actions go on to harm a number of people closely related to him and drive an innocent being to rage-fueled insanity. The monster begins life with a human mind unshaped by traditional education or societal values. Immediately after attaining consciousness he begins piecing together his understanding of the world and strives to better know the, to him, divine-like beings inhabiting civilization as he encounters it. Unfounded by cultural preconceptions and dogmas, the monster develops his own identity and morality based on his limited experiences of what it means to be human, based around his desires for love and companionship and observation of human society. Soon he encounters literature that causes him to view his own circumstances in a more biblical manner. He begins to view himself in terms of the cast down Satan and the exiled Adam. The intense otherness and desire for sympathetic human interaction drive him to try and place himself in the scope of humanity and the divine in an attempt to assimilate himself into a world he hardly understands to satisfy the very human urges he feels. After he is driven from his overlooked pocket in society, he discovers a journal of Victor's and the details of his own origin. This changes him from an optimistically exploring his role in the world to vengefully seeking the downfall of his creator who he can now identify. Here the god-creation dynamic takes hold and warps the monster's worldview. The monster feels hatred towards Victor for his reckless bestowing of life while struggling to deal with the awe he feels at the one who gave him life. He desperately desires re-compensation from Victor for the misery he experiences early on in his life do to his estrangement from society, and when that fails he works to bring Victor down to his own level. Ultimately the story resolves with both their deaths following the death of everyone close in Victor's life. Shelley's message encompasses the idea of morality based on logic and transcendent values and free from preconceptions and dogma based around the idea of an all powerful creator and religion. Conversely it details the tragic consequences of knowledge unrestrained by morality and of humans motivated personal desires separate from the benefit of others. Ultimately, it is about the human mind to follow paths of morality and contemplate the greater mysteries within the influence of society and in isolation and the potentially tragic consequences connected to it.