ShmoopTube

00:01

We speak student!

00:09

Frankenstein a la Shmoop

00:10

Representation of Religion

00:13

What's up with the God/Adam imagery?

00:17

Victor Frankenstein is playing God.

00:18

That's one of the kind of easiest mappings to have.

00:22

He is trying to create life.

00:24

- It doesn't work. - Right.

00:26

So we kind of get this idea of,

00:27

"Okay, you can't play God.

00:29

God's the only one who can create life."

00:31

Then we have Frankenstein's monster as Adam,

00:34

the first man.

00:35

This actually maps onto the Bible pretty well

00:37

because there's that one scene in Frankenstein

00:40

when Frankenstein's monster goes up to Victor and he's like,

00:43

"I'm not gonna kill you and your entire family

00:45

if you create essentially a female partner for me."

00:50

- Bride of Frankenstein with funky hair. - Exactly.

00:52

Which only happens in the sequel.

00:54

He basically asks Victor, he asks his God,

00:58

to create an Eve for him.

01:01

That doesn't happen.

01:02

But we see the monster describing

01:04

this idyllic setting in South America

01:06

and he and his lady friend are, you know,

01:09

having fun and relaxing and frolicking around

01:12

in this super idyllic setting and we're like,

01:13

"Oh, hello. Garden of Eden."

01:15

We never get to that point in Frankenstein.

01:17

As I said, Bride of Frankenstein only happens in the sequel -

01:19

movie sequel.

01:20

So we never get to the point of Adam having his Eve,

01:26

but there is that definite mapping of

01:29

Frankenstein's monster saying,

01:30

"Hey, you created me. Guess what's next?

01:32

Like, have you read the Bible?

01:34

Next, Eve is created.

01:36

And I need an Eve."

01:38

What idea does the epigraph set up in Frankenstein?

01:42

The epigraph, which is the kind of quote

01:45

that comes at the opening of a story -

01:47

A quote from another work of literature that opens a story.

01:51

The epigraph of Frankenstein comes from John Milton's Paradise Lost.

01:55

"Did I request thee,

01:56

Maker, from my clay

01:58

To mould me Man?

01:59

Did I solicit thee

02:01

From darkness to

02:02

promote me?"

02:03

So that quote comes from the part of Paradise Lost

02:06

after Adam and Eve have eaten the fruit

02:10

and everything has gone to you-know-what.

02:12

That question basically brings us back to

02:14

this question of, you know, whose fault is it?

02:17

Who's the victim?

02:18

Because Adam is asking God like,

02:21

"I didn't ask you to create me."

02:23

And that's really what Frankenstein's monster

02:26

is saying to Victor.

02:27

Like, "You brought me into this world.

02:30

How is this my fault,

02:32

even though I'm killing your entire family,

02:33

how is this my fault?"

02:35

And so it kind of hearkens back

02:37

to at least Milton's interpretation of the Bible,

02:41

which is what a lot of people were

02:43

using to map onto the Bible at that point.

02:47

What similarities do Victor and the Monster share with God and Adam?

02:52

What is an epigraph?

02:54

What idea does the epigraph set up in Frankenstein?

03:00

Oh, hello. Garden of Eden.

Full Transcript