Do we need god, even with the idea that we can surpass him?

I’d like to go back to a few weeks ago when we read Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. Looking at my rough outline, I don’t think that I’ll be coming to any great conclusions, but I really want to talk about what struck me the most while reading it.

One of the most obvious themes of the novel is the god aspect. I’m sure that there is a better way to label that theme, and I looked on Sparknotes to see if they had found a better label, but it wasn’t listed specifically. Instead, I think that it was a mixture of what they listed as “Dangerous Knowledge” and “Monstrosity,” perhaps with a touch of “Sublime Nature.” However, I’d specifically like to talk about the “god aspect” of the novel that infused the story with a religious dialogue. I think that Shelley used Frankenstein to explore her own thoughts and feelings about god and religion.

To start off, Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster (who will hereafter be called Adam because I think that it’s terrible that we never learn what he called himself and because I am not knowledgeable enough of religious texts to come up with a wittier alternate for Adam) are foils of each other. Yes, I know that making that my opening statement makes this post seem childish and reminiscent of high school or early-college “cleverness,” but it’s important to me that I write this in the way that I thought about it. Besides, let’s face it, Dr. F and Adam are foils.

Dr. F tries to make himself out to be a caring, nice guy. He’s not. I think that Hannah Casey’s blog post made that pretty obvious, so I won’t go into too great of detail. Dr. F grows up in a warm, nurturing environment, only to isolate his family in a secretive pursuit of a furtive science. Adam, on the other hand, is gentle until provoked. His first murder is accidental. His anger is in response to a prejudice against him based upon his physical appearance. To quote Hannah, Adam “has a brilliant mind and good intentions” (second to last paragraph), whereas “Victor symbolizes the aspects of human nature that crave control but fear the unknown” (final paragraph).

It is the egomaniacal aspect of Victor’s character that brings him to play god. The message that Shelley is trying to convey is somewhat unclear after this point, though. Dr. F succeeds at playing god, he creates a human being from scratch, but he immediately fears it. Stemming from the appearance of his creation after he gives it life, he fears that he will not be able to control it and that it will be evil. Although he creates Adam in his own image, as in the Judeo/Christian/Muslim creation story, he fears its appearance the way that God never feared about Adam. Shelley appears to be saying that humans are not up for the challenge of playing god.

A deeper look at the story shows that perhaps that is not all that Shelley is saying about humans and God, however. I think that a great deal of the story can be associated with original sin. Adam, the monster, was created scientifically, not born naturally, meaning that he was created without original sin. Further, his isolation from his creator and society ensures that he remains naïve of social structures, feels his emotions without the bane of normative ethics, remains guiltless until his own thoughts bring him to the conclusion of guilt. And he does, eventually, feel guilt. However he also remains apart from the guilt that would normally be associated with murder. He feels emotional pain that he ended a life not because he should feel pain, but because he knows what his own life means to him and that he took that away from another creature. Further, he takes the blame onto himself but also views the murder without a clear black and white line. He sees Dr. F’s part in the murder in a way that Dr. F can never admit to.

Without original sin, an interesting alternate view can be formed about the relationship between the creator and the created. What is Shelley’s view of original sin and what is she trying to portray in the relationship between Dr. Frankenstein and the monster? What can we tell from other aspects of their characters?

I believe that the physical embodiment of perfection, seen in the monster, is where Shelley best shows this theme. She repeatedly shows the faults of the human condition, portraying Dr. F as weak and pitiful next to Adam. When the two meet on the mountain, for instance, or when Dr. F is chasing Adam through the arctic, Adam’s size and durability are far superior to that of Dr. F. He can withstand the cold temperatures, has a lower necessary caloric intake, and is much stronger than his human creator. Frankenstein also remains sick for long periods of time in the novel, and frequently becomes overwhelmed and faints. The amplification of human weaknesses set against the apparent perfection of Adam leads the reader to see humans as a weaker creation.

Adam is also far more intellectually bright than Dr. Frankenstein. He learns languages on his own and teaches himself to read. He also lives alone in the woods while maintaining secrecy for an extended period of time, something that Frankenstein, as well as most humans, are incapable of. I think that this is part of the reason that Dr. F is so horrified of his creation. Shelley seems to be implying that, with the technological advances of her age and continuing into ours, we are less assured about our natural state than we previously thought. We are capable of perfecting what God himself did not perfect. Further, without original sin attached to the new beings, we are capable of removing our failings from them. This is what horrifies Frankenstein: He sees the perfection in his creation, and he is afraid of the outcome of a perfect being without original sin, of his own demise and what a perfect being could mean to a believer.

I think that the funeral quote, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” can support my statement. Adam, the monster, was not only created by man, but also created from man. He was created from a mixture of pieces of human corpses. Literally, the creature was made out of humans, which is to say that the perfect creature, or at least a much improved creature, is so close within our grasp and yet so far away that we can only attain that improvement from within us and at our own expiration.

This brings me to a final explanation of the theme of the “god aspect.” I called it the “god aspect” and not “original sin” or “fear of perfection” because I think that Shelley used Frankenstein to explore her own thoughts and feelings about god and religion. Could it be that Shelley saw a possibility of surpassing God or the idea of a god through technology? And that she came to the conclusion that with original sin, or because of the representation of original sin in the actions of humans and society, we would still need a god?

Tracing back to Hannah Casey’s post illustrates how Shelley realized that although we may have the power, we do not have the strength of mind or faculty to be a god. “Victor symbolizes the aspects of human nature that crave control but fear the unknown” (final paragraph. If we fear the unknown, then we cannot control it, and if we crave too much power, we will always be pushing our projects past the brink of fear and control. In other words, Dr. Frankenstein did not create a companion for the creature the way that God did for Adam. He could not bring himself to do it because he was too afraid of the outcome; he knew that the monster was better than him and could control him, whereas God knew that Adam could not. Just like in the traditional Judeo-Christian-Muslim creation story, temptation took the human too far for his own authority.