Playing God

September 28, 2004

Paper #1

Playing God

"One day, when I was oppressed by cold, I found a fire which had been left by some wandering beggars, and was overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from it. In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain. How strange, I thought, that the same cause should produce such opposite effects!" (107)

When a person is born, there is a necessity and yearning for that person to be loved and accepted by those around him or her, it is the nature of humanity. It is also necessary that a child has a strong family structure and that he is shown that love and acceptance that he needs. A lack of these necessities can create a negative response from the child. This proves that children are impressionable "tabula rasas", or blank slates, which is John Locke's theory about the mind before it receives the impressions gained from experience. Mary Shelly's Frankenstein not only shows this idea of the "tabula rasa" but also shows how Victor Frankenstein's monstrous creation was a crime against nature not only by focusing on Frankenstein's attempt to play God, grotesquely using human body parts and then abandoning an unknowledgeable inexperienced child-like creature in the world, but also by focusing on the murderous villain this monster turned into due to his experiences lacking love and acceptance and his creators abandonment. .

Victor Frankenstein created a human life, which turned out to be a crime against the nature of humanity. Frankenstein attempts to play God for his own amusement, grotesquely using different body parts to create this being. He later abandons his creation, leaving him like an innocent child with a blank slate to learn and fend for himself, and after being shunned by society and labeled a monster, he lives up to his learned title and became a murderous villain released into society leading further into Frankenstein's crime in regard to human life. Those around him affected Victor Frankenstein himself when he was younger, he tells the reader, "My father was not scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child's blindness, added to a student's thirst for knowledge" (Frankenstein 26). A child learns from those experiences around him, Victor Frankenstein did not have a good leader to show him the right path and not one that leads to where Frankenstein ended up, blindly creating chaos.

The aforementioned introductory quote directly relates the nature of the world with the nature of humanity. The monster wonders how the fire that brings him such joy and delight can have the opposite effect and hurt him entirely. The same effect could be paralleled with the birth of a child and the creation of Frankenstein's monster. The birth of a child could be considered to be a miraculous and extremely joyous occasion, but Frankenstein brought a creature into this earth and the reaction to this creation had the completely opposite effect, he was deemed a "miserable monster" and a "wretch" (Frankenstein 59). Although Frankenstein is not literally a child, he was created and brought into the world without having any knowledge of life or human beings. By looking at Frankenstein's attempt to bring this being into the world, we can see his attempt to play God, however, God is viewed as glorious and his powers are considered to be magnificent. There would never be a reason why God would do any harm or ill-doing to his creations. By attempting to play the role of God, a power far beyond the hands of humans, Frankenstein creates a being that does not belong on the earth. This is Frankenstein's first step in committing his crime against nature.

Frankenstein is introduced to the reader as a curious young man who was learning science and theory as well as alchemy and imagination. He "aspired to be greater than his nature would allow" (Frankenstein 54), therefore attempting to play God by creating another human being. The power that Frankenstein held in his hands to create life led him to blindness of the "charms of nature" (Frankenstein 56), this not only applying to the scenery around him, but to human nature as well. Frankenstein inhumanely picks various body parts to create this monster and, as if that is not enough, getting too carried away with his goal, he makes the creation noticeably bigger than a normal being foreshadowing his imminent shunning from society. This gives the reader a further glance at how the beginnings of Frankenstein's creation are being a crime against nature, he is creating a monster.

The moment Frankenstein's monster is brought to life; Frankenstein has regrets in regards to his creation. The poor "monster" came into life the way a child is brought into life. Frankenstein's description of the monster upon first viewing him eye to eye is similar to the description of a parent holding their newborn child. "his eyes...where fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks" (Frankenstein 59). A newborn child has not yet acquired speech but will babble "inarticulate sounds", and will often grin at their protector. Instead of embracing his new creation and teaching him the way of life, morals and sympathy, Frankenstein runs away, abandoning him. This abandonment is a crime against humanity, abandoning a child (which the monster pretty much was) full of ignorance, no direction and no morals, only a blank slate thrown out into society to fend for himself.

When Frankenstein's monster begins to tell us his experiences from the day he was created leading to the present time, a pattern can be seen with him and the first experiences a child has. He learned how to block the pain of light by closing his eyes, he learned to walk, he learned how to indulge his thirst and hunger, and he, as he claims, "learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses" (Frankenstein 105). All of the monster's realizations are all task that all newborn children must master. It is not naturally or socially acceptable to leave a child to learn how to survive on its own, so why should it be any different for Frankenstein and his creation. This monster begins to teach himself the necessities to survive. It would not be long before he went in search of other things humans look for other than food. Things like acceptance, kindness and love. It would also not be long before he realized he was not like anyone else and that he would not know