Mary Shelleys Frankenstein and John Miltons Paradise Lost Essay

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein and John Miltons Paradise Lost Forth reaching to the Fruit, She pluckd, she eat/ landed estate felt the wound, and Nature from her seat/ Sighing by dint of all her Works gave signs of woe,/ That all was lost (PL 8. 781-784) In the gothic novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley weaves an intricate web of allusions through her characters expedient desires for knowledge. Both the actions of Frankenstein, as well as his demon allude to John Miltons Paradise Lost. Book eight of Miltons story relates the bilgewater of Satans temptation and Eves fateful hunger for knowledge. The infamous Fall of Adam and Eve introduced the knowledge of good and evil into a previously pristine world. With one swift motion sin was birthed, and the perfection of the earth was swept away, leaving pain and malevolence in its wake. The troubles of Victor Frankenstein light with his quest for knowledge, and end where all end death. The characters in Frankenstein are a conglomeration of those in Paradise Lost. Frankenstein parallels Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, as well as God, while his monster acts an Eve/Satan mixture. The most predominant theme of this novel is the characters ever-present search for knowledge. It is this thirst for learning that spurs Frankensteins psychotic attempts to give vitality to inanimate tissue, ultimately causing his demise. Frankenstein, in this way, mirrors the character of Eve in Paradise Lost. Eve lives her most peaceful life in the Garden of Eden, her only job being to tend the plants in the Garden which she loves so much. In the novel Frankenstein, Frankenstein lives in an Eden of his own, though disturbed in nature. His garden of life is actually mo... ...was influenced greatly by Miltons work, evidence of which lies in the eerie similarities between the two. The allusions to Paradise Lost give the reader a story by which to subconsciously compare the characters of Frankenstein, thus also reiterating one of the main themes the quest for knowledge and the resultant death. Following the death of Frankenstein, his monster utters his own last words. But soon, he cried, I shall die. I shall ascend my funeral pyre triumphantly, and exult in the agony of torturing flames (225).Works CitedMilton, John. Paradise Lost. 1667. electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. 20 Nov. 2005. id=MilPL67.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/ modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=8&division=div1Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. New York Penguin Classics, 2003.