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Frankenstein: Representation of Religion 13390 Views

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Description:

So Frankenstein creates a creature. Creature asks for a wife to be created, ‘cause, y’know, loneliness. Creature wants to run away to a South American paradise with his wife. Hm. This story sounds weirdly familiar...but we couldn’t even begin to imagine why...

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Literature / Frankenstein

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Transcript

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.
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