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Dracula And Frankenstein Comparison Essay

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"Human vulnerability." "Irrational fears." "Hypothetical reasoning." In Stephen T. Asma's article "Monsters and the Moral Imagination", Asma uses these words to describe the reasons behind the creation of and belief in monsters. He presents the idea that monsters help people to practice unnatural scenarios that reflect moral difficulties in society. Two Gothic, fiction novels that feature monsters are Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Both novels relate to Asma's idea about the significance of monsters. However, the novels are greatly comparable. There are distinguished similarities and differences between the conflicting themes of religion and science in Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

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The theme of science is illuminated by the notion of electricity and "[its] potential to reanimate corpses" (Brown "The Science"). The theme of religion is connected to religious books, philosophies, and actions. One prominent conflict between the themes revolves around Victor Frankenstein's idea of creating life. Throughout most of his career, Frankenstein was involved with the sciences and gained a great interest in the "human frame" (30) and "the physical secrets of the world" (19). He started an experiment for the sake of science, but saw it as a "[success] in discovering the cause of generation and life" (31). Frankenstein saw himself as a creator of man, as God. That idea went against beliefs stating that there is only one God and soon brought misfortunes to Frankenstein. Another conflict emerged through the thoughts of Frankenstein's creature. During his journey to understanding the world, the creature comes across books. Paradise Lost was one of the books, and the creature compared himself to Adam and Satan while his creator was God. God created Adam and Eve in the hopes that they were perfect beings, but found them tempted by the forbidden fruit and exiled them from the Garden of Eden. The creature believes he was supposed to be good, but he did not reach the expectations of Frankenstein and considered himself the "fallen angel" (69). The creature was born through the works of

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