The Role Of Blasphemy In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning…For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven…I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High'” (Isaiah 14:12-14). Lucifer, once considered to be one of the greatest creations of God, fell to the earth destined to become an enemy of every other creation of God because of his blasphemous ambition to be greater than Him. This is a story repeated in the gothic romantic novel by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein, a onetime scientific prodigy, creates a monster and is regulated to the same fate as Lucifer. The sole fault of Frankenstein was blasphemy, and because of this one sin, Frankenstein completely fell to rock bottom and

It is his act of blasphemy leads to the creation of The Wretch, as he commonly refers to him, a beast abandoned to live by itself alone and cold in an unknown world. As if creating life was not a horrible act in of itself, Frankenstein inadvertently creates a life of pain and solitude of which nothing should ever be forced to suffer in. The Wretch explains his story and in a fit of rage he howls at Frankenstein asking him “Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?” (pg. 133). One has to remember, The Wretch never asked to be made, and he knows just how much of an abomination he is. His very existence is blasphemous and hideous, and he knows that, and it hurts him every moment of every day. Even then, however, he still tries to ease the pain in his life, and when he is refused even this by Frankenstein, he desires only revenge. If Frankenstein had never blasphemed against nature he would never have forced a poor monster to such a horrid life and thus never would have caused him to lose so much. It is also pivotal to remember that he did not just lose his family, but by creating such a monster he loses his place amongst humanity as he says “I had no right to share their intercourse. I had unchained an enemy among them, whose joy it was to shed blood, and to revel in their groans” (pg. 188). Frankenstein creates the murderer of

He created a being more blasphemous than anything any other sinful man had ever done. This is what brought along the downfall of Frankenstein. This is the tragic story of Frankenstein, a message against the dangers of trying to be greater than nature, a warning against blasphemy. As Frankenstein put it himself, he is “a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my soul; and I felt then that I should survive to exhibit what I shall soon cease to be – a miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity” (pg. 165). Thus ends the story of Victor Frankenstein, a man who desired to be more than he was, but became less than what he should have