Mary Shelleys Frankenstein and John Miltons Paradise Lost Essay

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein and trick Miltons paradise muzzy Forth reaching to the Fruit, She pluckd, she eat/ world felt the wound, and Nature from her seat/ Sighing through exclusively her Works gave signs of woe,/ That alone was lost (PL 8. 781-784) In the gothic novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley weaves an intricate electronic network of allusions through her components expedient desires for cognition. Both the actions of Frankenstein, as well as his hulk allude to John Miltons Paradise Lost. Book eight of Miltons story relates the tale 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 blue-belly motion sin was birthed, and the perfection of the earth was swept away, leaving wound and malevolence in its wake. The troubles of Victor Frankenstein begin with his quest for knowledge, and end where all end death. The character s 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 musical theme of this novel is the characters ever-present search for knowledge. It is this thirst for learning that spurs Frankensteins insane attempts to give invigoration 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 macabre 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 study the characters of Frankenstein, thus also reiterating one of the main themes the quest for knowledge and the consequence 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 pain 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& information=/texts/english/ modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=8&division=div1Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. newborn York Penguin Classics, 2003.