The Fallen Angel
“Oh Frankenstein, be no equitable to every other and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy clemency and affection, is most due. Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.” (Shelly 85)
The above excerpt is taken from Chapter 10 of the novel, when the monster confronts his maker and tries to persuade Frankenstein that he is deserving of the love he’s been denied. In the passage, the monster likens himself to a fallen angel. Although he means this self-identification as an implication of moral purity and innocence tarnished by harsh treatment, the evocation cannot help but draw comparisons to the most illustrious of fallen angels; Lucifer. Through this allusion, the passage frames the relationship between Frankenstein and his monster as being comparable to the relationship between God and Satan, as opposed to God and Adam.
In class we discussed the uncertainties that appear in the monster’s recount of his adventures; specifically his inexplicable pursuit of the girl and her fleeing lover and the way that it hints at the unreliability of the monster as a truthful narrator. His connection to the devil further compounds on this uncertainty. Like Satan in the Judeo-Christian lore, Frankenstein’s creation is eloquent and intelligence despite his monstrosity, and moreover oddly compelling. The reader cannot help but feel sympathy and compassion for the creature as
This passage lays the foundations not only for the subsequent flaws in the monster’s claim to intrinsic goodness, but also casts doubts on his motive for seeking Frankenstein out. Aspersions which are further developed when the monster ends his account of his exploits and demands that Frankenstein make him a mate. Because of this passage has linked Frankenstein’s monster to the Satan, master of manipulation and lies, it opens room for the suspicion that the monster’s end goal was never the love of his creator, but rather convincing Frankenstein to give him what he wanted.
It’s definitely interesting the way the creature uses Paradise Lost to sort out the dynamics he sees at work in his life. I think the relationship between Adam as beloved and Satan as rejected fallen is something the novel is interested in as well. I think though we have to consider that the creature fashions himself in relations to both Adam and Satan. I mean we might have to take the creature on his own terms, which is a kind of rereading of paradise Lost and the exile from the garden story. For the creature can sympathize or understand Satan’s emotional isolation and desperation. I don’t know that means that we should regard the creature as a version of Satan. Perhaps, it does, but it seems just as likely if not more so that we are supposed to think of Satan and those called evil differently.
As a post, this post is well written. My concern though is that I feel like you are starting to do an archaeological dig but that you kind of revert to talking about the idea at large. You definitely call our attention to Shelley’s (and the creature’s) use of allusion, but then you move to talk about the allusion more generally. I would have liked for you to think about how this allusion works together with some of the other narrative choices in the passage. For example there’s a kind of legal diction (i.e. “justice” and “due”). What is this diction doing with the allusion? What are those devices working together to do?