Frankenstein as God

Some students and literary critics may argue that Victor does not “play God” in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. I disagree with this assumption. Mary Shelley makes us consider if something can be done does that mean that it should be done. Victor Frankenstein puts together human and animal pieces to make a single corpse. Although he does not specify how he then instills the corpse with life. Victor also shows human traits that are related to the concept of "playing God" such as pride, arrogance, and isolation or self-consumption.

Victor Frankenstein becomes isolated as he is creating his monster. His laboratory is locked up in his apartment where he works on his creation day and night. He cuts off all forms of communication including his family and friends in Geneva to his professors and classes at The University of Ingolstadt. He gathers parts from dead bodies and parts from animals to create a human corpse. Although he does not specify how, he instills life into the creature. Frankenstein immediately saw the bad side of the monster he created and abandoned it in the laboratory. Frankenstein couldn’t deal with the thought of being a creator. He couldn’t bear thinking of the monster even before he started his killing spree.

One of Victor Frankenstein’s traits that portrayed him as God was his pride. When Victor was creating the monster all he could see was how beautiful and magnificent his creation was turning out. In the beginning of chapter five Victor states "His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of lustrous black, and flowing;..." He didn’t realize the gruesome aspect of the monster he created until he instilled it with life. Victor is only concerned about himself throughout the novel. He knows who the real murderer of William but will not tell anybody because he is afraid of what people might think of him if he tells them the truth. So he decides to keep it to himself even when more people are being murdered by his creation.
Another trait that portrays Victor as God is his arrogance. Although he might claim that he was creating the monster to advance the uses of science or even for the betterment of humankind, he really created the monster out of his own arrogance. After creating the monster he said it was ugly and avoided it. Then after his creature started murdering innocent people he wanted to kill it. Even after he realized that it was his abandonment that had the monster bent on revenge.