"Paradise is lost." Frank Henenlotter's 1990 film, a campy retooling of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as Frankenhooker (Wolf 344), tells the story of a mad scientist who, to bring his wife back to life, decapitates, dismembers and reassembles the prostitutes of the 42nd Street in the form of what he believes to be the perfect woman ("Frankenhooker"). When his reanimated creation proves too contumacious to handle, he quickly begins to lose his firm grip on life. Unable to exonerate himself, he utters the aforementioned sentence. Those who haven't had the opportunity to engage with the Frankenstein source material will most likely let those four words pass by without thinking twice about what Henenlotter is paying homage to. However, it is very obvious to the few experts how much significance the quote has. In 1660, a well-known poet named John Milton came to a decision about how his name would stand for years to come. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay that Milton wanted to do for the English epic what Homer, Virgil, and Dante had done for the Greek, Latin, and Italian versions respectively ("Paradise Lost"). With this in mind, John Milton wrote "Paradise Lost", basing it on the Genesis account of the creation and fall of man (Burris). When it comes to Shelley's Frankenstein, Milton's (Lynch) pre-romantic poetic work that used "things not yet attempted in prose or rhyme" (Milton I. 16) has much merit in deciphering true knowledge all interior of Shelley's timeless classic. For it is the intricate, yet very parallel, characters of both works that make the lessons they teach even more meaningful. The idea of a "noble savage" has been popular in literature for hundreds of years. This is especially true in the case of Romanticism, the era in which Mary Shelley took on the task of writing her much-revered Frankenstein (“Noble Savage”) novel. As it happens, Shelley's "favorite work of poetry" (Gerson 170), "Paradise Lost," takes full advantage of that character convention in its retelling of the story of Adam and Eve. Seeing the first of many similarities between Victor Frankenstein's monster and the expelled Adam doesn't require much intuitiveness. Of the three literary translations that Frankenstein's creature comes across while seeking comfort in a cottage, "Paradise Lost" appears to be one (Shelley 175-76). After having indulged himself in the other two enlightening works, Lives and Sorrows of the Young Werter (176-77), the monster begins his journey into "Paradise Lost". The monster readily admits that the epic poem “excites different and much deeper emotions…moves every feeling of wonder and amazement” (178). The creature continues to find the similarities and, in his mind, the differences between himself and the Adam of the story. Like Adam, I was apparently unrelated to any other existing being; but his state was very different from mine in every other respect. He had emerged from the hands of God as a perfect, happy and prosperous creature, guarded by the special care of his Creator; he was permitted to converse and acquire knowledge from beings of a higher nature: but I was miserable, helpless, and alone. (178) By the time the monster makes this statement, forces beyond his control have already contaminated him. The obvious breakup, however, doesn't impede her ability to draw intricate connections between herself and Adam. Both the creature and Adam are the product of a creator who made him unique: Victor Frankenstein and God respectively (178). Mary Shelley contributes character connections not only to the story's dialogue, butalso inserting three-line prose: "Did I bid thee, Maker, from my clay / To fashion me, man? Did I bid thee / From darkness to promote me?" (Milton X. 743-45) in the novel's epigraph (Shelley 20). Although no character in the novel utters the "Paradise Lost" fragment or mentions it, it is not difficult to imagine that these words, originally coming from the mouth of Adam, come from the mouth of the creature. Even in today's enlightened world, controversy still goes hand in hand with the idea of "playing God" (Rice-Oxley). In Frankenstein, scientist Victor Frankenstein does just that by becoming the creator of his own creature. “Paradise Lost” sees the same thing happen on a much larger scale. In the epic, God is the creator of everything in the universe, including heaven, angels, and hell ("Paradise Lost"). The favorite of his creations, however, is man (Milton II. 350), whom Satan desires to corrupt. The correlation of the two stories allows comparisons to be drawn between God and Victor. Both characters lose one of their creations to evil. God created Satan, just as Victor creates the creature from corpses found in "burials and ossuaries." (Shelley 78). From its inception, the creature is despised by Frankenstein (86), who soon sends it away for being a "vile insect!" (139). While Victor is solely responsible for the fate of himself and those around him due to his baseless actions, God's loss of grip on Satan is the fault of the latter individual's vainglory. Satan leaves heaven not because he has been banished, but because he feels that his high position in the angelic hierarchy makes him too important to bow to the Son (Milton I. 36-9). Once their creations are gone, God and Victor Frankenstein both feel their wrath. The creature decides that the best way to destroy Victor's life is to fill him with guilt. The murders of William, Justine, and Clerval leave Victor "lying for two months at the point of death" (Shelley 240), and he soon blames himself for the deaths of his former acquaintances. Satan takes a different approach to hurting his creator. Not only does he turn many of God's angels against Him ("Sparknotes"), but Satan also manages to hit God even harder by using the form of the serpent to "pervert Eve" (Milton IX. 3) and make Adam eat what he it is forbidden. tree (143). God is able to endure losses such as these because his omnipotence allows him to punish ("Sparknotes"), but the creature's revenge against his creator drives Victor nothing short of madness (Shelley 240). While God has only darkened his heaven, Victor has destroyed his." Many times have I considered Satan as the fittest emblem of my condition; for often, like him, when I saw the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy grew inside me." (Shelley 178). The creature speaks these words to Victor Frankenstein, bringing to light the reality that Shelley attributes to the creature not only the actions of a single character in "Paradise Lost". The fallen angel in question is Satan, who became the ruler of Hell after falling from the kingdom of God. Victor's first word to the monster, namely "Devil!" (139), echoes the sentiment that Satan is part of the creature's character. Another similarity can be found in the evil tendencies of both. The creature tells Victor that he has come to the decision that "evil would henceforth be my good" (288). This quote obviously comes from Satan's dialogue "all good is lost to me; / Let evil be my good" (Milton IV 109-110) from "Paradise Lost". Their paths to malevolence are different; but ultimately they have a profound resemblance. While Milton's Satan becomes corrupt thanks to his senseless pride, and consequently feels >
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