Frankenstein And The Sanctity Of Life Essay

Frankenstein and the Sanctity of Life In the novel Frankenstien written by Mary Shelly the very nature and sanctity of life is both challenged and violated. In the novel ideas of how life is sacred and what it means to violate the natural principle of life are explored through the creature, the taking of life, and religious as well as mythic allusions. In Frankenstien the very nature of life is questioned when Victor Frankenstien uses a miscellany of body parts from corpses to create a creature. The creature draws its first breath and moves in the beginning of its so-called life; it knows nothing about the world and how to communicate. Just as a newborn child is born and draws its first breath. A newborn also knows nothing in the beginning. Yet the monster was not born, it awoke suddenly and was created by a madman. While the creature does have a definitive start and end to its life just as a man does; the

This also was my doing! And my father's woe, and the desolation of that late smiling home- all was the work of my thrice-accursed hands!” (Shelly 71). Victor laments as he reflects on the taking of his family's lives. Frankenstein is a story of give and take. Victor gave the creature life, and the creature took the lives of those Victor loved. The creature took these lives as revenge for Victor abandoning it and Victor breaking his oath to the creature. Victor is guilty of all of the murders through his creation of the creature, after all, if the creature was not created, all four victims of the creature would still be alive. “That poor victim, who on the morrow was to pass the awful boundary between life and death…” (Shelly 70). Victor had violated that very boundary between life and death through his creation. In the end however, that very boundary between life and death in which Victor violated remained sound as death claimed his loved