Religion In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Frankenstein was an exploration of the role of Christianity within a society evolving towards secularism, science contending with religion. The monster of Frankenstein was born from science, a controversial subject in the time of horse-drawn carriages and still relevant religious presence. Victor’s philosophies and inspirations are directly derived from empirical evidence and scientific discovery, and even as a child, he took to books of science instead of theology. The character of Frankenstein directly opposes creationism, instead promoting the scientific discoveries of the day such as galvanism. The novel wasn’t a warning about treading on the work of God, but instead a criticism of religion and proof that man could accomplish the same things

As an enlightened contemporary in the 19th century, Mary Shelley was a natural skeptic and was known for criticizing the Catholic church at the time. For example, within Frankenstein, Victor said, “Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds” (Shelley), thus rejecting the traditional views of mortality as dictated by the church. Moreover, Mary Shelley also wrote another book called, Valperga that criticized the supernatural elements of the church and the dependency of pupils on the church, indicating a preference for realism and independence. “Shelley especially condemned the Roman Church for encouraging superstition during the plague of 1837” (Schiefelbein), so it can be assumed that Mary Shelley made Victor non-religious in order to criticize the superstitions of the church and its members. As a result of Mary Shelley’s dislike for the dependency people had on the church to determine their belief system, she demonstrated through Victor Frankenstein’s monster that there does not need to be a predetermined dogma set in order to learn morality, “Shelley concludes that moral and spiritual development can best be attained through the shedding of dogmatic belief structures, resulting in the elimination of God towards the attainment of self-realization” (Smith). For example, Frankenstein’s monster learned morality not by attending a sermon, but by observing a family’s interactions, “The presence of a bible or other religious scripture is conspicuously absent from his education, yet he is capable of developing a thoroughly structured sense of morality and ethics” (Smith). Victor Frankenstein opposed the theological and embraced the science of the day, preferring to find answers himself instead of being told what to think by the