Frankenstein - Religious and Philosophical Contexts

·         1818 – the country was at the height of the Christian grasp.

·         Christianity thought you had a perfect or painful eternal life

·         Heaven or hell.

·         Emphasis on the soul – it lives on after death.

·         Frankenstein’s creature is made out of dead people, afterlife revoked?

·         Frankenstein is playing God?

·         Does Creature possess a soul, if he’s not born naturally?

·         ‘Origin of Species’ – undermines church philosophy.

·         Society was more liberal – people thought of the church less and science more.

·         Creature struggles with the value of friendship and love – is this an attack on the Christian God? Is the world too immoral to be a perfect creation by a perfect God

·         Superstition – ‘Dracula’, ‘Dr Jekyll’ share elements of the supernatural and fear with Frankenstein.