Mary Shelley's Opinion Of Enlightenment In Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel is about man trying to conquer the knowledge of the world and nature. This endeavor ultimately leads to his failure. In this novel there are references to a work by John Milton called Paradise Lost. In Paradise Lost God creates a man Adam and a woman Eve; Satan later tempts them to eat the forbidden fruit of knowledge and they do (Dudczak). Once they eat the fruit they are cast from Paradise forever (Dudczak). Mary Shelley uses this allusion in her novel to show her opinion of Enlightenment as she herself was a Gothic Romantic. Shelley believed that trying to conquer nature would only lead to failure.