Playing God

In one of our previous class discussions, we mentioned the idea of "playing God" as a prevalent and recurring theme in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. While watching the film on Monday, I tried to pay attention to any themes from the novel that were echoed by the actors' dialogue as well as themes that we had not noticed in class. On different occasions, the movie suggested that Frankenstein was working against the thoughts and wants of God by creating a human being. In the opening of the film, the man who warns viewers of the horrors they are about to witness says that Dr. Frankenstein "sought to create a man of his own image without reckoning upon God". At the very moment the statement was said, I immediately thought of Adam--the man of clay created in the image of the Lord. The choice of words is quite interesting(and somewhat blasphemous)--comparing the actions of Frankenstein to those of God while also stating that his actions persisted without "dialogue" with the one who creates life. The dialogue alone did not place the theme of "playing God" in the forefront of the film--Frankenstein's actual actions showed that he had no time to worry about God when his experiment on life was on his mind. In the first few minutes of the movie, we see Frankenstein and his assistant digging up a dead body that was buried only moments before. With this very action, Frankenstein seems to be playing God against God--he seeks to give life to a body that God has already claimed as dead. When Elizabeth goes with a friend to see one of Frankenstein's mentors, he mentioned that Frankenstein has dedicated his time "first to destroy life, then to create it". In the animation scene, Frankenstein seems to be joyously overwhelmed with the power that he has over human life. He even says the words: "now I know what it feels like to be God", and stares at his hands, marvelling over the life that they have created. It is obvious that Frankenstein is blinded by all of the power that comes with playing God before his monster actually comes to life...I wonder how the film deals with this theme after Frankenstein's monster enters the human world...