Adam and Eve Allusions

The story of Adam and Eve is one that almost everyone hears about in childhood, regardless of religion or culture. It is one of the most basic stories in the bible and also, of course, one of the most prevalent allusions in literature. In pretty much any work of literature that our AP Literature class has read this year, from Winesburg, Ohio to Frankenstein to Hamlet to Invisible Man, the “original” man and woman have surfaced to make our class question meaning of the work in relation to this biblical story.

As we have learned from various allusion presentations, the story is told in Genesis, beginning with the creation of Adam, the first man, from the dust (which if anyone is interested, is very visually fascinating in a claymation version of Mark Twain’s life- I can’t remember the name of the movie but it is really really interesting) and giving him life. Adam is all lonely and none of the animals can satisfy his … “needs” (???!!), so God makes a woman person out of Adam’s rib (I find it interesting that the order is man, animals, woman). The two are allowed to eat anything they could ever want in the garden EXCEPT for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (also, I think it’s funny that they’re forbidden from consuming knowledge- implies that tenets involve blindness). So of course Eve is tempted by a snake to eat the fruit and then Adam eats it as well. God curses them to live in hardship (and have to go through menstruation and horribly painful childbirth). So they’ve been kicked out of the garden. I have been informed that some other things happen later, like children or something, but this is the part of the story that I’m interested in tonight.

Since I seem to be on a role in finding allusions in Frankenstein, one of my favorite works of literature we’ve been required to read this year (not because the read itself was the most enjoyable but because it’s so ripe for blog posts), I’ll explore this allusion in Shelley’s novel. On page 94, Frankenstein’s monster cries, “Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel.” He places a burden of guilt on the doctor, who as a nearly divine creator ought to have been somewhat responsible for his monster, but instead abandoned it. Considering the biblical story though, I must question: If Frankenstein had loved his monster like God loved Adam, would the tragedy have been avoided? After all, Adam screwed up too. Perhaps in this light, the tragedy is less a tale of creator abandonment than a testament to the sad truth that everyone and everything is fallible. How cheerful.

Just to throw another one in there, on page 127, the monster again accuses Dr. Frankenstein “…no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone. I remembered Adam’s supplication to his Creator. But where was mine?” The last part of this quote is similar to what I explored in the previous paragraph, but he does throw in a reference to Eve, which is in my opinion an insistence that a responsible creator should create companionship for his child, or at least make it possible for the child to make its own companionship. Anyway, I definitely have a clearer handle on the Adam and Eve biblical story after revisiting it in my allusions and delving a little into Frankenstein.