Sarahh -
Mary Shelley’s representation of transgression in her novel Frankenstein is significant because she highlights this unnatural creation story as an act that has considerable consequences. She develops transgression effectively through the character Victor and the monster he creates. Essentially, Victor is obsessed with creating life from his own greatness. He discards the morals of his time, indication a rejection of cultural assumptions regarding the roles of the divine and humanity. The hyperbolic “Darkness had no effect upon my fancy; and a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life, which, from being the seat of beauty and strength, had become food for the worm (P.52)” demonstrates to the reader his willingness to transgress – to cross the line of ethics and science by playing God. Therefore, it can be said that Victor directly represents transgression itself. The creature, however, juxtaposes, drawing on intertextual allusions to Paradise Lost, "I ought to have been thy Adam." The monster, then, is the tormenting psychological terror that comes with hidden transgression against society's beliefs in human responsibility. Victor’s drive and ambition to create the monster, to transgress, has immediate repercussions and he reflects on this as soon as his creation comes alive. “…but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror filled my heart,” (p. 58). Both characters, thus, manifest society's attitudes towards transgression. The outcome for both characters – their destruction – emphasizes that transgression has inevitable consequences.