Shelley's Frankenstein and Milton's Paradise LostEven at first glance, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and John Milton's Paradise Lost seem have a complex relationship, which is only perceptible in fractions at a time. Frankenstein is Mary Shelley's response to John Milton's epic poem, in which he wrote the Creation myth as we perceive it today. His characterizations of Adam and Eve and the interactions of Satan and God and the impending Fall seem to have taken on almost biblical proportions on their own. By the time Mary Shelley read Paradise Lost, it was indeed a pillar of the canon of English literature, so the reader should not be surprised as it should play such an important role in her construction of the Frankenstein myth, which became an archetypal ghost story all on its own. What makes each of these stories so fascinating to the reader is the innate ability of the author(s) to utilize the ultimate struggle - that between God and Satan (or Good and Evil) - which in turn implicates the reader in a very personal way. . The characters in Paradise Lost, which is chronologically first, and Frankenstein, seem to appear again and again as aspects of themselves and other characters. The essence of these characters is seemingly relatively bland, but when aspects of Satan begin to penetrate Man and reconfigure himself, interest quickly increases. Shelley's use of these characters is radically different from Milton's. Mary Shelley is a product of the 19th century, when romanticism, gothic aesthetics, and science were coming to the forefront of Western culture. Milton's time was different: there was little secularization and religious change was everywhere like the Protestant...... middle of article......2.Elledge, Scott, ed. Paradise lost. By John Milton. 1674. New York: Norton, 1993. Fish, Stanley. “Discovery as form in paradise lost.” Elledge 526-36.Ide, Richard S. "On the Uses of Elizabethan Drama: The Reassessment of the Paradise Lost Epic." » Milton Studies 17 (1983): 121-37. Martindale, Charles. John Milton and the transformation of the ancient epic. London: Croom Helm, 1986. Mellor, Anne K. Mary Shelley. His life, his fiction, his monsters. Methuen. New York, London, 1988. Milton, John. Paradise lost. Elledge 3-304. Shawcross, John T. "The Hero of Paradise Lost Once More." Patrick and Sundell 137-47. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus. Edited with an introduction and notes by Maurice Hindle. Penguin Books, 1992Steadman, Biblical and Classic Imagery by John M. Milton. Pittsburgh: Duquesne UP, 1984.