Mount Blanc

For a while, I was puzzled when Mount Blanc kept appearing over and over again in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.  Earlier I blogged about a possible theme I had discovered (read it here if you're bored), "playing God."  I noticed that this theme seemed to be supported by scenes of nature in which it's beauty was juxtaposed with the horror of Frankenstein's creature.  I think I'v found a connection between this theme and the reoccurring Mount Blanc.  While reading the latter chapter of the novel, I was overjoyed (that's a lie) when Victor again mentioned the mountain.  He said "...and at a distance, surmounting all, the beautiful Mount Blanc, and the assemblage of snowy mountains that in vain endeavour to emulate her (p142)."  I could be imaging things, but it seems to me that this mountain which Victor again and again mentions as beautiful, is a juxtaposition of the creature.  Especially in this passage, the mountain appears to be a symbol of natural perfection and beauty.  As a part of nature itself, the mountain is another example of the perfection of God's creation.  The other mountains seem to resemble the beast.  They hopelessly try to be like Mount Blanc, but physically cannot.  Likewise, things made by "playing God" cannot end well.  Ultimately, the plan of the real God is the best.  Although they are not proportional to the creature (they are small and there are many of them), I think they help to establish Mount Blanc as symbol of natural perfection.   Sure enough, it is soon juxtaposed by the creature when it appears early in the following chapter to murder Elizabeth.