“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / To mould me Man, did I solicit thee / From darkness to promote me?” (title page)

This quote from John Milton’s Paradise Lost is the first of many references between the novels. In the quote, Adam is lamenting his fate as one who was unwillingly brought into this world by a higher power before subsequently being abandoned. This is also the first instance of foreshadowing within Shelley’s novel as Frankenstein abandons his creation when the latter does not turn out as expected, just as God dismisses Adam from the Garden of Eden simply for one transgression. The quote is essentially saying that its speaker, Adam, tries to be good and it is not entirely his fault that he has faltered, since it was not his idea to come into the world in the first place and thus his creator, God, should take part of the blame for creating him in such a way that would allow him to fail and then taking no credit once a mistake has been made – exactly the same situation that transpires in the later pages of the novel.

Source:

"Milton: Paradise Lost - Book 10." Dartmouth College. Web. 23 Aug. 2009. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_10/index.shtml.