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GCSE English Literature · key term
Assuming power over life and death traditionally associated with God, especially without accepting the obligations that accompany that power.
Used by AQA and Edexcel
Paper 1
Revise: Creation and responsibilityThis is the idea of playing God. Victor takes on a power traditionally associated with divine creation. One reading sees Shelley warning against human beings exceeding their proper limits.
Paper 2
Taking powers normally associated with God, especially creating life or deciding whether another being should live.
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“Sport” means to play or amuse oneself: the rhetorical question accuses Victor of treating life as something he can create and destroy at will. This is the moral danger of playing God, not simply the possession of unusual scientific knowledge.
