My first thought upon reading your first sentence was, "Oh, I'm so sorry; that's the second or third worst written book in the history of the human language." (Dracula being the worst)
I would have to disagree with you on that. I've read far worse than Dracula and Frankenstein. I do agree that they're pretty bad, but in light of some modern releases...I can name far worse.
Any bodice-ripper comes quickest to mind.
But as to how I perceive Victor, it would be as inventor. He created nothing; he merely assembled parts created by another. The same goes for Robocop. He might have been an accidental mother figure- I say accidental because he expected an adult, with a fully functional and educated brain; he hadn't expected to get the son of Abby Normal.
Again I have to disagree. He did create something. He created the processes that reanimated the living tissue. He may not have created life, but he did create.
And assembling parts that were created by another in my mind does not invalidate someone else's work in the creation process. Someone else milled the lumber. Someone else built the 5'x8' utility trailer kit. Someone else made the batteries and the solar panels. Someone else made the lights.
But does that really invalidate the fact that when it's all done I've created something with my two hands? That I'll have a teardrop camper trailer that I can have pride in?
Or because I didn't mine, smelt, cast and draw the copper wire myself...must I simply resign myself to the fact that I merely re-arraigned some components into a shape that is of use to me.
As far as religious aspects go, if one is Christian, one would probably assume that the monster had the soul of the person whose brain was used. If one is an animist, or a Native American, one might imagine the monster had a new composite soul, influenced by the original source parts and Victor as well. I would tend towards the latter view, personally.
That's a possibility. However as the traditional view of a soul is that at death it leaves the mortal shell behind and toddles off to whatever afterlife it believes in...would the constructed lifeform have any part of the original soul(s) of the previous owner(s) of the parts?
Souls have to come from somewhere when a new life is created. Either this is spontaneous creation as a part of the processes behind the awakening of a new life, they're a snippet of the two parental souls merged and allowed to grow as the new life grows, or they're from a soul previously departed coming back for another go in life (reincarnation).
So I would tend to think that either it's soul was a spontaneous creation when it's life processes started, or was a receptacle of a soul coming back for round two (or three...or three hundred...) as opposed to a snippet of Victor's since none of him actually went into his construct.
Unless you're of the belief that things can develop souls from love and attention. Like so many people who work on restoring cars tend to develop a link with the car and can sense a personality. "It doesn't like Shell gas" or "it runs better with Fram oil filters" or what have you. Some tend to think that a part of the soul of the restorer who really looks at the restoration as a labor of love actually goes into the car and grows from there. In that sense, Victor may have donated a snippet that was allowed to develop.