Analysis Of Prometheus And Frankenstein By Mary Shelley Essay

Quote: He stated “I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures such as no language can describe…..I shunned the face of man; all sound of joy or complacency was torture to me; solitude was my only consolation–deep, dark, deathlike solitude.”(Page 88).

What do a god and a crazy doctor have in common? Nothing right! Wrong! In the stories Prometheus and Frankenstein the protagonists are very alike in many ways. They both tried to play god, steal, and they both get punished for what they did.

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein as a modern day version of the legend of Prometheus. Prometheus created men out of clay and taught them the "arts of civilisation" (Webster's World Encyclopedia CD-ROM 1999). Zeus, the chief god of the Titans, wanted to destroy Prometheus' creation but Prometheus stole fire from heaven to help mankind. Zeus punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock where an eagle would feed on his liver during the day and each night the liver would grow back. Prometheus was able to bargain for his release because he knew a secret which concerned Zeus' future. Heracles shot the eagle and so Prometheus gained release. Victor Frankenstein is Shelley's modern Prometheus in that

Asma states, "Monsters can stand as symbols of human vulnerability and crisis, and as such they play imaginative foils for thinking about our own responses to menace.” This means that human weaknesses and fears are represented through monstrous figures, and these fictional situations provide perspective into how we react in fearful environments. In our current society we fear many things, including but not limited to failed or corrupt governmental systems, the afterlife, the unknown, and captivity, which makes this claim valid. Although we may not realize it, these fears are embodied by the horror monsters we see in popular culture. Society shares common fears, and often times the most prevailing fear is reflected in the most popular characters at any given time. Monsters are the fictional representations of society’s dark subconscious, exploring not only why the author’s statement is accurate but what we actually fear.

Every work is a product of its time. Indeed, we see that in Frankenstein, like in the world which produced its author, race, or the outward appearances on which that construct is based, determines much of the treatment received by those at all levels of its hierarchy. Within the work, Mary Shelley, its author, not only presents a racialized view of its characters, but further establishes and enforces the racial hierarchy present and known to her in her own world. For the few non-European characters, their appearance, and thus their standing in its related hierarchy, defines their entrances into the narrative. For the Creature, this occurs on the ices of the Artic, when, “atop a low carriage, fixed on a sledge and drawn by dogs, pass on towards the north, at the distance of half a mile;” Walton and his men perceived, “a being which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature.” (Shelley 13) Shelley clarifies, even this early in her novel, the race of its principal Other as soon after the intrepid adventurers rescue its namesake, Victor Frankenstein, who, Shelley clarifies, “was not, as the other traveller seemed to be, a savage inhabitant of some undiscovered island, but an European.” (Shelley 14) Later, closer examination of the Creature reveals a visage and figure of near unimaginable disfigurement, with a “shrivelled complexion,” and yellow skin which “scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath.” (Shelley 35) This could be contrasted directly

Alienation is a product of society’s inherently discriminatory bias, catalyzed by our fear of the unknown in the realm of interpersonal conduct. Mary Shelley, in her novel, Frankenstein, dissects society’s unmerited demonization of individuals who defy—voluntarily or involuntarily—conventional norms. Furthermore, through her detailed parallel development of Frankenstein and his monster, Shelley personifies the tendency to alienate on the basis of physical deformity, thereby illustrating the role of the visual in the obfuscation of morality.

"A Hermit is simply a person to whom society has failed to adjust itself." (Will Cuppy). In the gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley we follow the life of Victor Frankenstein in 18th century Germany. Shelley displays a recurring theme of isolation and how it drives once good people to do terrible things. If civilization does not adjust itself to a creature of any kind they will be forced into isolation and ultimately self destruction.

Shelley addresses romantic conventions in Victor to convey his loss of identity. Victor is impatient and restless when constructing the creation, so much, that he does not think about it’s future repercussions. One of the great paradoxes that Shelley’s novel depicts is giving the monster more human attributes than to it’s creator [p. 6 - Interpretations]. This is true as the monster seeks an emotional bond, but Victor is terrified of it’s existence. The monster later reveals, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurred at and kicked and trampled on [Shelley, p. 224].” Victor’s lack of compassion is rooted from the inability to cope with his reality. He distances himself from others and is induced with fainting spells [Shelley, p. 59]. From this, the nameless creature exemplifies Victor’s attempt to abandon his creation to escape his responsibilities. His creation is described as, ‘wretched devil’ and ‘abhorred monster,’ eliciting that the unobtainable, pitied identity [Shelley, p. 102]. The act of not naming the creature reveals Victor as hateful, and unnaturally disconnected to his own created victim.

Mary Shelley’s cautionary horror tale, Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus, portrays the deadly consequences of callous indifference to life. Throughout the novel, Shelley employs allusions to the Prometheus myth, Paradise Lost, and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Through these allusions, Shelley illustrates the creature’s yearning for love and acceptance, and Victors lack of love and compassion which leads to his ultimate destruction.

Psychologists and sociologists often refer to Mary Shelley 's masterpiece Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus as a starting point to drive the question: what it means to be human. Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus suggests the possibility of reconstructing a broader approach towards scientific discovery by portraying the dangers of blindly pursuing scientific knowledge done so by the modern Prometheus that is Victor Frankenstein. Thomas Vargish in "Technology and Impotence in Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein" states that although technology serves to express, aid and extend values (325), Victor Frankenstein immerses himself to creating a creature that manipulates what technology is made to do. Bernd Jager in "Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein and the Fate of Modern Scientific Psychology" affirms that science and technology brings man in direct confrontation with an anonymous natural order. Furthermore, this order ignores man 's presence. Jager 's definition of the meaning of humanity is to learn and master technology and science while maintaining an uninhabitable relationship with it (271). The cryptic title of the novel alludes to the classical Greek mythology of Prometheus, a Titan who was eventually punished by Zeus made man out of clay and gave them fire for survival. The novel thereby alludes to the Ancient mythology by giving the readers a sense of consequence resulting from seeking enlightenment and the ability to create life like God.

“ People fear what they do not understand. ” In the original 1888 edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this saying is excessively shown throughout the journey of Frankenstein himself and his creation known as “ the creature.” Fear is spreaded in this famous, gothic novel because the epitome of society is lacked by both the creator and the creation, leading to much misunderstanding with who is the real monster. In this novel, the true monster is society because the ideals indirectly presented led Frankenstein to abhor and abandon the creature, the ultimate isolation of both, and the delirious vengeance developed by the two.

What would you do if you discovered a secret that changed everything? “I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.” (Shelley 37). Ab initio Victor Frankenstein, the main protagonist, is being put on a level with Prometheus through the subtitle. An indication that Mary Shelley did indeed have the myth in mind as she wrote the novel, is not only her subtitle, but moreover the parallels between the Prometheus myth and Frankenstein, which are undeniable. The title itself gives a lot away of the story which follows. It links the modern world with the ancient Greek myth. Victor Frankenstein “steals” the secret of life, just like Prometheus stole the secret of fire.

Stories of monsters have captivated readers attention since the very beginning even though the definition of what a monster is perceived to be is complex and vague. The word monster and its meaning in today’s culture is very opinionated. Most people think of monsters in an evil sense because of what todays pop-culture has depicted a monster out to be. Shelley’s and Wilde’s intentions for monsters were not to be taken out of context from how they originated. Shelly and Wilde saw monsters in the people and in the world surrounding them. Upon viewing this they recognized the true fear of determining one's identity. Once they viewed this event through the eyes of the people, they deemed necessary that they should provide a lesson by writing Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Gray. The lesson of the two books are that if the creator can not handle the responsibilities of the creation process, then the creation will fail. If the creation fails, then ultimately the creator fails and the true colors of mankind are shown.

In Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” she provides the readers a subtitle “The Modern Prometheus,” in order to show the allusion she has drawn between Victor Frankenstein and the Titan god Prometheus throughout the novel. Prometheus was one of the few Titan gods that sided with Zeus during the war to take control and wasn’t banished to Tartarus. He became the god of forethought and crafty counsel who was given the task to create and protect mankind. Because of a trick played upon Zeus at Mecone, Zeus became infuriated and took fire from the humans as punishment. As the protector of mankind, Prometheus stole the fire from Zeus and gave it back to the humans, subsequently he caused the creation of Pandora, the first woman, and all the evils to be