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To What Extent Is Frankenstein The Modern Day Prometheus

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Running head: IS FRANKENSTEIN THE MODERN DAY PROMETHEUS?

Is Frankenstein the modern day Prometheus?

Irvin M. Beacham Jr.

ENC 1101

Dr. Gaspar

Is Frankenstein the modern day Prometheus?

When Mary Shelly wrote her 1818 classic Frankenstein, she subtitled it “The Modern Prometheus.” She compared the character of Dr. Victor Frankenstein a highly intelligent scientist to the Greek Titan Prometheus the wisest of the Titans. There are numerous parallels between Dr. Frankenstein and Prometheus which could be the reason why Mary Shelly subtitled her novel “The Modern Prometheus”. Dr. Frankenstein and Prometheus both create a male human being, they both sought glory from their creations, and they …show more content…

“When I was thirteen years of age, we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon: the inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day confined to the inn. In this house I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened it with apathy; the theory which he attempts to demonstrate, and the wonderful facts which he relates, soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm. A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind; and, bounding with joy, I communicated my discovery to my father. When I returned home, my first care was to procure the whole works of this author, and afterwards of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. I read and studied the wild fancies of these writers with delight; they appeared to me treasures known to few beside myself. ” (Chapter 2) Victor attends college at an early age and surpasses the knowledge of his classmates and instructor. “When I had attained the age of seventeen, my parents resolved that I should become a student at the University of Ingolstadt.” (Chapter 3) “As I applied so closely, it may be easily conceived that my progress was rapid. My ardour was indeed the astonishment of the students, and my proficiency that of the masters.” (Chapter 4) “I made some discoveries in the improvement of

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