Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein, And The Modern Prometheus

In “Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus”, the author, Mary Shelley demonstrates the idea that a creator, in this case, a scientist, is responsible for its creation in the sense that it's responsible for its actions during its early stages of existence in the world. In the story and throughout several nonfiction sources, authors show the concept that the creator is responsible for it’s creation/product since it creates a new type of responsibility towards the scientist him/herself, toward the product/creation, and to the scientists family. Frankenstein was unable to demonstrate responsibility with these three, which is the main reason why the creature became so aggressive and rageful. The reason for this was mainly the fact that Doctor Frankenstein is selfish and only thinks of himself, and not of how his actions can severely impact people around him. This concept is also demonstrated in our modern world through how scientists today are being cautious with new inventions and products, such as CRISPR, which is a system that scientists can use to modify human genomes. Scientists today are also making sure that they are monitoring their inventions and making sure that they are responsible for whatever they are doing.

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

Mary Shelley expresses various ethical issues by creating a mythical monster called Frankenstein. There is some controversy on how Mary Shelley defines human nature in the novel, there are many features of the way humans react in situations. Shelley uses a relationship between morality and science, she brings the two subjects together when writing Frankenstein, and she shows the amount of controversy with the advancement of science. There are said to be some limits to the scientific inquiry that could have restrained the quantity of scientific implications that Mary Shelley was able to make, along with the types of scientific restraints. Mary Shelley wrote this classic novel in such a way that it depicted some amounts foreshadowing of the

MJ DeMarco, author and entrepreneur, related choices in life to hitting a golf ball. If the club is rotated even a fraction of a degree when it hits the ball, the ball has a trajectory that diverges further away from the golf course until it is nearly impossible to get back on track. (Pros) At first the change is hardly noticeable, but later its consequences are so devastating that its new course is completely transformed from the course it used to be on. (Pros) Like this situation, DeMarco says that one bad choice can set one’s trajectory off by only one fraction of a degree today, but in the future the error is magnified and has monumental consequences. (Pros) What appears to be a good choice, ends up being a bad choice in the end. This idea connects to two of the main themes in Frankenstein or A Modern Prometheus: the dangerous pursuit of knowledge and fate versus free will. The choice to pursue knowledge may be appealing, but it has life threatening consequences, like fate for instance. In Frankenstein or A Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley uses the motif of light to illuminate and connect the themes of fate vs. free will and the dangers of the pursuit of knowledge.

The foil is a person or thing whose traits, by differences and similarities, help to emphasize and enhances the qualities and actions of the protagonist. Many characters, such as Elizabeth Lavenza, Henry Clerval, Robert Walton and Frankenstein’s creature, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus qualify as foils for Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist. However, Frankenstein’s creature is the most effective foil for Victor Frankenstein. The creature’s similarities and differences with Frankenstein along with his actions and traits allow him to be a more effective foil than Walton, and contributes to the meaning and structure of the novel.

The story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is similar to that of a Greek tragedy and namely the myth of the titan, Prometheus. The characters as well as the plot are all similar between the two stories. Many have argued that Frankenstein is based on the Prometheus myth. I will attempt to show that there are many different parts of Frankenstein that are remarkably similar to the myth and draw a comparison between the two stories.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a story about Victor Frankenstein’s creation, a monster. Throughout the story, the monster feels left out, like an outcast, and as a result turns to killing to get revenge on his creator. He wreaks havoc everywhere he goes and ultimately causes his own demise. By the end of the story, it would have been better for everyone if the monster had been destroyed. He never should have been created in the first place, caused chaos, constantly felt out of place in the world, and did not really have a purpose for living.

In Greek Mythology, there is a tale where a Titan named Prometheus stole fire from the gods and put it in the clay to make man. Like in the Greek Mythology, Mary Shelley has Victor Frankenstein steal life from nature. As Mary Shelley states in the title of her book Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, she parallels Victor Frankenstein to the Titan Prometheus. As Mary Shelley states in Frankenstein the pursuit of unknown knowledge is dangerous. “ So much has been done… I will pioneer a new way, explain unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation( Chapter 3). ”. This quote means that Victor wants to explore dangerous areas that should not be explored. Dangerous and unknown knowledge

With hundreds of thousands of songs, books, movies, and art dedicated to this one emotion, there is plenty of evidence that when it comes to human interaction love is an extremely powerful emotion that can have a transforming effect. In contrast, a lack of love can also have effects, especially dire or negative ones for those who are in need. Behind Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus is a main character who cherishes himself, his own pride, and has grand plans in mind for his legacy, all of which could possibly have positive results, but do not feature a plan or a personality ripe with love. In contrast, Goethe’s Faust also features a character who is strong-willed and very smart, but without a strong sense of love for others in his life, he also faces negative results. Both works could

The Prometheus myth have very similar component with Frankenstein. This piece of literature was originally called Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. It can show how similar it is when compare to the prometheus myth.

Many scientific discoveries have been made that better society, however, the pursuit of knowledge has the potential to come with a great price. Lord Byron’s “Prometheus” alludes to the Greek myth of the titan Prometheus who was sentenced to a life of torture simply because he gave mankind fire in order for them to become educated and obtain light. Mary Shelly, a close friend of Lord Byron’s, wrote Frankenstein which also centers around the same concept, that the discovery of experimental knowledge can come at a terrific price. Lord Byron’s “Prometheus” parallels yet contrasts the educational themes and biblical allusions in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein.

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

Frankenstein was Mary Shelley’s modern Prometheus, a literary form of the forbidden flame bestowed upon the human race – the science of electricity. Yet, the story of Victor Frankenstein’s creature is not one strictly of science, or of a caution against it, or of a vendetta against the popular Calvinist belief of predestination. What Victor Frankenstein, and Mary Shelley, created for the world was a story of how far a man dared go with the forbidden flame – greater natural knowledge – that was spreading amongst mankind. The unique blend of science to create a monster so akin to the undead vampire or spirits created a new form of supernatural, the kind of supernatural that was manmade. Frankenstein, with its meeting of the modern Prometheus and the leading strict Calvinist faith, created such controversy, which led Shelley to vastly revise the work in a second edition; the novel stood as a stepping stone into and out of the Romantic works, with intensity of emotion and the new aesthetic of the sublime, but the continuing message of Mary Shelley’s work – not of the dangers of man overcoming God – maintained the difference between what could be done and what should be done, in the most cautionary way.

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, Victor Frankenstein struggles against the monster that he creates. Their conflict eventually leads to tragedy for both of them. In the novel, the author provides numerous references to the opposites of fire and ice in the experiences of both Victor and his creation. Mary Shelley associates ice to Victor Frankenstein and fire to the monster to represent their respective underlying character.