Shelley's Use of the Modern Prometheus as a Subtitle to the Novel

In this essay I will be discussing who really is portrayed as the monster in her gothic horror novel, Frankenstein or “The Modern Prometheus”. Frankenstein was written in 1816, (thought by many to be the first real science fiction novel) during the age of Romanticism and it tells the story of a selfish man, Victor Frankenstein, whose ambition conducts him to seek for supernatural powers and leads him to death. He is a young scientist, eager to discover something new, the key to life, help to make scientific advances and let other scientists get a better idea of how the body works and who after studying chemical processes and the decay of living beings, gains an insight into the creation of like, leading him to create a monster that becomes

The bulk of his essay refers back to the title of his essay, An excerpt from a study of Frankenstein: or, The New Prometheus. Upon finding the article I was confused on the meaning of the title. Even through the first read, I didn't understand exactly who Prometheus was. By doing a little research outside of the article, I uncovered that Prometheus is a Titan who stole fire from Olympus and gave it to humankind for which Zeus chained him to a rock and sent an eagle to eat his liver, which grew back daily.

As we look into the novel of frankenstein by author Mary Shelley we see a number of symbols, one in particular was the symbolism of fire. There are many things about fire that makes it very unique in the sense of this story making fire a symbol of destruction, doom and death. We are first introduced to fire later on in the story when the creature makes fire in the woods due to anger.

Victor Frankenstein, also known as the modern Prometheus according to Shelley, holds a similar yet different story and fate as Prometheus. While Prometheus only wanted to correct his brother’s mistake in making a superior race of man, Victor wants to understand “the secrets of heaven and earth” in order to elevate himself to a godlike status (Shelley, 30). He decides that he will create “a new species” which “would owe their being to” him and give him the

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is subtitled "The Modern Prometheus", and rightfully so. Prometheus, the Titan of Greek mythology that created man and gave them fire, is a fitting symbol for Victor Frankenstein, the man who created a "monster" and gave him life. The most obvious aspect of the similarity between Frankenstein and the Prometheus myth is the underlying theme - both stories deal with ill-fated actions with tragic consequences. The classic Prometheus stories, as told by Aeschylus, Percy Bysshe Shelley and summarized by Edith Hamilton, contain symbolic and thematic elements that closely parallel Mary Shelley's "modern Prometheus."

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 was a writer, novelist, and biographer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein. She had already written many stories and short novels, and even edited and promoted the works of her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley . But Frankenstein; the Modern Prometheus was her first work to achieve popularity and great success, despite the initial bad reviews, claiming the novel to be ''a tissue of horrible and disgusting absurdity''. Frankenstein recalls the events of the fictional Victor Frankenstein and of his becoming an unholy creator of life. When the novel was written, science was highly debated; and Frankenstein was the first novel to give the impression that one day, science will destroy mankind. The subtle mixture of the

In order to illustrate the main theme of her novel "Frankenstein", Mary Shelly draws strongly on the myth of Prometheus, as the subtitle The Modern Prometheus indicates. Maurice Hindle, in his critical study of the novel, suggests, "the primary theme of Frankenstein is what happens to human sympathies and relationships when men seek obsessively to satisfy their Promethean longings to "conquer the unknown" - supposedly in the service of their fellow-humans". This assertion is discussed by first describing the Promethean connection. Thereafter, the two forms of the myth, Prometheus the fire-stealer and Prometheus the life-giver are reviewed in the context of Shelly's use of the myth in her novel

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, the monster that Frankenstein created committed the crimes due to the actions and negligence from Frankenstein.

Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus written by Mary Wolfenstein Shelley(1797-1851), is a classical novel that is nothing short of legendary. Born out of a leisurely cabin visit, Mary Shelley crafted one of the hallmark novels of the English Romantic period. Set in the gothic, science fiction genre, Frankenstein tells the tale of scientist Victor Frankenstein creating a monster that wreaks havoc over his world. What is on the surface just a spooky book, actually delves in the time tested narrative of creator vs creation. In this particular situation, it begs the question; Is Frankenstein(creator) good or bad? The answer is straight-forward and absolute. Frankenstein is bad due to his various displays of foolishness, selfishness and irresponsibility.

Written in 1817 by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein is a novel about the "modern Prometheus", the Roman Titian who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. The story takes place in several European countries during the late 1700's. It is the recollection of Victor Frankenstein to a ship captain about his life. Victor is a student of science and medicine who discovers a way to reanimate dead flesh. In a desire to create the perfect race he constructs a man more powerful than any normal human, but the creation is so deformed and hideous that Victor shuns it. The creation then spends a year wandering searching for companionship, but everywhere he goes he is shunned and feared. Hating life

Shelley’s uses of romantic and gothic elements also enhance the negative portrayal of science and its potential destruction. Her writing conveys gloomy settings of Frankenstein as well as the appreciation of nature. Dark ambiance is evident in the description of Frankenstein’s laboratory: “In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of my house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase, I kept my workshop of filthy creation...the dissecting room and the slaughterhouse furnished many of my materials”. This description invokes a repulsive reaction in the reader and therefore a tainted opinion of science. One of the important scenes that reflected Mary Shelley’s attitudes towards science is the portrayal of Frankenstein’s awe when he sees the lightening strike the tree, showing his curiosity towards science-“As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak...and no soon as the sizzling light vanished, the oak disappeared, and nothing was left but a blasted stump”. In this quote the power and beauty of nature is apparent and

In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, the inter-textual connection to the bible is prominent throughout the whole novel. Shelley connected the monster to Adam, Satan, the story of Eve and Adam and the monster reading Paradise Lost. Seeing as the bible was a highly read and recommended text during the early 19th century, Shelley’s establishment of the references served to establish Frankenstein as a sort of allegory of moralist text. She begins her biblical allusions with the idea of creations, mistakes and sins.

Did Mary Shelley initially title her work about Victor Frankenstein and his creation The Modern Prometheus solely because of the glaring similarities between their stories? That is a question that is often discussed, but a conclusion rarely arrives. One of the possible reasons for this could be because there are many different interpretations of the Promethean myth, which are mainly based on the ambiguous nature of the story. The parallels between the Promethean myth and Frankenstein are obvious, and that, in combination with her subtitle, The Modern Prometheus, indicates that Mary Shelley did have the myth in mind as she wrote the story.

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