Prometheanism in the Novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Essay

The Thieved Power of Creation Mary Shelley uses the mythic figure, Prometheus, as a basis for the dark novel Frankenstein. The characteristics of this mythical being corresponds with the combination of Victor Frankensteins and the monsters intellect, conscience, and desire.The creator and the creation share a dual personality, theoretically equaling one single being with all the power compared to that of Prometheus. Creation and destruction,moral conscience and the desire for murderous revenge are thematical depictions of this antithetical relationship between Frankenstein and his monster. The mad-scientist cannot fully be compared to the mythical being without his counterpart or shadow, his son born of ambition, because the monster is an extension of his true self. Prometheanism in Shelleys novel is understood through this combination of the creator and his creation with the titan and the scientist sharing a variety of the same powers. In the Afterward to Frankenstein, Harold Bloom refers to Prometheus as causing the alienation of man from heaven(Bloom 214) by molding man from clay, discovering fire, and indirectly causing the creation of Pandora(Parada 2). Victor Frankensteins pretentious desire for creation removes God, or Mother Nature, from the sequence of life. By using Gods power to reverse death the monster is alienated from God and heaven before birth because Frankenstein is the sole creator, not God. This creatures existence is born of Frankensteins psychological desire to escape death. Prometheus and Frankenstein suffer the results of the modern God Syndrome. Frankenstein comprehends this alienation by paralleling himself to ...the arch-angel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell(Shelley 194). Bloom describes Prometheus as containing in him ...the full range of Romantic moral sensibility and the full romantic capacity for creation and destruction(Bloom 213). It is incapable for a human to have the power of life and death without experiencing consequences, yet the scientist exercises this power lacking the knowledge of the monsters potentialities. Prometheus and Frankenstein are both ...a son of light...

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