Stories have been told to all who will listen for thousands of years and they are passed down from one generation to the next effecting each in a different way. The ancient greeks used this technique and believed the story of a god named Prometheus and that he stole fire from the gods in Olympus and gave it to man. As a punishment for this action, Zeus causes him to be chained to a mountainside where he must suffer an eagle to eat out his heart, in some versions it is his liver, the organ will then regrow over night only to be eaten out again the next day. Prometheus never submits to the will of Zeus and instead screams profanities at him throughout his punishment never regretting the action he took that lead to such a terrible result. Mary Shelley was greatly affected by this story and turned it into her own horror story known throughout the world today as Frankenstein. The story has been changed with each new tale or movie director who has decided to add their own insight into Shelley’s original work. The original is a story of a man name Victor Frankenstein who wishes to create life and in the process he becomes an obsessed grave robber and eventually creates the life he sought to only to find the creature grotesque and frightening and it will eventually ruin his life. “Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is responsible for a creative transformation worthy of her prototypical mad scientist, Victor Frankenstein: she reconfigures, recontextualizes, and thus modernizes the myth of Prometheus by means of a ‘tiresome, unlucky ghost story.’ By focusing on the issues of paternal negligence and the need for responsible creativity implicit in what is perhaps the paradigmatic myth of the romantic movement, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus...
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Walling, William A. “Frankenstein.” Mary Shelley. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1972. 23-50. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 170. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. fourth
Whether atop the baffling Mount Olympus or below in the blank slate of a city being Ingolstadt, a mythological god and a man seek power on their trek to greatness. Both Zeus of the Greek gods in “The Story of Prometheus” and the simple man Victor Frankenstein of the literature work Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, can be viewed as leaders who lost their purpose in their quest for power. Victor possesses more morality in his actions, while Zeus rules with an iron fist and does not care what happens to the ones around him. To understand the beneficial traits and flaws of these characters, one must delve into the stories of their lives. These characters throughout literature show signs of great potential, but also of substantial corruption. Disregarding the feelings of others, along with a
Mary Shelley and Samuel Taylor Coleridge are two recognized writers of the Romantic era. The influence of Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere is reflected in Shelley’s Frankenstein in terms of narrative structure, literary techniques and themes. For example, bo...
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley scrutinizes the Enlightenment era’s pursuit for progress and knowledge as it is seen as morally chaotic for overstepping the natural order idealised by the Romantics. Victor F’Stein’s amibition to overpower the boundaries of nature by attempting to take up God’s role as the creator is enunciated in the metaphor “many excellent natures should owe their being to me”. Victor’s hubris and ambition reflects aspects of the Enlightenment – Shelley criticises the attempts of the age to control and empower natural processes, embodied in Galvani’s experimentation with animal electricity. Victor F’Stein represents humanity’s hubristic ambitions and fondness of knowledge. Shelley uses intertextual reference by characterising F’Stein as the “Modern Day Prometheus”. In Greek Mythology, Prometheus usurped the natural order by the creation of man. Prometheus was punished for for this crime eternally – an eagle eating from his liver; the implications are that nature is having its revenge for upsetting hierarchal order. However, Vi...
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 the creature turns its misery on its creator, killing off Victors family.
Since its publication in 1818, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has grown to become a name associated with horror and science fiction. To fully understand the importance and origin of this novel, we must look at both the tragedies of Mary Shelley's background and her own origins. Only then can we begin to examine what the icon "Frankenstein" has become in today's society.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, explores the monstrous and destructive affects of obsession, guilt, fate, and man’s attempt to control nature. Victor Frankenstein, the novel’s protagonist and antihero, attempts to transcend the barriers of scientific knowledge and application in creating a life. His determination in bringing to life a dead body consequently renders him ill, both mentally and physically. His endeavors alone consume all his time and effort until he becomes fixated on his success. The reason for his success is perhaps to be considered the greatest scientist ever known, but in his obsessive toil, he loses sight of the ethical motivation of science. His production would ultimately grieve him throughout his life, and the consequences of his undertaking would prove disastrous and deadly. Frankenstein illustrates the creation of a monster both literally and figuratively, and sheds light on the dangers of man’s desire to play God.
Mythologies are traditionally stories that concern the early history of religion and people or the explanation of a natural or social phenomenon. Myths are often referenced by authors, as allusions, in their novels. The myth of Prometheus, the creator of man, is the story of a god who is sentenced to suffer for eternity for disobeying god. Victor Frankenstein is portrayed as a modern Prometheus in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through, the methods used for the creation of man, his desire to create man, and the punishment he receives from his creation and himself. As the novel progresses, so does the similarities between Frankenstein and Prometheus. Due to the various similarities between them, a conclusion that Frankenstein portrays Prometheus
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. Edited with an Introduction and notes by Maurice Hindle. Penguin books, 1992
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is ‘one of the pioneering works of modern science fiction’, and is also a frightening story that speaks to the ‘mysterious fears of our nature’. Mary Shelley mocks the idea of “playing God”, the idea that came from the Greek myth of Prometheus, of the Greek titan who stole Zeus’ gift of life. Both the story of Frankenstein and Prometheus reveal the dark side of human nature and the dangerous effects of creating artificial life. Frankenstein reveals the shocking reality of the consequences to prejudging someone. The creature’s first-person narration reveals to us his humanity, and his want to be accepted by others even though he is different.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Maurice Hindle. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.
Baldick, Chris. In Frankenstein's Shadow: Myth, Monstrosity, and Nineteenth-Century Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. Print.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. Edited with an Introduction and notes by Maurice Hindle. Penguin books, 1992
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. Edited with an Introduction and notes by Maurice Hindle. Penguin books, 1992
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein (sometimes also known as The Modern Prometheus) is the classic gothic novel of her time. In this eerie tale, Dr. Victor Frankenstein – suffering from quite an extreme superiority complex – brings to life a creature made from body parts of deceased individuals from nearby cemeteries. Rather than to embrace the Creature as his own, Frankenstein alienates him because of his unpleasant appearance. Throughout the novel, the Creature is ostracized not only by Frankenstein but by society as a whole. Initially a kind and gentle being, the Creature becomes violent and eventually seeks revenge for his creator’s betrayal. Rather than to merely focus on the exclusion of the Creature from society, Shelley depicts the progression of Dr. Frankenstein’s seclusion from other humans as well, until he and the Creature ultimately become equals – alone in the world with no one to love, and no one to love them back. Frankenstein serves as more than simply a legendary tale of horror, but also as a representation of how isolation and prejudice can result in the demise of the individual.