Frankenstein A Modern Prometheus

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is comparable to that of a Greek tragedy, a myth of the titan, Prometheus. It has been argued whether Frankenstein is based on the Prometheus myth or not, but strongly thought to be so, as the subtitle is A Modern Prometheus. There are many parts of Frankenstein that are remarkably akin to the myth and show a relationship between the two stories.

In Frankenstein, Victor uses his knowledge of the ancient arts of natural science to create life and achieved something that no being before him had done before, create and bring life to Earth scientifically. The problem is that Victor went against the will of God and without His consent created another being. Because he played God it caused him much pain, his entire family was annihilated in order to fulfill the creation’s want to win his father’s support and love. It was inevitable that Victor was going to suffer for his decision to play God and bring a being into this world with his own hands.

In Greek mythology Prometheus was a titan, one of the first major gods created after the ancient gods Chaos and Gaia, created life. After the children of the titan Kronos had a major uprising in the heavens a majority of the titans were cast out, one of the few not was Prometheus. He helped the current gods gain power, led by Zeus, god of the sky. After attempting to help the human race against the will of Zeus, Prometheus’s relationship with Zeus was shattered. Zeus wanted to restart the creation of being on earth, so he was waiting for them to die out, but Prometheus prevented this by presenting man with the gift of fire. To punish Prometheus, Zeus ordered for Prometheus to be chained to a mountain peak in the Caucasus Mountains; he was to suffer for all of time un...

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..., godly anger was released not only upon him but his creation as well. Frankenstein’s creation suffered because of his feeling if abandonment while Victor suffered due to his feeling of loss.

Frankenstein and the myth of Promethean were comparable in many ways including both characters and plot. Reflecting each other the stories show the idea of creating and protecting life, which leads to suffering, and ending with them being released from their punishment, the bonds that held them either mentally or physically. Frankenstein can be seen simply as “A Modern Prometheus” with an assortment of twists and turns and a lengthened plot. Shelley’s goal was to show that the choices we make everyday come with a set of consequences. Though there may be unselfish reasons for wanting to do something, no matter what the end result, we must be able to accept what comes with it.