The Myth of Prometheus and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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.

The story of Prometheus is similar in many ways to that of Frankenstein. In Frankenstein, Victor uses all of his acumen to create life. He had followed the ancient arts of the natural sciences and achieved something that no mortal had done before which is bring life into this world through scientific means. The problem is that he did this without the consent of God. He went against the will of God even though that was not his original intent. His act of playing God caused him to suffer greatly. His entire family was decimated by death in order to satisfy the creation’s desire to win his father’s love and support. Victor was meant to suffer for his decision to play God and bring something into this world that wasn’t meant to be created.

In the myth of Prometheus, Prometheus was a titan. They were the first major gods after the creation of life by the ancient gods including Chaos and Gaia. After a major rebellion in the heavens by the children of the titan Kronos, the titans were cast out of the heavens for the most part except for Prometheus. Prometheus helped the current gods led by Zeus to gain power. He eventually fell out of favor with Zeus as he attempted to help the human race on earth which Zeus loathed. Zeus wanted to start over with creation and was waiting for the human race to die out. Prome...

... middle of paper ...

...ein seems to follow that of the Prometheus myth to the letter. There was an idea to create/protect life, suffering was the result, and the suffering was followed by a release of bonds of the main character either physically or mentally. Frankenstein is simply a more modern Prometheus myth with various twists and more expanded plot. It was no accident that the comparison of Frankenstein and the Promethean myth was made. I believe that Shelley wanted to show that the choices we make have consequences. Even though there are altruistic reasons for doing something, we must be ready to accept whatever goes with it. Frankenstein is remarkably parallel to the Promethean myth in all senses of the word.

Works Cited

Hard, Robin. The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge, 2004.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1994.