Comparing Tempest And Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The Portrayal of Discovery in Shakespeare’s Tempest and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Discovery, defined as the action or process of learning new information or the verification of older information one has begun to view in a completely dissimilar light to how one viewed it before this discovery. Discovery can take several forms, physical discovery for one relates to the act of detecting something tangible such as a new species of plant or a location (such as a vast rain forest), but there is also emotional discovery and intellectual discoveries. Two excellent examples of texts about the theme of discovery are Shakespeare’s renowned play the Tempest and Mary Shelley’s Gothic horror Frankenstein. Both literary works have a plethora of similarities

However there is another more intangible form of discovery within the play, personal discovery of which there is no more obvious example then the evolution undertaken by the play’s protagonist Prospero. Formerly the Duke of Milan, Prospero became enamored with the mystic arts and would soon be disenfranchised by his own brother Antonio, exiling him and his daughter Miranda from Milan and confining him to a small island in the Mediterranean Sea. On the island Prospero uses his arcane arts to become for lack of a better term the undisputed power on the island, ruling over the spirit Ariel and the half demon Caliban, this is juxtaposed by his being powerless to exact revenge upon those who betrayed him so long ago, this changes when his rivals arrive and he shipwrecks them upon the island. It is here we see Prospero’s metamorphosis from an angry old man driven by vengeance to one that grants his forgiveness to those that had wronged him all those years ago as exhibited in the following quote “No. For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother would even infect my mouth, i do forgive thy rankest fault” This quote touches upon the personal evolution Prospero has undertaken over the course of