Frankenstein Research Paper

First published on January 1, 1818, Mary Shelley originally wrote Frankenstein as a ghost story with her husband and friends while they were trapped indoors due to the weather, and was passing time using ghost stories. The book Frankenstein is a well known book to this day, being the inspiration for many types of horror stories. Mary Shelley references multiple works throughout the book, including the Greek myth about Prometheus. Prometheus is known for giving humans the ability to breathe and develop with the gift of fire, which caused him to be punished by Zeus for all eternity. Having Prometheus’s myth as a subtitle for Frankenstein helps develop the theme of not letting one’s pride get in the way of their actions. Both Victor Frankenstein

Prometheus’s introduction of fire to humans allowed them to start wars with one another as they developed further, gaining more power and knowledge to use against one another. Similarly, Victor Frankenstein finished creating the monster before realizing how hideous his creature was, and didn’t think about the destruction it could bring until he had lost all his loved ones. Both the humans and the monster brought chaos into their creators’ lives, punishing them for the rest of their lives. Victor Frankenstein wanted to prove his professors wrong, thus he “could not consent to go and hear that…conceited fellow reliever sentences out of a pulpit…”, refusing to attend the lecture of his professor that had told him everything he had learned on his own was useless (Shelley 47). Instead he turned to someone who would support his ideals, not knowing what harm it would cause in the future. Both Prometheus and Victor gave power to something that they did not know how to control, wanting some sort of power over their own creations. The two of them take pride in their abilities, leading to their own failure and to not acknowledge the limits of the human mind and body, heavily underestimating what their decisions could do to

Both Prometheus and Frankenstein wanted to be the creator of life, and wanted to be the founder of something new. However, when that went wrong, they hid behind their pride, Frankenstein never telling anyone what he did and Prometheus tricking the gods. Eventually, they were given consequences for their own actions, even if Frankenstein never told anyone. Victor Frankenstein ended up losing everyone he loved and his work, and similarly, Prometheus was bound to a rock eternally and was no longer able to create anything. Even when the two of them never directly caused the murders and wars of the world, they were still the main reasons behind it. Prometheus and Frankenstein were the ones who started it, and then hid behind their actions. Frankenstein’s pride is also shown when he was willing to cross lines in order to achieve what he wanted most; creating a life. He dug up bodies from graves to get what he needed, having complete disregard for those he dug up, and their families. Frankenstein was willing to disrespect someone’s final resting place, collecting “…bones from charnel houses…fingers…the tremendous secrets of the human frame…” as an attempt to create a newly formed life (Shelley 55). Prometheus tricked the gods in order to help his creations develop further, in spite of what the gods wanted for the humans. Both Prometheus and Victor Frankenstein were confident in their abilities