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Similarities Between Frankenstein And The Genevan Prometheus

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Brody Buchner Mr. Murtaugh The Genevan Prometheus 4/26/2024 The Genevan Prometheus Prometheus stole fire from the Gods and gave it to man. For this, he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity. This brief description of the Greek myth of Prometheus can be well applied to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Like the titan Prometheus, Victor Frankenstein meddles in God’s work, bringing new life into the world, bringing the creature to life bound Victor to it, chaining him to the journey of undoing his work. In the process, Victor serves his punishment, losing the lives of his loved ones, and eventually himself, depicting the parallels between him and Prometheus. The portrayal of Victor Frankenstein intricately mirrors the Greek myth of Prometheus, highlighting his unwavering ambition and the …show more content…

Victor is a driven character, determined to achieve something nobody else has done before: bring something non-living to life. Although it is a far-fetched idea, Victor doesn’t let anything come between him and his goal, even the notion that this is God’s ability and God’s ability only. Like Prometheus, who gave fire to humans against the word of Zeus, Victor uses it as a challenge, wanting to be the person to defy the limits of mortality. He becomes obsessed with this idea, admitting “I pursued my undertaking with unremitting ardour.I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit” (Shelley 55). Even Victor recognizes this “unremitting ardour”, meaning his intense passion and enthusiasm for bringing the creature to life. He knows that it has overtaken him as the most important thing in his life, and his ambitious intent will guide him towards his goal. His ambition is not his key flaw, however, it is his egocentrism. Victor is so full of himself, valuing himself over anyone else, even his loved ones, and it

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in stark contrast Victor’s speeches are absurdly melodramatic, with words “expressive of furious detestation and contempt”, reflecting the violence of his feelings. Through the juxtaposition of their language, with Victor’s uncivilised, savaged passions contrasting to the creature’s eloquent, harmonious arrangement of words, Victor’s superiority and intelligence is usurped by his creation. (Through Shelley, we come to a heightened understanding of the significant dangers of humanity’s flawed nature as it provokes a lack of

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Rejection from community and social norms, persistent loneliness. He is also similar to the Greek God, Prometheus, who saved mankind but, only after stealing fire and ignoring Zeus’ orders. She creates this perception by using strong word choice and diction. Victor feels

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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein explores the consequences of playing God and the complex nature of humanity. The central characters, Victor Frankenstein and the Creature, both receive gifts that are both a blessing and a curse. Victor is gifted with an exceptional mind and a passion for science, while the Creature is given life and consciousness. However, these gifts ultimately lead to destruction and despair for both characters. Through analyzing the nature of these gifts and how they contribute to the characters' development, we can better understand the themes of the novel.

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In Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, The creature may be known for his monstrous and unforgiveable acts, but it is his creator, Victor, who is the true monster. Mary Shelley was an English novelist, best known for her gothic novel “Frankenstein”. In “Frankenstein” the question of who is the true monster, Victor or the creature, is a prominent theme throughout the story. While the creature's actions are certainly gruesome and horrific, it is the Monster who ultimately holds the title of the true monster. Through his neglect and mistreatment of the creature, Victor demonstrates a complete disregard for the life he has created.

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Victor's relentless pursuit of knowledge and his aspiration to conquer the secrets of life propels him into a destructive spiral. As his ambitions consume him, his mental state progressively deteriorates, leading to profound consequences. "In a fit of enthusiastic madness, I created a rational creature and was bound towards him, to assure, as far as was in my power, his happiness and well-being" (Shelley, 56). Victor's admission of his "enthusiastic madness" underscores the toll his ambitions have taken on his mental well-being. The weight of his creation becomes an unbearable burden that torments his psyche.

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In the preceding volumes Shelley delved into the individual faults of Victor and The Creature. However, the theme of actions having consequences within this volume is reinforced through the collaborative efforts of these two characters. Consumed by the goal of enacting what they viewed as rightful vengeance, Victor and his Creation pursue each other relentlessly; To where Victor chases after The Creature and it somehow manages to elude him every time. Victor figured that it was his responsibility to end the creature’s life to atone for his wretched actions while The Creature saw his constant torment of Victor as revenge for how Victor abandoned him early on in his development. Shelley uses this intense rivalry to drive home her central theme, being how unchecked tendencies such as overambition, jealousy, and vengeance ultimately end up dictating one’s life instead of the other way around thus leaving one powerless.

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Victor would stop at nothing to finish his project and became so obsessed that he was isolated from his family and friends. His way of collecting lifeless matter for his creation is unethical and morally wrong. Eventually, he is punished for his actions: “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.” (pg.56) Additionally, extreme devotion to the building of his creation caused Victor mental distress due to the fact that he neglected his own needs in order to work exclusively on the creature: “I had deprived myself of rest and health.”

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Elana Sargent Instructor Toni J. Weeden Honors Senior English 7 November 2017 Prometheus Versus Frankenstein In the novel “Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus” by Mary Shelley, many underlying references connect straight back to a story from Greek Mythology about the original Prometheus. The main character, Victor Frankenstein, possesses many qualities that can also be found in this Greek Titan. Shelley added this subtitle in order for readers to understand that her main character was most likely created with Prometheus in mind, as she gave Frankenstein the same intellectual and rebellious mannerisms as the Titan.

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By looking at both Victor and Prometheus’s strength and punishments, it is evident that they both play a similar role in the novels, Frankenstein and Prometheus, thus demonstrating how characters can be similar through the way they deal with personal struggle, whether they decide to fight back or carelessly be trampled on. Victor Frankenstein’s role in Frankenstein makes him seem overpowered by his own capabilities, which essentially leads to his demise, but rather he is a strong individual who suffers in silence. Prometheus plays the role of a punished immortal whom cannot catch a break for the good he has done. Therefore, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, could be considered “The Modern Prometheus” because of the similarities between Prometheus

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Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a great comparison is shown between Victor Frankenstein, the main character, and Prometheus, one of Greek mythology’s greatest Gods. Shelley borrows from the tale of Prometheus a consequence resulting from searching for a great source of enlightenment and power. In creating a being and giving it life, Frankenstein seems to take on the remarkable role of God which leads him to thinking that a power that is so heavenly cannot be played with by mankind. During his quest to expand his creative knowledge, abilities, drive, and ambition to know the origin of life, he puts himself in conflict. Frankenstein gambled his way into the godly realm without realizing he committed a sin by creating the monster, and

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With the growth of scientific and technological development comes the unsettling concern over whether or not people will strive to play God. For starters, “Prometheus is so closely related to Victor that it’s even the subtitle for the novel” (Pellet). In short, Prometheus is best known as the deity in Greek mythology who stole fire from Mount Olympus and then shared his competence with mankind. Similarly, Victor is solely concerned with his renown, thus, he discovers a way to achieve his goal of bestowing life into a corpse. Victor, like Prometheus will be punished because while he has taken over God-like powers, he does not have any God-like responsibility (Gilbert).

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Such passion is seen in Victor’s ‘noble intent’ to design a being that could contribute to society, but he had overextended himself, falling under the spell of playing ‘God,’ further digging his grave as he is blinded by glory. His creation – aptly called monstrous being due to its stature, appearance, and strength – proved to be more of a pure and intellectually disposed ‘child’ that moves throughout the novel as a mere oddity, given the short end of the stick in relation to a lack of familial figures within his life, especially that of parents. Clearly, Victor Frankenstein had sealed his fate: by playing God he was losing his humanity, ultimately becoming the manifestation of Mary Shelley’s hidden desires, deteriorating into The Lucifer Principle by which the author Howard Bloom notes social groups, not individuals, as the primary “unit of selection” in human psychological

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“Whenever the creation order is inverted, there is disorder, destruction, and death. When we tamper with this order, even a little, we become life-takers rather than life-givers”(J. Ligon Duncan III ). This quote plays a large part in the overall literature that is Frankenstein; it pulls together the attributes of the story in a way I haven’t seen before. This essay will be focusing on the relationship between the gothic novel of Frankenstein, and the greek myth of Prometheus. It will be a compare and contrast of the dueling stories.

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Marry Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ or ‘The Modern Prometheus’, largely resembles the Greek myth, where the subject makes severe mistakes, attempting to play god, as he disregards the ethics of humanity, as well as his own moral. Victor Frankenstein, who is the ‘Modern Prometheus’ in Mary Shelley’s novel, attempt to do the impossible – create life! While the Greek Prometheus (a titan), commits three sins against Zeus, one of them being the giving of fire to humans. Both are in their own way absurd, however in both cases, they succeed. However both are subjected to either pain or suffering, whether it is physical or mental, after realizing what they have done.

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By connecting the character of Viktor to Prometheus, and adding an allusion to create a better understanding of the characters Shelley allows the reader to uncover the fate of both characters along with their creations and the punishments that follow. The connection to the greek myth, allows the readers to take on a second perspective when reading Frankenstein. The very prevalent themes enhance not only the authors writing but also the characters themselves. Overall, Shelley’s use of Prometheus as a silent background helped foreshadow the inevitable fate of Frankenstein's creator,

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