Mary Shelley intended for her first novel Frankenstein to have a subtitle; “The Modern Prometheus.” Contrary to her intensions, most publishers of the novel don’t put the subtitle on the front page. They think of it as unimportant to the story, but why would she deliberately put this phrase on the front page of her first novel if it was just nonsense? She had intended this allusion to be prevalent in the reader’s mind throughout their adventure into this dark world. The phrase “Modern Prometheus” was not created by Mary Shelly, but in fact was coined by a man who died before the book Frankenstein was even started. This man, Immanuel Kant, directed this term at the famous Benjamin Franklin. Kant was referring to Franklin’s experiments with electricity that were drastically changing the world during his time. Victor Frankenstein relates to both Benjamin Franklin and Prometheus in many ways, and I think this relation was very prevalent in the mind of Mary Shelly while writing this novel. Having this relation present in the novel challenges the mind of the reader to think beyond the words on the page.
The story of Prometheus has many variations. In most variations, Prometheus is the Titan who crafted mankind out of the earth. After creating man, Prometheus thought that his creation was worthy of some godly devices. He thought fire fit for his new pets. When Zeus found out what had happened, Prometheus had to face the consequences. The character of Prometheus relates specifically to Victor Frankenstein in the novel. Victor creates a creature out of the earth just like Prometheus and the being is somewhat of a curse to Frankenstein’s life. Although he had done something great and very challenging, there was no reward. Only pain came from his work. Also, the presence of the curse is clear even before the creature takes its first breath. We see that in the state of mind that Victor is in during the initial stages of his experimenting.
Mary Shelley had a certain view of Prometheus that influenced her in using the phrase as a subtitle. She thought that Prometheus was a curse to mankind. More specifically she thought that fire was the curse for it allowed humans to eat the flesh of other beings. In Chapter 17 of Frankenstein, we see clearly where this fact of her own beliefs leaks onto the page through a quote by the monster, ”My food is not that of man; I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment.” This quote caught my attention because it helped me narrow down my understanding of the reasoning behind the allusion to the Greek god. Shelley gives no breathing room to those who destroy any form of living beings on our planet. She adamantly believed that eating meat was wrong. At first I thought that she believed the same thing about science as well because there is an obvious relation of fire and science in the stories of Frankenstein and Prometheus. This relation became confusing to me as I realized that there is good in the monster. If there is good in the monster then she can’t believe that science is bad too.
The Modern Prometheus needs to take into consideration the consequences of certain actions. If everybody used fire in ways that harmed the earth, then the fire-bearer would be scorned. The same thing goes with science. There can be good produced from both as fire and science produce warmth as well as cold.
March 3, 2010 at 6:42 pm |
Your opinion of Shelley’s view of Prometheus is really interesting. The connection between the curse of Prometheus and the monster’s not eating flesh shows a lot of insight!