FRANKENSTEIN – MARY SHELLEY

THE MODERN PROMETHEUS

5I | 2021-22

A LONELY MONSTER
“I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel...”
Monster’s murderous behaviour is caused by the hate of human being he meets. The creature, in
the end, accuses mankind of lacking compassion towards him and of leaving it alone. For istance,
he helped secretly a peasant family giving it firewood or vegetables in periods of famine. Though,
when he finally revealed itself to the family, they ran away screaming to it. In addition, the
monster asked to Dr Frankenstein to build a female specimen in order to share his difficult life
with her. Therefore, the monster has strong human feelings not reciprocated by humans and even
by its own creator.

PHILOSOPHICAL ROMANTIC ROMANCE INFLUENCE AND REMINESCENCES

AND GOTHIC TALE

ROMANTIC FEATURES:
 Dream of creating artificial life
 Isolation of the individual (monster’s
escape)
 First-person narration (individualism)
 The monster represents the sublime
GOTHIC FEATURES:
 Emotional language and atmosphere of
danger and suspense.
 Macabre elements like the homicides,
the monster…
Shelley was influenced by Rousseau’s idea of
creatures’ innocence before introducing them in
the society.
Shelley had a strong influence by William
Godwin. Godwin believed that government,
marriage, and laws, although positive, exert
dystopic forces on men. He exceeded to a
society based on solidarity.
Shelley was also influenced by Coleridge’s “The
Rime of the ancient mariner”. Like the
mariner, Walton travels to the land "of mist
and snow", but he won’t kill any albatross.

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”

THE PLOT
The story is written in epistolary form to increase the suspense. The letters are sent by Robert
Walton to his sister. The technique is derived by Richardson and his masterpieces (Pamela and
Clarissa). The middle part of the story is narrated by Frankenstein and, partially, by the monster.

Robert Walton, during a travel to the North Pole,
meets a half-frozen man while his ship is stuck in
the ice: he is Dr Frankenstein. Dr Frankenstein
starts telling his story and his interest in natural
science, especially in anatomy. From his mother’s
death, he has the purpose to create an
immortal, smarter and stronger human being.
Frankenstein starts studying the corpses digging
up them. After a while, he succeeds in
creating the creature, but its aspect is
horrible and disgusting and its strength is
supranatural. The creature runs away in the
night taking with it his creator’s diary.
The creature kills Frankenstein’s brother, and he
confesses its guilt to his creator when the two
meet in Savoy. The monster tells that everywhere
he goes, people run away from him regardless the
good actions the monster does for them. The
creature asks to his creator to build a female
monster he can live with. Frankenstein, during
the building of the creature, destroys it. Therefore,
the monster kills Doctor’s wife and best friend.
Frankenstein starts chasing it to destroy it up to
the North pole. But there, the monster wounds
mortally him and, haunted by the remorse, it
decides to burn itself in the center of the Pole

POLITICAL From a Marxist point of view, the creature is the symbol of the emerging proletariat.
INTERPRETA- Though, Tories party used it as a propagandistic device against atheist and
TIONS revolutionary tendencies.

The monster, with his destroying power, represents the nature dominated by the
PHILOSOPHICAL
INTERPRETA- humans. The nature, apparently calm and loving, can rebel to men if exploited too
TIONS much. Therefore, the novel is a criticism towards English empiricism and its pride
about the exploitation of the nature thanks to science.

THE MITH OF PROMETHEUS

Prometheus was a titan who controlled Olympus before Zeus. Prometheus had 5 brothers, one of them
was Epimetheus, the exact opposite of Prometheus. The myth tells that Prometheus received from
the goddess Athena the task of distributing the virtues to men, but his brother did not give enough
importance to this and finished the virtues to distribute. To remedy, Prometheus stole the casket of the
goddess of wisdom which contained intelligence and memory and gave them to men. Zeus, not
happy with this gesture, destroyed these two virtues. One day, Zeus instructed Prometheus to divide
an ox for men and gods, but Prometheus kept the best parts for humans, deceiving Zeus.
Zeus decided to punish Prometheus and after several failed punishments, he tied him to a mountain
and every day an eagle ate his liver. He was freed by Hercules three thousand years later.
The subtitle “the modern Prometheus” refers to scientists’ suction to do and invent everything.
But, as Prometheus, they are going to succumb to nature and fate. During Romanticism, Prometheus
rapresented the perfect rebel who challenges the fate to exceeds his limits. Though, in the end, he
is conscious of his lost against nature which is stronger. This behavior is called titanism.

“The world was to me a secret which I desired to devine.”