Frankenstein; or, the Modern

Prometheus

Between God and Man

 Frankenstein: the Modern
Prometheus

• Frankenstein, just as Prometheus did, wants to

overcome human limits.
• He doesn’t accept diseases, sorrow, death.
• Aware of the ancient myth, does he know that
God won’t accept the challenge?
• And yet, our hero, a romantic hero, feels he has
to try to fulfill his dream, fully realize what he
feels he has been called to: stealing the secrets
of life to Gods.
 Paradise Lost
“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?”
- From John Milton's Paradise Lost (and the title page of
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818)

• Frankenstein wanted to create life, and as he did, he created a human

being who replicated all human beings’ questions and doubts about life
and sorrow.
• Even worse, when the monster asks his C/creator to give him a mate to
relieve his desperate loneliness, he is, by H/him, once more, betrayed
and abandoned.
• Then he resolves to take revenge on his C/creator and kill the
C/creator’s beloved ones.
 The Spark of Life
“I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful
oak… and so soon as the dazzling light vanished the oak
had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted
stump… eagerly inquired of my father the nature and origin
of thunder and lightning. He replied, “‘Electricity.’”
- Victor Frankenstein to Robert Walton
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818

• Frankenstein’s astonishment to the fire that has turned to ashes a beautiful oak
is, probably, Mary’s own astonishment who had proved interested in this new
branch of science and wanted to explore its power and limits.
• Walton too is trying to go beyond its geographical limits, exploring desolate
remote lands.
 Unveiling the Recesses of Nature
“The modern masters promise very little… but these
philosophers… have indeed performed miracles… They
have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature
of the air we breathe. They have acquired new and almost
unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of
heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the
invisible world with its own shadows.”
- Professor Waldman to his class at the University of
Ingolstadt
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818

• Even a minor character shows great interest for the new sciences that seem likely
to expand human possibilities.
• His interest concerns even medicine, besides physics and chemistry and recalls
philosophy.
• He relies so much in the new sciences that he foreshadows the challenge to God:
“…miracles…”, “…almost unlimited powers…”, “they can command the thunders
of heaven…”, “… even mock the invisible world…”
Hideous Progeny
“I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might
infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my
feet… His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles
and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and
flowing… [it] formed a more horrid contrast with his watery
eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white
sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion, and
straight black lips.”
- Victor Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818

• Frankenstein, who stands for the Creator in this Novel, horrifies at

looking at his own creature, and seemingly unexpectedly, terrified by
what he has done, he has doubts: -Was it fair to try to rival God?
• The excited, optimistic mood of the class at Ingolstadt has turned into
tragedy: the challenge to God is lost, and there’s no way to withdraw
what has been done.
Poor, Helpless, Miserable Wretch
“But where were my friends and relations? No father had
watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with
smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now
a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing.
From my earliest remembrance I had been as I then was in
height and proportion. I had never yet seen a being
resembling me… What was I?”
- The Monster
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818

• Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImpKcDYy7B8
• The monster, a creature as he had been created, claims the right to live as
such, a human creature, and have those few sparks of happiness to which
human beings are sometimes entitled.
• Moreover he sees no one resembling him, and has feelings and intelligence to
understand and realize that he is all alone in a hostile world, and foresees his
living as bitter than ever.
• Curious and paradoxical is that the man who was intended to “reach for
perfection”, only asks to satisfy the most human need: to be loved by someone.
A Monstrous Mate
“I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself… It is
true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that
account we shall be more attached to one another. Our lives will
not be happy, but they will be harmless, and free from the misery I
now feel. Oh! my creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude
toward you for one benefit! Let me see that I excite the sympathy
of some existing thing; do not deny me my request!”
- The Monster to Victor Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818

• With a desperate human voice, the monster asks his creator to relieve
his pain and loneliness, and says that a mate could soothe him, and he
himself that mate, and thus be both less miserable.
• The creature even hints at his self-awareness of being dangerous:
“Our lives …will be harmless”.
• Moreover, the creature seems to foretell that in case of future
tragedies, there will be direct consequence of his loneliness and
unhappiness.
The Greatness of His Fall
“The forms of the beloved death flit before me, and I hasten to their
arms. Farewell, Walton! Seek happiness in tranquility, and avoid
ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of
distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries. Yet why do I
say this? I have myself been blasted in these hopes, yet another
may succeed.”
- Victor Frankenstein to explorer Robert Walton
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818

• Frankenstein voices Mary Shelley’s –and many Romantics’ view of life,

doubts, remorse, aspiration to glory, and swings from grief and remorse for
his failure to the hope that someone will take up the endeavour and succeed.
• Frankenstein dies as a real Romantic hero: defeated, and, as such, he is not
ashamed of having dared such a great challenge -even if for an instant he
advises “happiness in tranquility”, and, resuming his mission, he blames
himself for withdrawing from those “hopes”, in which, he foretells, “another
may succeed”.