The Modern Prometheus

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The Modern Prometheus

The text makes reference to many other texts. The main sources are The Prometheus myth, Paradise Lost, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Tintern Abbey and Mutability.

Other texts

Like the creature itself, the text is created out of fragments of other texts.
The main sources are The Prometheus myth, Paradise Lost, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Tintern Abbey and Mutability.
In this way, Shelley creates a dialogue with these texts, appropriating them to allow the reader to draw analogies and allusions from the secondary material.

The Modern Prometheus

The alternative title of the text was The Modern Prometheus.
This title emphasises how Shelley draws upon Greek mythology to parallel the story of Victor with the transgressions of Prometheus who was said to be the wisest of all of the Titans.

Prometheus

Prometheus, after being asked by Zeus to create man from clay, stole fire from the gods of Mount Olympus in order to create and maintain life.
As punishment for this outrageous act of defiance to the Gods, he was chained to a rock to have his liver eaten out by an eagle.

Eternal punishment

His liver would then grow back miraculously overnight just in time for the eagle to come and repeat its agonising assault.
This was meant to be a punishment for all eternity for Prometheus.

Parallels

It is not a hard stretch to see how Shelley likens the character of Victor to Prometheus, swapping the fire for electricity in Victor’s self-obsessed journey for unparalleled knowledge of the secrets of life.

Paradise Lost or Prometheus?

The text makes reference to many other texts. The main sources are The Prometheus myth, Paradise Lost, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Tintern Abbey and Mutability.

Paradise Lost

The epigraph from Paradise Lost by Milton encourages the reader to equate Victor with God and the creature with Adam.
It also draws again upon issues of creation and responsibility akin to the alternative title of The Modern Prometheus.
"Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay/ To mould me man?"

Lucifer

It is unclear as to whether Shelley wants the reader to see Victor as God, especially if we are to equate him with being Prometheus.
Rather than viewing the monster as Adam, it feels more suitable to see him as the fallen angel Lucifer, especially with the constant references to his diabolical tendencies throughout the novel ("depraved wretch"... "daemon") and its own assertion to its status in the eyes of Victor.

Companionship

It is more likely that Shelley wants us to view Victor as an impostor to the role of divine life-giver.
The questioning from Adam, who is successful in convincing God to create him a mate in Eve, mirrors the unsuccessful request for companionship from the Monster in Chapter 17.

Chapter 15 and 16

"I remembered Adam's supplication to his Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me; and, in the bitterness of my heart, I cursed him." Chapter 15.
"I, like the arch-fiend, bore a hell within me." Chapter 16.