Mary Shelleys Frankenstein and Satanic-Promethean Ideals Essay

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Satanic-Promethean Ideals      Ã‚  Ã‚   Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a novel in conscious dialogue with canonical classics and contemporary works. It contains references to Coleridge, Wordsworth, and P. B. Shelley, but also to Cervantes and Milton. It is the latter's Paradise Lost which informs the themes and structure of the novel more than any other source. Like many of her contemporaries, Mary Shelley draws parallels between Milton's Satan and the Titan Prometheus of Greek myth. However, the two are not simply equated (as in Byron's poem, "Prometheus"), but appear in various facets through both Victor Frankenstein and his creation. Furthermore, God, Zeus, and Adam are also evoked through these characters. Though its treatment of these mythical figures identifies it with Romantic Satanism,1[1] Frankenstein reaches a moral conclusion at odds with the ideals of Shelley's contemporaries, and far closer to those of Milton.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The novel's alternative title is "The Modern Prometheus." It can be asked who in the story is supposed to be Promethean. Since this title is the alternative to "Frankenstein," it seems obvious that the doctor is meant, although it will be shown later that the monster also bears significant similarities to the Titan.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to the Greek myth, Prometheus (whose name means "forethought"), against the will of Zeus, stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. With fire came the beginning of a crafts and civilisation itself. In this respect, Victor Frankenstein's quest for knowledge is Promethean, as is his belief that his researches will benefit humanity.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The other consequence of the theft of fire is that it in... ... knowledge, causing their fall from a happy innocent existence. 4[4]   It must be made clear that this is a Christian myth. In Judaism, Satan is as much a servant of God as any other angel, it being his peculiar role to test humans and record their failures. Without understanding this, the story of Job loses its meaning-God sends Satan to test Job. The Jewish Satan has no relation to the serpent of the Eden story. The equivocation is Christian. Christianity's devil and its stark good vs. evil cosmic war derive from Zoroastrianism, not Judaism, just as its doctrine of the immortal soul derives from Platonism. There is no good vs. evil in Judaism, there is just God, and immortality is the privilege of God and the angels, not humans. 5[5] This phrase is borrowed from Friedrich Nietzsche, vide Genealogy of Morals, Beyond Good and Evil, and The Antichrist.