Sociology Essay: The Modern Prometheus and Victor Frankenstein

This essay delves into the character of Victor Frankenstein from Mary Shelley's novel, comparing him to the Greek mythological figure Prometheus. It examines how Frankenstein's ambition to create life mirrors Prometheus's theft of fire from the gods, highlighting the pursuit of god-like power and its tragic consequences. The essay explores the themes of power, creation, and punishment, drawing parallels between Frankenstein's experiences and Prometheus's suffering. It discusses Frankenstein's descent into despair after creating the monster and the subsequent retribution, emphasizing the dangers of overstepping natural boundaries and the consequences of defying divine authority. The essay concludes that the subtitle "The Modern Prometheus" is fitting, as both characters face similar punishments for their actions, underscoring the dangers of unchecked ambition and the importance of respecting natural and divine laws.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The portrayal of the character Victor Frankenstein has a very important place in the
English literature as it connects with the society and the early literature as well. In this essay, the
role of Victor Frankenstein will be discussed form the perspective of the Greek mythical
character Prometheus. This is why this character is believed to be very much influential in terms
of portraying the power role in the society. Victor Frankenstein’s desire to become God like
powerful had made him a tragic hero (Shelley: 167). Mary Shelley has come up to be a powerful
author to show the internal demons of the human beings through the character of Frankenstein.
According to the Greek mythology of the ancient times, Prometheus was always regarded
as the wisest of all the titans. Prometheus stole the fire from the Gods and distributed it among
the human beings. This obviously resulted in the enlightenment of the people. Human beings or
the mankind was also enriched with knowledge as well. Though this activity was good for the
mankind, it was a very insulting thing for the Gods (Jager: 280). The Gods were very angry since
Prometheus did not obey the decree of the Gods. Gods wanted to keep the fire to themselves so
Prometheus was judged as a rogue (Peters: 147). Therefore, he had been chained to a rock and an
eagle ate his liver every day. Everything in this world begins from power and all that happens is
because of power only. Power is the beginning of every evil and this had definitely proved to be
fatal for the life of Prometheus (Shelley: 167). His fascination for this power of fire resulted in
the harsh punishment given by the Gods. Therefore, everyone would be terrified to do that kind
of thing in the future again.
As Prometheus got very much captivated by the fantastical power of the fire, Victor
Frankenstein also got frenzy about creating a creature that will be able to do all kinds of works at
his command. When he finished creating that creature, Victor went into depression after
realizing the kind of creature he had made (Holmes: 490). The subtitle of the novel, therefore,

2SOCIOLOGY
seems to be fitting where the name of Prometheus had been mentioned. Victor has over and over
discussed about the tragedy he had made. It is because of this kind of curiosity that he has
suffered such a tragic fate in his life (Shelley: 138). The tortures that Victor Frankenstein had
faced were almost equal to that of Prometheus in the Greek myth. These tortures were
completely undying and he had no way out from the eternal flames of tortures and sufferings.
The subtitle of the story ‘The Modern Prometheus” seems to be good enough for the
script of the novel. The Titans in the Greek mythology were believed to be very much powerful,
immortal and very much powerful race. Mary Shelley has evidently compared the two characters
Victor Frankenstein and Prometheus, the son of Zeus to show that desire for too much power can
lead to the destruction of the human beings (Holmes: 490). The author Mary Shelley has shown
several instances where she is able to show that both Victor Frankenstein and Prometheus have
same sort of feature in their characters. Both the characters have created some problems in the
things in which they do not have any control (Shelley: 128). Both the characters have learned
their very much needed lessons as they have disobeyed the laws of the nature. Both the
characters in their concerned texts have received their punishments duly. Victor Frankenstein
wanted to recreate the life that was not all within the laws of nature (Britton: 8). This
responsibility of creating and shaping the humanity is upon the Gods. Thus, Victor did not
adhere to the rules of God and the nature (Wollstonecraft and Shelley: 28).
When Victor Frankenstein successfully made this creation, he did not want to face it and
ran out of his disgust. This is why he was beginning to feel very much let down all by himself.
The sight of that creation made him sick and he was unable to stand it. The nonhuman creature
made by Victor Frankenstein and the stealing of fire by Prometheus had to be punished severely
and this had been done at the end. It is true that the bad deeds should not be supported and

3SOCIOLOGY
disobeying the rules of nature cannot be supported at all (Britton: 8). The revenge of this work by
Victor had been taken by that monster itself. When the nonhuman monster felt that it had been
abandoned, it became outrageous and completely out of control. It began to attack the near ones
of Victor and it killed the brother of Victor, William Frankenstein at the first chance. Many
catastrophic events came through the life of Victor Frankenstein after he had created that
monster. The death of the wife of Victor also gave him a jabbing blow as he understood that it
was his fault to go against the rules of the nature. It was done because the monstrous creation of
Victor asked him to build a female companion for itself (Wollstonecraft and Shelley: 28). Victor
was already disgusted with this creation so he disagreed to build up this kind of creation. So, the
monster went out of hand and killed his wife. All these things are explored to provide the people
with the option to think that they shoul not go against the creation of God by any means.
On a concluding note, it can be said that the subtitle of the story “The Modern
Prometheus” is very much appropriate since some of the similarities in the characters of
Prometheus have been seen in Victor as well. The desire for glory and taking any means to reach
that is not at all acceptable. It is because someone should not dare to go against the rules of
nature. Both these characters had committed these sins and they had been punished for that only.
This is how the God or the controller of power takes revenge against both these characters.

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References and Bibliography
Britton, Ronald. "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: what made the Monster monstrous?." Journal of
Analytical Psychology 60.1 (2015): 1-11.
Holmes, Richard. "Science fiction: The science that fed Frankenstein." Nature 535.7613 (2016):
490.
Jager, Bernd. "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the Fate of Modern Scientific Psychology." The
Humanistic Psychologist42.3 (2014): 268-282.
Peters, Ted. "Playing God with Frankenstein." (2018): 145-150.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818. Engage Books,
AD Classic, 2009.
Van Den Belt, Henk. "Frankenstein lives on." (2018): 137-137.
Weiner, Jesse, Benjamin Eldon Stevens, and Brett M. Rogers, eds. Frankenstein and Its
Classics: The Modern Prometheus from Antiquity to Science Fiction. Bloomsbury
Publishing, 2018.
Wollstonecraft, Mary, and Pinching Shelley. FRANKENSTEIN: Or'the Modern Prometheus'. St
Martins Press, 2017.