Assignment 3 : Mythological Approach in 'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley : 22394 Paper 103 : Literature of the Romantics

Introduction : Mary Shelley’s novel is a complex work that defies classification.

She successfully blended realist, Gothic and Romantic elements to produce an enduring literary masterpiece. Her strategy of employing multiple narrators (Walton, Victor, the creature) means

that there is not a single consistent viewpoint or message; rather,

the text lends itself to a range of interpretations. 

It is realistic in detailing Victor’s family life, education, career, aspirations, intention to marry, and so on; but the sub-title, The Modern Prometheus, alerts us to Mary’s aim of producing a new ‘version’ of an ancient Greek myth. In the legend, Prometheus was a Titan who brought enlightenment and knowledge to mankind. The gods punished him when he stole fire from Mount Olympus. He was chained to a rock; every day an eagle tore out and devoured his liver; each night the organ would grow back. There are clear analogies between the stories of Victor and Prometheus: hubris leads to tragedy, and both suffer torments as a consequence of their actions. Frankenstein also echoes the Genesis account of Adam and Eve and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. 

Five hundred copies of the first edition were printed, and the text was divided into three volumes. The critical reception was mostly unfavourable. John Croker was damning in the 

Quarterly Review

(January 1818) 

Our taste and our judgement alike revolt at this kind of writing, and the greater the ability with which it may be executed the worse it is - it inculcates no lesson of conduct, manners, or morality; it cannot mend, and will not even amuse its readers, unless their taste have been deplorably vitiated…Frankenstein was reprinted in 1823, in two volumes, this time crediting Mary openly. 

Archetypal Myths in 'Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus' by Mary Shelley : 

First of all, let us have a look at the myth of Prometheus in Greek Mythology : 

Prometheus, in Greek religion, one of the Titans, the supreme trickster, and a god of fire. His intellectual side was emphasized by the apparent meaning of his name, Forethinker. In common belief he developed into a master craftsman, and in this connection he was associated with fire and the creation of mortals. 

The Greek poet Hesiod related two principal legends concerning Prometheus. The first is that Zeus, the chief god, who had been tricked by Prometheus into accepting the bones and fat of sacrifice instead of the meat, hid fire from mortals. Prometheus, however, stole it and returned it to Earth once again. As the price of fire, and as punishment for humankind in general, Zeus created the woman Pandora and sent her down to Epimetheus (Hindsight), who, though warned by Prometheus, married her. Pandora took the great lid off the jar she carried, and evils, hard work, and disease flew out to plague humanity. Hope alone remained within. 

Hesiod relates in his other tale that, as vengeance on Prometheus, Zeus had him nailed to a mountain in the Caucasus and sent an eagle to eat his immortal liver, which constantly replenished itself; Prometheus was depicted in Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, who made him not only the bringer of fire and civilization to mortals but also their preserver, giving them all the arts and sciences as well as the means of survival. 

The Relevance of Myth of Prometheus to 'Frankenstein' novel : 

To draw an analogy between Mary Shelley’s text 

and its mythological heritage, it’s important to discuss 

intertextuality, especially Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogue and ambivalence concerning the text and its context. 

In “Word, Dialogue and Novel”, Julia Kristeva discusses this theory and explains that a text isn’t an isolated work; it is oriented by a previous literary corpus, quoting and transforming other texts, as a response to them. Kristeva affirms that “each wordis an intersection of word where at least one other word can be read." Bakhtin divides these words into three categories within the narrative: direct, direct-oriented and ambivalent. The last is the only one that makes it possible to use another word, or text, giving it a new meaning without losing the original meaning. Kristeva claims that “this category of ambivalent words is characterized by the writer’s exploitation of another’s speech … for his own purposes”, and argues that “the novel is the only genre in which ambivalent words appear." Based on this theory of ambivalence, we may affirm that in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses the myth of Prometheus and Paradise Lost in an ambivalent mode; they maintain their original meaning, but, at the same time, they acquire a specific feature that suits the novel better. For instance, the archetypical figure of Prometheus is represented by a mortal man, which changes significantly the outcome of the story. Besides, the figure of a divine creator, Prometheus in the Greek mythology or God in Milton’s epic, is transformed into a fallible mortal man in the novel. 

In Biblical and Classical Myths, Northrop Frye defines 'myth'

as a Greek word meaning story, especially a story about gods and heroes”. He also affirms that the plot of these stories may vary throughout time and space since there is no written collection of them. Moreover, Frye explains that some people believe myths are stories about true “moral men remembered after their death for remarkable deeds”; others find in myths explanations of natural events and unknown historical facts. However, Frye dismisses the idea that myths are intended to have a moral. He points out that most of the gods and heroes in those stories have an amoral behavior. Interestingly, Frye’s observation on mythical characters can be applied to Frankenstein since there aren’t morally good round characters in the novel. In addition, Mary Shelley’s novel is open to a couple of different interpretations. For instance, Frankenstein is widely known as the product of Mary Shelley’s nightmare, yet some people argue that she wrote the novel as a critique to Jean Jacques Rousseau7. Other people may affirm that Frankenstein is intended to have a moral. However, I prefer Ernest Hemingway’s idea that although a book is not written to have a moral, it may be instructive. 

To study myths in relation to Mary Shelley’s novel, it’s important to mention the concept of archetypes. In The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, Chris Baldick defines archetype as a symbol or character type “that recurs in different times and places in myth, literature, folklore, dreams and rituals”9. Prometheus, the pagan version of man’s creator, was one of the favorite archetypes of the Romantics. Many poets, such as Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, wrote about this Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humankind. According to Harold Bloom, Prometheus was their favorite hero because “no other traditional being has in him the full range of Romantic moral sensibility and the full Romantic capacity for creation and destruction”10. Similarly, Frankenstein is seen as the story of this brilliant human being who has symbolically stolen godlike knowledge in order to generate a new species. It represents creation and destruction at the same time. When an archetype is used, intentionally or not, by a writer, it becomes a new character, theme or place. For instance, Mary Shelley subtitled her novel 'Frankenstein' as the Modern Prometheus. Nevertheless, Frankenstein isn’t a mere copy of this mythological story; it has a new plot, setting and themes. In 'Anatomy of Criticism,' Northrop Frye proposes that “… what can be metaphorically identified in a myth can only be linked in romance by some form of simile: analogy, significant association…”11. When Shelley adds the word Modern to the archetype, she probably wants to emphasize the difference between them. Frankenstein follows a mythic pattern, but it is completely new in the sense that it is about “the Modern Prometheus”, in contrast to the so-called original one. Like Prometheus, Frankenstein overcomes his limits to be able to help human beings; at least it is what Frankenstein intends at first; he says: “Life and death appeared to me deal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world”12. Frankenstein wants to discover a solution for humans’ most dreadful fear: death. He believes he can “renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption”13. His intentions are good, but his creation goes wrong and becomes the opposite of what Frankenstein wishes; the monster spreads death wherever he goes. 

Conclusion : For concluding the discussion, it would be worth to put Harold Bloom's observation on Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein.' "The center of Frankenstein is the bitter relationship between Victor Frankenstein and his daemon, best expressed by the daemon when he cries out to the scientist: “Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed.” This alludes to the novel’s epigraph, Adam’s lament to God in John Milton’s epic, 'Paradise Lost' : 

"Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay

To mould me man? Did I solicit thee

From darkness to promote me?"" 

Thank you! 

Reference : 

http://www.periodicos.letras.ufmg.br/index.php/emtese/article/download/6104/6010 

https://silo.pub/qdownload/mary-shelleys-frankenstein-blooms-modern-critical-interpretations.html 

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