Frankenstein Versus Prometheus Essay, Research Paper

Frankenstein Versus Prometheus

What do a god and a crazy doctor have in common? Nothing right! Wrong! In the stories Prometheus and Frankenstein the protagonists are very alike in many ways. They both tried to play god, steal, and they both get punished for what they did.

In the stories Prometheus and Frankenstein the protagonists both tried to play God in their own way. They did this by trying to create their own being or race to worship them. In the story Prometheus, the protagonist Prometheus takes all the human beings under his wing and teaches them the beginning of civilization and changes their lives completely. “He grudged men all the gifts that Prometheus had given them and he was angry with Prometheus for granting to these wretched creatures of an hour the ability to shape their lives into something better and to rise their thoughts up to heaven itself.” Pg.5. In the story Frankenstein, the protagonist creates a creature to worship and control. Dr. Frankenstein is trying to be a god which is why he is trying to create this new race. “I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter. What had been the study and desire of the wisest men since the creation of the world was now within my grasp.” Pg.167. To hold their roles of playing Gods both characters in each story had to steal to get the creation they wanted, which is what they both did.

Prometheus and Frankenstein both stole different things to achieve their own creations but their lack of knowledge about what they were doing was the same. To finish his own creation of the human being, Prometheus stole fire from Zeus without a doubt of what he was doing. “He took the fire from the very hearth of Zeus himself on Olympus and brought it to man concealed in the stem of a plant. Prometheus who gave men every art and every science; and finally he gave them the gift of fire.” Pg.5. Dr. Frankenstein stole body parts of dead people, even without fear that he was disturbing the dead in peace. “One secret which I alone possessed was the hope to which I had dedicated myself, and the noon gazed on my midnight labors, while with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness I pursued nature to her hiding places. Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay?” Pg.168. They did steal things but in return they both got punished for what they did.

Prometheus and Dr. Frankenstein were both punished for the things they did in the stories. In Prometheus he was sent to the top of a high mountain and was nailed there to be tortured. “Seize Prometheus and to carry him to the highest peak of the dreadful Caucasus. There among the crawling glaciers, beneath the lashing hail and winds of storm, or, in the summer time, shelterless against the scorching heat of the sun, Prometheus was to be bound fast with unbreakable chains.” Pg.5. In Frankenstein Dr. Frankenstein is punished by having nightmares of dead people and he starts to go crazy and a little insane from the thought of disturbing all the dead people. Also he is punished by his creation turning out to be an ugly hideous looking monster. “For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it and ardor that far exceeded moderation, but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created.” Pg.169.

Who would have guessed that a role model and a nut case could be so much alike? Therefore, in the story Frankenstein and in the story Prometheus both protagonists play god, steal, and get punished. Go figure?