The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley - Essay Example

Affiliation: Frankenstein Frankenstein, also known as The Modern Prometheus is Mary Shelly’s novel in regards to a young student of science by the name of Victor Frankenstein, who is engages in creating a grotesque but the sentient creature through an unorthodox scientific experiment. Through the Frankenstein, knowledge in regards to the existence of a creator has the crippling effect on the creature as this character is struggling to reconcile on his own perception about himself as compared to the maddening desire for the divine approval and acceptance. It is also impossible for the reader to ignore the place of the author within her own text as Shelley, who portrays the image of avowed atheist, and makes the comparison of human development basing on contrary means encompassing both religious and secular relationships. At the end of the novel, through Frankenstein, the author completes that the moral and spiritual development is possible to attain best through the shading of dogmatic belief structures, which results to the elimination of God upon the attainment of self-realization. There are many ‘monstrous reflections’ in this entire text basing on the critical commentary. Frankenstein’s creature serves as the existence of his short existence, which results to the last freedom of the creature that occurs through the death of his creator. Even though a secular theme continues through the entire novel, it is also impossible to ignore the religious references and the biblical allusions, which provide the complex addition to the text that one could view as being the secular treatise basing on the dangerous nature of knowledge. Even though it can be possible to pare the text down into such non-religious terms, one cannot easily ignore that Frankenstein also contains the great deal of the biblical symbolism, evident particularly on the theme of outcast and the creation story. In the story, the monster is subject to portray as a sympathetic character, especially in regards to the contemporary reader. Through the biblical story, Adam causes his own fate through engaging in sin. His creator, Victor, goes ahead to cause the creature’s hideous existence, and it is through the grotesqueness that eventually leads to the spurning of the creature. It is only upon facing repeated rejection that leads the creature into becoming violent and thus deciding to seek revenge. The allegory of creation becomes clear to the reader right from the beginning of the novel. Despite lacking cultivation and learning through the morals and ethics of Christianity, the monster in Frankenstein has the ability of forming his own code of behavior that bases on the example and the behavior that he views from other people. It should be subject to note that Frankenstein’s instinctive sense of morality entirely comes without having any knowledge of God while this concept may seem to being an atheistic or the secular way of thinking under which morality is ‘inborn.’ Frankenstein is also a creature with feminine qualities who has to survive in the male dominated world. Through the story, there are depictions of his earliest days of life, whereby he was struggling with the concept of humanity and trying to understand on what it is for one to be human. Through his new and unexplained existence, it places him into an introspective and the indefinite state that is full of inquisitiveness. There is also an aspect in the novel whereby the characters are trying to hide on their motivations, even hiding the motivations from themselves. For example, Shelley in page (124), the there is a quote that states, “I admired on the virtue and good feelings and loved the gentle manners together with the amiable qualities of my cottages. However, I was unfortunate to be shut out from the intercourse with them, except on following the means that I obtained by stealth, at the time when I was unseen and unknown, which was responsible for increasing than satisfying my desire of becoming one among my fellows.” Through this quote, the creature is imbued with some conflicting desires, as he idealizes the emotions and the interactions of the cottagers, even though he remains unsure of his place among this group. Through the attempt of furthering his capacity in the human interaction and trying to define his place in the society, the monster in Frankenstein tries to educate himself on the morals and vices. There is a quote whereby the monster state, “I read men being concerned in the public affairs, through governing or massacring their species. In this manner, I felt the greatest ardor for virtue rising within me, together with abhorrence for vice. Even though I understood on the significance of those terms, relative in the manner they were, I applied them for the aim of pleasuring and paining alone” (Shelley 125). Through this quote, it portrays part of the Marxist theory whereby the monster is only subject to portray as a creature that alienates on the worker that made it. In this regard, the monster only serves as a laborer that is striking against the unfair conditions. In the story, the creature (monster) develops his own sense morality without following the influence of religion or the methodology of the creator. His standards of action are of human reactionary that bases entirely on the sense of pleasure or pain, even though they are crucial and significant towards his development. As the monster keep on wrestling with the ideas of going bad or right, choosing between good and evil, he thus comes closer into satisfying his desire for acceptance together with interaction to the society. The monster in this story thus portrays the symbol of the many marginalized groups through the present day contemporary society. This also part of the story that changes the diction and syntax of the novel to the modern reader, with the purpose of highlighting real issues that occur in the present day contemporary society. In conclusion, this entire story is just like another oedipal story whereby the characters involved struggle in identifying themselves and upon realizing their real identities, they then end up doing the unexpected outcomes, such as murdering themselves. Through the examples obtained in Frankenstein, it portrays the image that any creature has the capacity of learning morals and virtues without having any influence of the spiritual or the divine proclamation. Without following such guidance and influence from other people, perhaps the modern reader in the Frankenstein will be able to learn that search for knowledge may not be as complex as it may seem, but the fact remains is that the innocence lays waiting. Works Cited Shelley, Mary W. Frankenstein, Or, the Modern Prometheus. , 2014. Print. Read More