Prometheus

            Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, is a modern Titan Prometheus of Greek mythology in his desire to overcome man's limitations and gain God-like power. The full title of Shelly's novel and the influence of the myth of Prometheus Bound may be noted. For the romantics Prometheus became a symbol of man's resistance and rebellion against political despotism. Whereas in the Greek myth, Prometheus bows before the power of the gods, the hero of P.B. Shelly's "Prometheus Unbound- is relentless in his resistance and glorifies the virtues of revolt, representing authority (political, religious and scientific) as responsible for man's sufferings. Mary Shelly's Frankenstein combines characteristics of the mythological hero with those of the Romantic one. Like Aeschylus` Prometheus, Frankenstein defies God and upsets the pre-established nature of the universe. Like the Romantic Prometheus, he does so by manipulating science and thus resisting traditional authority, especially that of the church. Shelly's metaphor of Prometheus the scientist has far-reaching implications. If Prometheus is a creator then who is the scientist. Not only art is creative, science may be too. If the revolting monster is the short-term result of speculative scientific Prometheanism, what effects may it have in the long-term?.
             Mary Shelly's use of the Promethean myth opens up the way for future imaginative-horror writer, who will be inspired by the scientific possibilities of genetic manipulation.
             The most noticeable genres of literature describe in Shelly's novel are the Gothic term and the Science Fiction term. Gothic, which defines as: "Tales of the macabre, fantastic, and supernatural, usually landscapes. They reaches the height of their considerable fashion in the 1790`s and the early years of the 19th century- (Oxford Companion to English Literature, p. 405-06). Undoubtedly, there are Gothic elements to Shelly's novel.