Relationship between Shelley and Frankenstein

In the best seller “Frankenstein” written by Mary Shelley, the scientist Victor Von Frankenstein is seen as the Modern Prometheus, in other words, as who is managed to give a new life; in fact Mary Shelley modified the original title of the story into the “Modern Prometheus”. for this reason Frankenstein could be considered an ambitious man: he challenges the Faith for his own pride as a sort of revenge for the untimely death of his mother. He wants to substitute himself to God becoming the Creator of a new life.

Frankenstein achieves his objective joining together part of dead human body and animating them with electrical impulses: in this way it is made in laboratory a Creature, an horrible monster for its appearance.

The scientist, at the very first sight of the monster, is satisfied for the success of his experiment, but, immediately after, he is terrified by its ugliness: it has a dull look and watery eyes, it has a diabolic body worse than a mummy and it doesn’t worth to have a name; the thing that he had desire for a long time, gives him only fear and disgust, so Frankenstein decides to leave the laboratory in Ingolstadt and return to Geneva, deserting his creature.

At the end o f the story Frankenstein still considers the monster as a beast, as a devil and he thinks that the cruelty of the creature rose up by the single part of its body: in fact, the scientist uses corpses of thieves and killers, so the devilish instinct is considered to be already inside of the monster, and consequently, the monster must be brutal.

The Creature, probably, wouldn’t have released its devil side if it had found or had someone who would had tough how to live and relate itself with the people: when it comes out from the laboratory, all the people who meet the monster, are scared by its physical aspect, and, in this way it is avoided and isolated by everybody; only an old blind peasant feels that even this human being has a heart, could have emotions and it isn’t a cruel beast.

The trigger of its cruelty starts in the monster when it understands that he was left alone by its “father”, Doctor Frankenstein: the reject unchain in the Creature an enormous sense of anger and revenge, and, in this way it looses its evil side, suffocating the good part.

So, Frankenstein is the modern Prometheus but he has a negative role in the society: he releases hate in the world through his creature that represents the evil side of the scientist. The delirium of the man for the omnipotence is the ambition to be the Creator as God, but not to be the Father of the creature that is born.