The Author as Creator in Frankenstein Essay - 2907 Words

The Author as Creator in Frankenstein Mary Shelleys Frankenstein can be read as an allegory for the creative act of authorship. Victor Frankenstein, the modern Prometheus seeks to attain the knowledge of the Gods, to enter the sphere of the creator rather than the created. Like the Author, too, he apes the ultimate creative act; he transgresses in trying to move into the feminine arena of childbirth. Myths of divine creation are themselves part of the historical process that seeks to de-throne the feminine; this is the history of Art, itself at first denied to women as an outlet of self-expression. It is a process recorded in Art itself, in stories like that of Prometheus. Prometheus in earlier myths stole fire†¦show more content†¦He cannot make me die. (Cassell Dictionary of Classical Mythology 338) In later versions of the myth, Prometheus in some way becomes the creator of Man, fashioning him out of mud. After the great flood, Prometheus son and daughter-in-law were the only survivors, and re-propagated the sexes. The concept of Frankenstein was created in part in the summer of 1816, through Lord Byrons literary challenge, inclement weather, and a nightmare. Literary sources included Paradise Lost and Ovids Metamorphoses, which the Shelleys read the year before. Thus the idea for a story based on the Prometheus myth, and of the baseness of the condition of existence without God seems intentional, and engendered by these sources. The novel reflects a climate in which literary worship of the divine was to an extent forsaken in favour of the awe-inspiring wonder of Nature; the concept of the sublime was in itself a reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment. The Romantic Movement saw a concerted effort to return to superstition and excess of imagination. It was marked by a Gothic revival and the birth of science fiction in Shelleys text, and by the deification of the Natural world, and Man himself. Frankenstein begins with a narrative that in some ways mirrors the tale it tells. Robert WaltonsShow MoreRelatedThemes Of Alienation In Frankenstein1294 Words   |  6 PagesThrough Frankenstein by Mary Shelley as well as Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, themes of alienation are projected throughout both texts. Frankenstein in comparison to Skim is one that must look over the different mediums used to portray ideas , furthermore, it is important to focus on the themes of exclusion and alienation present within both texts. In this essay, I will discuss themes of alienation throughout the two texts Skim, as well as Frankenstein with the consideration of: PetscheRead MoreFrankenstein Essay1176 Words   |  5 PagesMany people know that Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, was part of a family of famed Romantic era writers. 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