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Comparing Victor And Prometheus In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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By looking at both Victor and Prometheus’s strength and punishments, it is evident that they both play a similar role in the novels, Frankenstein and Prometheus, thus demonstrating how characters can be similar through the way they deal with personal struggle, whether they decide to fight back or carelessly be trampled on. Victor Frankenstein’s role in Frankenstein makes him seem overpowered by his own capabilities, which essentially leads to his demise, but rather he is a strong individual who suffers in silence. Prometheus plays the role of a punished immortal whom cannot catch a break for the good he has done. Therefore, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, could be considered “The Modern Prometheus” because of the similarities between Prometheus …show more content…

God never intended for humans to have fire, nor intend for them to create life from death, but surely Victor and Prometheus went against both of these actions. Victor is constantly punished by the Monster’s actions of killing his family members, love of his life, and friend, all because he decides to keep in silence about the monster he has created. The monster furiously writes, “You my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? You would not call it murder” because he realizes that Victor would so easily kill him with no thought of it being murder. Victor is so careless about what could happen to the monster, he just wishes he would be gone, so his suffering could end. Prometheus gave life to humans and is punished severely for his actions. In the end, the vengeance that so surely overtakes Victor, leads to him attempting to kill the monster he created. Prometheus uses his own power to overtake Zeus as he writes, “And in thy Silence was his Sentence, And in his Soul a vain repentance, And evil dread so ill dissembled, That in his hand the lightnings trembled.” He knows that he is going to live forever because he is immortal, but Zeus’ fate is inevitable, he is going to die at some point. Both characters take the weaknesses of their enemy, the monster’s killings and Zeus’

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