Group+9

Kjones, Lthunell, Lyou

PART 1 Many novels are compared and analyzed to different novels to understand the plot and the motives of the characters from a similar yet different point of view. Frankenstein can be compared to many different novels from all different eras. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been, for sometime, compared to Prometheus in the sense that both Dr. Frankenstein and Prometheus are driven to gain God-like powers. They both are driven by their ambition and some say that it is their ambition that leads them to their eventual downfall. Frankenstein is also compared to the novel the Neuromancer by William Gibson because both novels are about two creatures that were created and made from man through unnatural ways. Frankenstein can also be compared to Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus since both the characters from Doctor Faustus and Frankenstein are believed to have their lives destroyed by their high ambitions. Each comparison varied in symbolism due to the time period the novel was analyzed. For Romantics, Prometheus was seen as man’s resistance to and rebellion against despotism. But in Greek myths, Prometheus was portrayed to bow down before the power of the gods. In P.B. Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound, Prometheus relentless and represents authority for the suffering of man kind. Frankenstein and Neuromancer both have a touch of technology to their stories and vary in the different type of technology that is used but both novels explore the dangerous implications of human acts of creation. Frankenstein was created and seen as a hideous creature and the powerful A.I. in Gibson’s novel was constructed from a damaged human. Both authors have been able to clearly predict the consequences of immoral technological utilization. All these novels, plays or myths can be compared to each other to understand the novel in a different view. These novels have opened up many windows of opportunities for other science fiction novelists, writers and producers to create and twist words to show the immorality of creating life when it is not in our powers to do so. Stealing God-like powers only leads to the downfall of characters that get too ambitious in their power-hungry journey.

Part 2

Deep Blue Sea is the ultimate in a modern Prometheus story. While not conventional in its creation this action flick has the power hungry investor (Samuel L. Jackson) and the doctor that is simply trying to create life that she should not be creating. The story starts out with a doctor named Susan McAlester that is searching for usable brain cells. She winds up thinking up a scheme to create enhanced sharks brains in order to harvest these cells. Instead of one monster or creature in this version of the story there are three of the beasts. When they first mutate the sharks and make them smarter than regular sharks they begin to go crazy. As the entire crew of the ship decides that they will play god on these genetically enhanced sharks the sharks go crazy. While there is not a traditional alteration of shape or some kind of monster look about the “creation” the three creations just happen to be sharks and thus, another characteristic of modern Prometheus and genetic manipulation. Because this modern Prometheus story is not a version of text and rather it is a motion picture a lot of the literary sequences and style is lost between the two forms of entertainment. This does provide excellent ways of making the modern Prometheus story very relevant and adapting to our time as the main form of media is through television. As the story starts out the background information seems to jump into the action, as the sharks begin attacking the ship, able to find access into the ship as it starts to sink. With the new power that they have as these “super sharks” they want to kill all of the scientists and then into the main waters. (Rather than just stay in the testing site) If they do reach the open water, these sharks will begin to ruin the entire world, which is perfect commentary on the effects of genetic manipulation in our society, and the movie does it with some A- list stars and effects to boot. Needless to say the crew stops the sharks before they can enter the main water. However I think that they learn their genetic manipulation lesson along the way.

Part 3

When we consider Mary Shelley's Frankenstein we look at the monster and the creator of the abomination. Obviously it is known that Dr. Frankenstein disobeys the natural order and creates life. Frankenstein in this way is like Dr. Faustus, he may not sell his soul but his sanity comes to be the price of his ambitious creation. WHen we begin to consider the price of what we wish to create, we need to look outside the norm and come to see what the drive and motivation for what we think to be such rash and irresponsible decisions. Creating a life or manipulating nature takes a man who is not driven by the desire to contribute with his creation, but it is a selfish desire, one that consumes and destroys a man. This is clear in Frankenstein. In a religious sense, Dr. Frankenstein goes against all the rules of a traditional church belief, and takes into his hands the power that is reserved for god. In his making of the monster he is automatically despised and wothy of only hell in the eyes of the church. But if we could possibly take a deeper, more applicable approach, we may find some startling information. "Prometheus is the Jesus of the old mythology. He is the friend of man; stands between the unjust "justice" of the Eternal Father and the race of mortals, and readily suffers all things on their account. But where it departs from the Calvinistic Christianity, and exhibits him as the defier of Jove, it represents a state of mind which readily appears wherever the doctrine of Theism is taught in a crude, objective form, and which seems the self-defence of man against this untruth, namely, a discontent with the believed fact that a God exists, and a feeling that the obligation of reverence is onerous. It would steal, if it could, the fire of the Creator, and live apart from him, and independent of him." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Essays"-- As we can see form this analysis, perhaps in doctrine Dr. Frankenstein and his counterpart Prometheus could be seen in a more positive light. With the prometheus myths we have two very different outcomes. In one, prometheus bows to the power of the gods, but the other, unbound, Prometheus is steadfast is his defiance. Though in both tales are similar stories, The long term effect of both stories ahs left an imprint on literature. THe monster that Dr. Frankenstein creates is only a window to more outrageous claims of the ideal of Prometheanism.