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- **__LITERARY CONNECTIONS__** Dr Frankenstein may be considered a nineteenth version of the Medieval German necromancer Dr Faust whose story is also the basis for Christopher Marlowe's play //Doctor Faustus//. With his desire to control and manipulate nature, Dr Frankenstein recalls the magician Dr Faustus, who sells his soul to the Devil to go beyond the human knowledge but is finally destroyed by his ambition. The story gives origin to the famous myth of Faust. Dr Frankenstein is also a modern Titan Prometheus of Greek mythology in his desire to overcome man's limitations and gain God-like power. The full title of Mary Shelley's novel is //Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus// and the influence of the myth of Prometheus as described by the Greek dramatist Aeschylus in his tragedy //Prometheus Bound// may be noted. For the Romantics Prometheus became a symbol of man's resistance to and rebellion against political despotism. Whereas in the Greek myth, Prometheus bows before the power of the gods, the hero of P.B.Shelley's "//Prometheus Unbound//" is relentless in his resistance and glorifies the virtues of revolt, representing authority (political, religious and scientific) as responsible for men's sufferings. Mary Shelley'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. Mary Shelley's metaphor of Prometheus the scientist has far-reaching implications. If Prometheus is a creator then so 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 Shelley'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 Task:
Part 1 - Write a researched response to the above analysis, using at least two other critical essays for each text, synthesizing them as part of your response. (At least 1 page typed per text)

Part 2 - Write a critical analysis of a modern Prometheus myth, focusing on its characteristics as a Prometheus myth and how it acts a commentary on our modern society.

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