How Frankenstein drew on Prometheus Bound
A documented line of influence: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley demonstrably engaged Aeschylus’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
Prometheus Bound
Aeschylus · c. 460 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
Frankenstein
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley · 1818
RomanticismRelevance
8/10
On Frankenstein’s page
- The Prometheus of the subtitle is Aeschylus's, not Hesiod's — the creator chained for his transgression
- Mary Shelley transcribed Percy's translation of this play by hand as she wrote the novel; Victor is built on its defiant maker
- Read it first and Victor's punishment reads as tragedy, not just horror — the fire-bringer who pays for the spark
On Prometheus Bound’s page
- The myth in the subtitle — Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
- Mary Shelley copied out Percy's translation of this play in her own hand while writing the novel, July 1817
- Aeschylus gives Victor his shape: not Hesiod's kindly benefactor but the maker punished for what he brought into being