Saint Bernard of Clairvaux wrote in 1150 that: "L 'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs" – or in English: The road to hell is paved with good intentions (Ammer 588). Perhaps no two protagonists, in all the epochs, would be as effortlessly suited for the surplus role of a paradigmatic Robin Hood character, as the ensuing underdogs. The benevolent, Hubris-filled luminaries of Victor Frankenstein and Prometheus have, too, been answerable for stealing for the people – but not from the people; no, they, furthermore like Robin Hood, choose to purloin from the invulnerable Higher-Ups. But the duo’s charm does not stop there: in contemporary times, still, Prometheus has maintained as a symbol for progress in science and technology; with
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Gothic, Romantic, and Tragic, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein affords the reader a more modern twist on the age old lessons which Hesiod, Homer, Pindar, Pythagoras, and even Aeschylus endeavored to impart on the masses of their respected eras. In short time, Shelly’s audience likely grasps that foremost symbols exist to be Fire and Light, in the midst of a primary theme lingering as Dangerous Knowledge - with interludes, at times, embracing both: “I found, with pleasure, that the fire gave light as well as heat; and that the discovery of this element was useful to me in my food” (Shelly 82). As this passage comes, not from our classic Prometheus, but rather from the modern adaptation; it could argued that Shelly’s intentions were, indeed, to shrink time, so to bring forth an ultimate message - still plenty apropos for her eighteenth century addressees, and …show more content…
The Industrial Revolution of Shelley’s age was imaginably a significant factor in the choosing of the novel 's subtitle; with the Modern Prometheus, too, responsible for the release of his modern day Pandora unto the earth. The progression of the contemporary technology, of the day, was something which afforded a cause for pause. Morford explains that “Shelley and the Romantics anticipate the uses of classical myths in nineteenth-century literature, art, and education;” and that inside England, “the classics remained the foundation of formal schooling, and the knowledge of classical mythology was widespread if not very deeply understood” (734) Morford goes on to elucidate that “increasingly the learning of classical literature was linked to morality" (734). In conclusion, it would be prudent to note that when arbitrating intentions, “people are more likely to interpret good intentions for their own actions than they are for those of others” (Kruger).
Works Cited
Ammer, Christine. The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. 588 Print.
Kruger, Justin, and Thomas Gilovich. "Actions, Intentions, and Self-Assessment: The Road to Self-Enhancement Is Paved with Good Intentions." Personality
Gothic, Romantic, and Tragic, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein affords the reader a more modern twist on the age old lessons which Hesiod, Homer, Pindar, Pythagoras, and even Aeschylus endeavored to impart on the masses of their respected eras. In short time, Shelly’s audience likely grasps that foremost symbols exist to be Fire and Light, in the midst of a primary theme lingering as Dangerous Knowledge - with interludes, at times, embracing both: “I found, with pleasure, that the fire gave light as well as heat; and that the discovery of this element was useful to me in my food” (Shelly 82). As this passage comes, not from our classic Prometheus, but rather from the modern adaptation; it could argued that Shelly’s intentions were, indeed, to shrink time, so to bring forth an ultimate message - still plenty apropos for her eighteenth century addressees, and …show more content…
The Industrial Revolution of Shelley’s age was imaginably a significant factor in the choosing of the novel 's subtitle; with the Modern Prometheus, too, responsible for the release of his modern day Pandora unto the earth. The progression of the contemporary technology, of the day, was something which afforded a cause for pause. Morford explains that “Shelley and the Romantics anticipate the uses of classical myths in nineteenth-century literature, art, and education;” and that inside England, “the classics remained the foundation of formal schooling, and the knowledge of classical mythology was widespread if not very deeply understood” (734) Morford goes on to elucidate that “increasingly the learning of classical literature was linked to morality" (734). In conclusion, it would be prudent to note that when arbitrating intentions, “people are more likely to interpret good intentions for their own actions than they are for those of others” (Kruger).
Works Cited
Ammer, Christine. The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. 588 Print.
Kruger, Justin, and Thomas Gilovich. "Actions, Intentions, and Self-Assessment: The Road to Self-Enhancement Is Paved with Good Intentions." Personality