Modern Prometheus
by Donna Lyon Rhose

      It was a rainy summer that year, almost cold and generally damp with great thunderstorms cropping up and roaring into the night. Yet, the young people's spirits were high, as they often boated in the beautiful lake surrounded by pristine mountains when the weather permitted. Free-thinkers, they espoused the ideas of free-love, freedom of belief and the cause of feminism, talking youthful hopes of somehow changing the world; as they also did a little experimenting with drugs, examining their inner fears - both of themselves and the new advances of science. No... this was not the 1960s. It was 1816 in Switzerland as Mary and Percy Shelley joined Lord Byron for a summer interlude in Geneva. They were very young, very full of hope for a new world order, yet mentally astute enough to question their world as well. Their favorite pastime on stormy nights was reading and telling ghost stories as it thundered and lightened, deliberately seeking their inner fears.

     Revolution ear-marked their world as science began to bloom in earnest, with great fascination for the potential of electricity dominating the human mind. Yet, it was also a time of conservative back lashes, especially in England where it became a fairly dangerous place for free-thinkers to live, some unfortunate souls even being imprisoned for their thoughts.

    It was from this turbulent background of both fear and excitement of the future, heightened by self-examination (and a love of ghost stories), that Mary's nightmare occurred, leading her to author the story of 'Frankenstein'. Yes, a nightmare; something from the subconscious (or perhaps, the Higher Self?) crying for expression on the edge of the changing times. Mary speaks of not being able to sleep when this nightmare took hold. That her imagination came as something unbidden, gifting her with images that were vivid beyond that of normal dreaming. Perhaps we would find the word vision to be a better term for her experience. It is an amazing story for many reasons, not the least for its truly Jungian flavor -long before Carl Jung was born.

    To me, the story 'Frankenstein' is not a horror story in the usual sense that it has come to mean today. It's not really 'scary', though it is genuinely disturbing. It is a deeply psychological book that makes potent comments about society, science and the human heart. As one reads, it becomes clear that the monster is really more a symbol, a symbol of our shadow self (our inner monster), though at the same time it brings up moral questions about science. It questions our moral obligation to ourselves, to Nature, to our hunger to know and tendency to exploit through the auspices of science. Mary questioned where science was leading us, questions that we need to ask of science today with even more fervency for they are the same questions; and though in her day they were rhetorical, today they are questions of fact.

     Though Frankenstein created his monster through cadavers and electricity, the story still bears an eerie resemblance to our own experiments with geneticengineering, cloning and very real ability to create new creatures throughgenetic manipulation. If for no other reason, it is our deep desire to re-create life through means that we control outside Nature that brings forward the moral dilemma. Frankenstein's reasons for his creation were the same reasons as our own modern science's... And as the human DNA code has now been cracked, shall we proceed to make miracles... or monsters? It's no longer science fiction and we need to answer our moral questions before the monster is truly aroused. Do we really mean to create? Or are we rushing to place ourselves upon the path of destruction?

     Mary Shelley was a great writer. She is easy to read and follow, having a good sense of timing; and though these are clearly period pieces, comes close to a sense of timelessness in her works. It is wonderful to note a renewed interest in all her varied writings as well as her masterpiece 'Frankenstein', for she is an interesting literary figure who led a rich, fascinating life, being a fairly popular writer in her own age - something rather unusual for a woman of her time period.

     Yet, 'Frankenstein' does stand out for very real reasons... it is inspired, it is a warning, it has true metaphysical value for us today. It is about the monster within each of us and what that monster within each asks of us. Shall we embrace it? Shall we hunt and attempt to kill it? Or shall we do our duty by it? Fear it... or let it loose? Mary Shelley was about 17-18 years old when she wrote this story. I believe she knew exactly what she was doing.

Donna Lyon Rhose is a Reiki Master, BardMaster,
Student of the Universe and goddesswannabe.
She can be contacted at: illusgraph@mindspring.com