Literature: Passions of Prometheus

Walton Discovers Victor Frankenstein

Fate has it that Robert does meet someone who provides the sort of friendship that he desires. Someone who attracts Robert's sympathy, who is scientifically educated, eloquent, sophisticated, and who is, by no means, silent. Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton cross Arctic paths. Robert all but falls in love with Victor. He admits that he would like to "possess" him as
his friend. Such will never be the case, since friendship would require relationship to another, something which Victor and Robert, as dedicated Prometheans, have never learned. Nonetheless, Walton is overwhelmed with Victor's refinement, with his noble suffering, verbal eloquence and total dedication to his task. In effect, Walton has discovered his idealized self in Victor Frankenstein.

In the last few letters, Frankenstein mentors Robert in the ways of Prometheus. He seems at first to be warning him of the dangerous consequences of unbridled passions; but, in the end, does so with such ambivalence that the Promethean way becomes even more attractive to Walton. Victor’s final words to his comrade breathe ambiguity,

Seek happiness in tranquillity, and avoid ambition, even if it be the only apparent innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries. Yet why do I say this? I have myself been blasted in these hopes, yet another may succeed.

Not only does Victor encourage Walton to follow his own urge to stretch the limits of his crew, and himself, but he refuses, even in death, to release his own project. Victor subjects his newly acquired acquaintance to more danger, and elicits a vow from Robert that he would kill the creature. Frankenstein intended that Walton would continue his mission of destruction, even after his death. He is asking Walton to collude in an immortality project that isn’t even his own. Walton is now in the position of his crew, who also have been asked to give their lives for the obsession of Captain Walton. The crew, as collective as they are, have the wisdom to refuse. Upon the threat of mutiny, reluctantly, and with learning very little about what is at work in his soul, Robert returns home to his sister.

What is at work in the souls of men that makes Prometheans of most of us? Isn’t that the question Walton is asking when he describes own self ignorance?

There is something at work in my soul which I do not
understand. I am practically industrious- painstaking;- a workman who executes with perseverance and labour:- but besides this, there is a love for the marvellous, a belief in the marvellous, intertwined in all my projects, which hurries me out of the common pathways of men, even to the wild sea and unvisited regions I am about to explore.

Because he is more like us, less of a titan than Victor, Robert is a good example of how men can get ensnared in Prometheanism. He still has some desire to communicate to his sister, some relationship with the feminine, and is far more aware of his flaws than the intoxicated scientist from Geneva. Looking at Walton, with a side glance at Victor, I detect the following connections between Robert and modern men.

Misuse of Imagination

Walton’s “can do” machismo is rooted in his fantasy of limitlessness. “I can do anything I put my mind to,” seems to say it well. Mary Shelley’s dad, William Godwin, said it eloquently, “There is nothing that the human mind can conceive that it can not execute.” Prometheans think that by sheer will power they can conquer their own ignorance and pride and perform tasks that are beyond their competence. There is nothing more threatening to them than impotence. Since they fear castration and weakness, they imagine themselves heroes.

On the mundane level, if men can’t put up a drape, fix something mechanically wrong with our car or computer, then we assume there is something deeply wrong with us or perverse in the world. The Prometheus in us tells us that we can drywall, run a marathon, fix plumbing, or write an “out of this world” book, find the Northwest Passage or create a human life….

Focussed on the Ideal Not the Real

Prometheans express bravado about what they can do as long as they keep focused on the ideal and are dissociated from the material world. Walton’s reliance on the Arctic Shangri-La mythology, which was proposed by the Royal Navy at the time, is an example of refusing to look at the evidence. Imagine the shock as he found himself walled in by ice that threatened to crush his ship. Frankenstein is enamoured by the theoretical. In his mind, he was creating a long-lived beautiful creatures who would be eternally grateful for their parentage. Talk about an idealistic parent.

Prometheans can talk about the way to do things and what might be the best solution to a complex problem with confidence, as long as they don’t have to apply their knowledge. Once their ideals fall into reality, the birdhouse they were going to build looks like a Homer Simpson Special, a funny, ill-constucted, mockery of their intentions. The grand novel resembles a primary school essay that doesn’t hang together very well, and is filled with banality - "and then.. and then..and then.…"

Implicate Others in their Schemes

Walton is not safety conscious. He risked the lives of his crew. In one of his later letters to Margaret he has to admit, "Yet it is terrible to reflect that the lives of all these men are endangered because of me. If we are lost, my mad schemes are the cause." However late, Robert's realization is superior to that of Victor who completely exonerates himself. "During these last days I have been occupied in examining my past conduct; nor do I find it blamable." If I consider myself a great mechanic and fix your car's brakes without knowing exactly how to do it, without checking with those who do, I put your life at risk because of my inflated ego. If I fiddle with the intricacies of the operating system of your computer without accuracy and understanding, I place your hard drive in jeopardy. If I set myself up as a spiritual director or counsellor and try to guide you by the seat of my pants through self conceit, I have done irreparable spiritual harm to you and myself. Even in the not so significant decisions, when motivated by an overstretched self opinion of greatness, we harm others around us, through our imagination. We let people down, disgrace ourselves, and ruin the environment. Walton and Frankenstein disregarded the safety of their friends and family to innocently pursue their ideals. Everyone suffered….

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