Harold Blooms Analusis of Frankenstein Essay - 693 Words

Harold Bloom, a well-known American critic explores Mary Shelleys Frankenstein to find true meaning. Throughout his essay, he gives answers to the lingering question of who the real monster is. He also paints a clear picture of a major theme in the novel, the Romantic mythology of the self. Through reading his essay, it opens up new light to Mary Shelleys novel. It gives new meaning to the monster and his creator. Basically Harold Bloom begins his essay by explaining how Frankenstein to most of us is the name of the monster rather than his creator. He states that. the common reader and the common viewer (referring to the movie) have worked together in their apparent confusion to create a myth soundly based on a central†¦show more content†¦Shunned by his own creator, he is forced to search throughout an unfamiliar world by himself. The bulk of his essay refers back to the title of his essay, An excerpt from a study of Frankenstein: or, The New Prometheus. Upon finding the article I was confused on the meaning of the title. Even through the first read, I didnt understand exactly who Prometheus was. By doing a little research outside of the article, I uncovered that Prometheus is a Titan who stole fire from Olympus and gave it to humankind for which Zeus chained him to a rock and sent an eagle to eat his liver, which grew back daily. Bloom states that Frankenstein is an important book because it vividly projects a version of the Romantic mythology of the self. This is his basic thesis/argument of the essay. As I mentioned above, Bloom starts his essay with a comparison between Frankenstein the book and movie. This seemed completely unnecessary and even erroneous to me because the movie was nothing like the romantic story of the book. Frankenstein the movie was a horror movie where the monster went around killing and destroying everything. The plot line between the two sources is not the same and therefore should not be compared and contrasted. This seems to be a weak point of Blooms essay. Within his essay, Bloom refers to Blakes poem, The Spectre and Emanation. He sets this up to compare Shelleys Frankenstein. A quote from Blakes essay is as follows: