Carolyn Hanig Professor Franco Romantic Literature 15 May 2008 Response to Prometheus Unbound Percy Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound” reminds me of Blake in the sense that Shelley seems to be distorting and manipulating what is happening in the poem. Shelley uses Greek mythology and Christian imagery in metaphors that overlap one another and yet he hints at what the world could be like without either of the two. It is no wonder why he chose this play to write since he can both free Prometheus and the people in the play and the minds of the people that he was writing for. Perhaps this was why there is so much mixing because he seems to be something that implies that this is not only for one religion or in the context of Greek mythology, but something very universal to the human condition. The Christian language is strongly felt in the dialogue between Asia and the Demogorgon. The Demogorgon calls out “God. Almighty God” (15), which is clear that he is using the Christian language because one of the words frequently used to describe God as “almighty.” Later then he tells Asia that “He reigns” (29), not specifying who “he” is. Immediately I think the association is put on the Christian God since that is the way that Christians refer to him, but in the context of the story, the Demogorgon would have had to been calling out to Jupiter. Yet this supplication does not ultimately fit because the Demogorgon is supposed to bring about the fall of Jupiter. As Prometheus equalizes himself with Jupiter and thus forth abolishes the master-slave relationship that they have, the Demogorgon reinforces it. It does not seem right that he should be crying out to Jupiter because he is still the slave and slaves, at least I believe in Shelley’s head, as we talked about in class, one must believe they are equal in mind and spirit before they can overcome their masters. The mixing of imagery ends after the fall of Jupiter in the poem there is no when there is no power ruling over these people. This passage describes the post-apocalyptic world in an almost perfect world instead what people usually think of the apocalypse. The spirit of the hour says that: “Thrones were kingless, and men walked One with the other even as spirits do, None fawned, none trampled; hate disdain, or fear, Self-love or self-contempt, on human brows” (135-139). I am a little skeptical of Shelley’s resolution of the play. While I do agree that it would be better for humanity to strive to be equal, I point back to Burke who says that our passions “Pain or Pleasure, or of the modifications of those, may be reduced very nearly to these two heads, self-preservation and society” (85). As much as we would all like to believe in the selfless Hollywood hero, all human beings constantly think of preserving themselves first; it is human nature. The quote from the Shelley describes a situation in which the tyrants, whoever they are, are deposed, yet I do not think that this would be the case ever since someone else would feel it in their nature to take hold. I suppose I am trying to say that I do not buy into what Shelley is doing in his play. Works Cited Burke, Thomas. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful. Ed. Womersley, David. Penguin Group. London, England. 2004. Shelley, P. B. “Prometheus Unbound.” Ed. Wu, Duncan. Romanticism: An Anthology. Third Edition. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford UK. Copyright 2006. Pages 1091-1164.
Weekly Response 6: Introspection and Poetry as Technologies of World Change Scott Offutt/May 16, 2008
Prometheus Unbound challenges the reader not as a result of its density but because Percy Shelley provides a formal explanation of how to improve the outer world by addressing the weaknesses and conflicts which we impose upon ourselves internally, as individuals. Prometheus is an exemplar of our condition as people—his triumph over his own limitations in miniature, while persuasive, appears inconceivable. I was less mystified by this poem than troubled by its philosophy, and by the knowledge that despite my investment in the deconstruction of dichotomies as a rule, that is, in the perception of absolute divisions as illusory, I struggled to accept Shelley’s contention as valid. Even after reading the play, I still want to believe in the binaries of “us” and “them,” in the notion that oppressors must be contested by the representatives of the oppressed. Unlike Prometheus, I cannot “pity” the “cruel King[s]” of this world, possibly because the iconic sufferer of Shelley’s poem knows that “Ruin” will come for his antagonist, whereas more prosaic foes, whether real or metaphorical, appear omnipotent (Shelley 1094).
Notwithstanding the moral considerations of the play, its portrayal of inner harmony as a key to outer harmony, and of poetry as a transformative expression, stand apart. The Earth’s description of the state of death, which unites “the shadows of all forms that think and live […],/Dreams and the light imaginings of men,/And all that faith creates or love desires,/Terrible, strange, sublime and beauteous shapes,” establishes the vulnerability of perceptual distinctions between forms—binaries dissolve in death, and the mind and the imagination acquire primacy (Shelley 1100, 199, 201-203). Prometheus responds to the nightmarish assault of the Furies with an invitation to “[p]our forth the cup of pain,” before refuting their command with a proclamation of inner peace: “[y]et am I king over myself, and rule/The torturing and conflicting throngs within,/As Jove rules you when Hell grows mutinous” (Shelley 1109, 493-495). By responding to the tortures of the Furies as means by which he may “gird my soul/With new endurance” before the fall of Jove, Prometheus displays the power of the imagination as an adaptive measure: he makes positive use of his situation, rather than idly lamenting it. Indeed, the “soul of love” which the First Spirit describes as the “hope” and “prophecy” of the future, “begins and ends in thee”—literally, change must occur within the mind for the possibility of improvement to exist in the outside world (Shelley 1114, 706, 707, 708). Thus, Demogorgon’s statement, “[w]hat to bid speak/Fate, Time, Occasion, Chance, and Change? To these/All things are subject but eternal Love,” becomes a positive affirmation of human willpower and creative influence—if the self is the source of love in its most essential state, then the individual may transcend the burdens imposed by the primordial forces which shape experience, or even generate new experiences (Shelley 1131, 119-121). At least conceptually, the tyrannical impulse embodied by Jove is vulnerable to the mercurial powers of art and perception.
Later, the consistent equation of the physical world to the human form confirms the central role played by humanity in the drama of life. The beams which move with the Earth are “swifter than thought,” and reveal “the secrets of the earth’s deep heart” (Shelley 1156, 275, 279). When illuminated, the planet reflects its inhabitants, who will, through “Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance,” realize harmony despite the sovereignty of despair (Shelley 1164, 562).
Works Cited Shelley, Percy Bysshe. Prometheus Unbound: a Lyrical Drama in Four Acts. Romanticism: an Anthology Third Edition. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
Sean Frohling Professor Gina Franco Romanticism May 16, 2008 Prometheus and the Bindings of Time Shelley’s play, Prometheus Unbound, starts out in an epically dramatic scene, with the ruins of humanity smoking around the pained figure of Prometheus, chained to a rock for the theft of Fire from the Gods. Throughout this play, Prometheus will play many parts in time, from that of Lucifer to Christ to humanity itself, as the sun rises to reveal the smoking ruins of humanity in its worst hour behind the chained Prometheus. As Prometheus lies against the rock, in unbridled agony as the eagle gnaws at his liver we begin to see his redemption. “Shall drag thee, cruel King, to kiss the blood From these pale feet, which then might trample thee If they disdained not such a prostate slave. Disdain Ah no, I pity thee What Ruin Will hunt thy soul, cloven to its depth with terror, Gape like a hell within! I speak in grief” (50-55) This is the first moment within the play, but it is clear here that Prometheus is being emulated as a Christ figure, as he, spread out against the rocks in torture, pities his torturers, mourning the choice that they have made to side with a tyrant so vile and cruel to do unto them as he has him. Yet at the same time Prometheus is not just a Christ figure preaching for purity and nonviolence, he is also Lucifer, calling out for a rebellion against the current god, a rebellion that finally ends up succeeding. “Sink with me then; We two will sink on the wide waves of ruin, Even as a vulture and a snake outspent Drop, twisted in inextricable fight, Into a shore less sea…. Ai! Ai! The elements obey me not. I sink Dizzily down – ever, forever, down – And, like a cloud, Mine enemy above Darkens my fall with victory! Ai! Ai!” (70-84)
(sorry I deleted this, I forget to separate the paragraphs which made it fairly dense)
Kathy Brown Eng 344- Franco Response #5 5-16-08
Percy Shelley’s Optimistic View of Humanity
In Percy Shelley’s work, Prometheus Unbound, Shelley portrays a utopian society that is the direct result of removing tyrants and, in essence, reforming society. In his perfect world, once the tyrants are gone, we should be able to remove the parts from ourselves that make us each act like tyrants in everyday life, or they will fall away on their own. Once there are no hierarchies in society, people will be able to stop believing that they are better than one another which will stop crimes, wars and a basic human hatred for one another. Prometheus shows how the boundaries between people are hazy at best in terms of how we are all really the same. When the hero of the play acts out how he is the same as both tyrant and slave, he shows Shelley’s rather optimistic views on humanity by showing that it is possible to lose the hierarchies that govern our society by internalizing the loss of power structure that is set in place by tyrants within our own minds.
Prometheus is a perfect example of how Percy Shelley believes that all people are the same. Prometheus is the hero of this play, yet he is compared to people that seem so different to us that it is clear that he is the same as everybody because all people the same, regardless of their position in society. He is both slave as well as tyrant, as is everyone else in the world. He is most obviously a slave because he is bound to a rock to suffer as a punishment, but he is a tyrant as well. He can be both because by not fighting back against the tyrant, he is allowing one to be in control. By letting Jupiter be in control, Prometheus is responsible for his tyranny. He stands as opposition to evil but also as the initiator of it because he allows it to come about and stay. At the very beginning of the play Prometheus also addresses Jupiter by saying “thou and I” which ties him to his captor and tyrant by lumping them together as a unity. Prometheus is also compared to Christ in Act I scene i (around line 564), but the preface to the play juxtaposes the character of Satan. The ideas of evil and good get us nowhere because opposition does not allow progress. Prometheus is the same as both Christ and Satan, which shows just how easy it is to realize that we are all the same. The hierarchies that are present in society are only constructions that we forge for ourselves. We created them, so we should be able to tear them down.
Once we get rid of the hierarchies that govern society, we will finally be able to shed the hierarchies that govern ourselves. When we see a glimpse of the earth after the fall of Jupiter, “thrones were kingless, and men walked/ One with the other even as spirits do-/ None frowned, none trampled… None, with firm sneer, trod out his own heart/ The sparks of love and hope” (III iv, lines 135-7, 148-9). Once the hierarchy of ruling is demolished, we can begin to do the same for ourselves. In Shelley’s very optimistic view, without a tyrant governing the world, people will be able to live up to all of their potential. All that was needed to get rid of humanity’s evils toward one another was to get rid of those that enforced a hierarchy upon them. All that is necessary to remove the evils of man is to lose the boundaries that force people to believe that some of them are better than others. Once this is gone, anything is possible because all people are now on equal footing. Later in the passage the Spirit of the Hour goes on to say that even women are now “speaking the wisdom once they could not think,/ Looking emotions they once feared to feel,/ And changed to all which once they dared not be” (III iv, lines 161-3). So even women are able to be on the same level as men, the only thing that was holding them back before was the hierarchy that told them that men were better and smarter than them. Once these hierarchies are gone, even women are part of the collective equality of mankind.
Brigette Jolene Todt Eng 344 May 16, 2008 Response #6
Perhaps it is just one student’s opinion, but Thomas Love Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey is quite a refreshing read after stumbling through Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. Peacock wrote “seven satirical novels on which his fame rests”, Nightmare Abbey included as “a satire on ‘black romanticism’” (Penguin Classics pre-title page blurb).
Peacock describes his characters and setting brilliantly while giving them a satirical edge. Everything dark and dreary seems to be favored by Mr Glowry. Most of the characters seem in agreement with this viewpoint as well. In fact, a major conflict comes about when Scythrop falls in love with his cousin Marionetta and his father tries to discourage him in this,
“‘Now that is very provoking, Scythrop, and very disappointing: I could not have supposed that you, Scythrop Glowry, of Nightmare Abbey, would have been so infatuated with such a dancing, laughing, singing, thoughtless, careless, merry-hearted thing, as Marionetta – in all respects the reverse of you and me. It is very disappointing, Scythrop. And do you know, sir, that Marionetta has no fortune?’” (Peacock p 54).
Just as dreariness emphasized as a satirical element in this work, so education is also, though it takes much abuse. When describing Scythrop Glowry at the beginning of the story Peacock details the schooling which he goes through,
“When Scythrop grew up, he was sent, as usual, to a public school, where a little learning was painfully beaten into him, and from thence to the university, where it was carefully taken out of him; and he was sent home like a well-threshed ear of corn, with nothing in his head,” (Peacock p 40).
Later when he is slighted he takes to reading (a form of education) once more,
“He had some taste for romance reading before he went to the university, where, we must confess, in justice to his college, he was cured of the love of reading in all its shapes; and the cure would have been radical, if disappointment in love, and total solitude, had not conspired to bring on a relapse.” (Peacock p 46).
So, even if Scythrop did end up not learning much at all in his extensive schooling, the one aspect we are supposed to be grateful of is that is cured him of his fascination with romance, until he is slighted and takes it up once more, for which we are urged to be mournful. There are many other instances of these things, which depict how Peacock made a satire out of “‘black romanticism’” and the dreary depression that comes with is and specifically in relation to education.
Quinnetta Bellows ENG 344 Professor Franco May 16, 2008 Nightmare Abbey
Peacock takes a satirical approach in Nightmare Abbey, as he light heartedly makes fun of English Romanticism. Nightmare Abbey as well as its characters is overly obsessed with “misanthropy and morbidity.” Peacock ingeniously uses these allegorical figures of “gloominess and dilapidation” to comment on pressing subjects of the time, such as Immanuel Kant’s transcendental idealism and the literary genre of Romanticism and Gothic (where both genre, in many respects, hand-and-hand). One character in particular that I have found to be interesting is Peacock’s Mr Flosky. He is “a very lachrymose and morbid gentlemen.” He, in many respects reminds me of Coleridge. Peacock seems to borrow from Coleridge, as Mr. Flosky is a man that “dream[s] with his eyes open.” Just as Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria appears, at first glance, to lack a lucid structure, Flosky does the same. Marionetta is unable to receive a straightforward response from Flosky as she inquires about Scythrop. Obsessed with “Kantian metaphysics” it is hard to follow what Flosky is saying. He seems more concerned with the means of arriving at a statement, an answer, than the end, and thus virtually finds himself in that “visionary world in which nothing is, but what is not.” Yearning for the days of “polemic theology” the entire text manifests this passion for rival. There is the polarity between Marionetta and Scythrop, Scythrop and Listless, Marionetta and Flosky, etc. However, what exactly is Peacock truly saying about the tension produced between these warring factors? Thinking of an answer to this question, I think again of Marionetta’s and Flosky’s conversation. Evading, or rather circumventing a direct answer, Flosky’s response seems comical and senseless, despite his dedication to his system of deduction and logic. Overly meditative, there is no end or beginning to Flosky’s philosophical enquiries. Peacock seems to note the absurdity and pointlessness of Flosky’s and even transcendentalism endless, paradoxical logic. In some ways, all the characters manifest an inherent absurdity in their belief. Scythrop, much like Shelley himself, plans to create a “perfect society.” As he creates this world in an airy imagination, Peacock reveals other poignant absurdities. Like the many of the other characters, Scythrop finds contentment in darkness, silence, superstition, sublimity. However, as we see in the end, this ascetic lifestyle leaves Scythrop without love and leaves him with thoughts of suicide. Maybe what Peacock is trying to do is comment on how the extremities of gloominess, solitude, meditation, and transcendentalism lead to no gain. So not only is Flosky’s response circular, but the story itself becomes circular, arriving at not end, but back at the beginning. Like his mother, lost to external things, Scythrop himself becomes lost to internal things. In some ways, these extremities call for the necessity of balance. If there were, one person in the play that might speak to this necessity would be Mr. Hilary. In light of Nightmare Abbey’s excessive darkness and decay, Mr. Hilary is the only character that maintains an alacrity for optimism, nature, and music.
A Dislocation of Time in Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound
In general, I am intrigued as to how time is being used and worked with in Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. I am aware that it is rather pointless to try to understand or decipher why Shelley is choosing to create an ambiguous scenarios with time. One can never make a distinct correlation between time and meaning and, perhaps, having time work naturally is how Shelley creates such a mysterious play. Instead it seems to be more advantageous to the reader to simply explore abstract concepts that arise in Prometheus Unbound and recognize what something is doing rather than how it is doing it.
While exploring the concept of time throughout this play, I hope that I have some focus and the exploration is not all over the place. I like to look at what time is doing in this play, especially in parts that feel unclear and not cohesive to the reader. One way to look at time in this play is that it is ever-changing and that it practically can never have a solid existence and place in the world (especially Prometheus’ world). Time is in a state of continuum from every angle that it can be perceived from (past, present, future) where the three elements of time do not exist or function with one another. A place where the reader would find this occurring is watching the relationship between the part of the “Dream” and the part of the “Echoes”. The Dream tells Panthea to “Follow, follow!” (line 132) and Panthea describes her dream with an overload of landscape imagery” “The mountain mists, condensing at our voice / under the moon, had spread their snowy flakes, / from the keen ice shielding our linked sleep” (lines 58-60). The concept of time is already beginning to get jumbled once a dream is involved because a dream happened in the past but could be recollecting about the past, present, or future or a mixture of both. This play is working with the mixture of the three elements of time. Soon enough, a reflection of time occurs in the play when the Echoes speak, seemingly mimicking the dream that was just discussed. The echo is the continuum through time and space and gives the reader a sense of discomfort when the echo will not let the reader locate time. The “Echoes” mimic the dream by saying: “Oh follow, follow / Through the caverns hollow; as the song floats thou pursue, / By the woodland noontide dew, / By the forest, lakes, and fountains” (lines 194-200). This echo is rather reminiscent of Panthea’s dream especially with the repetition of landscape imagery. The echo also encourages Panthea to follow her dream (since the dream also told her to “follow”) and to follow the song that takes place in the spirits that make of the echoes. These spirits show the inability to locate a time in themselves since a spirit never lives nor dies and the concept of an echo implies that it will keep going on into the future but never have an exact ending point in time to have a distinct past, present, or future in the echo’s location. The Echoes keep Panthea following the path timelessness where she will end up meeting her love Prometheus who also lives in a lack of time.
During several sections of Thomas Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey, the men are preoccupied with the devil and how its manifestation corrupts their everyday life. In addition to the scene where Mr. Toobad decides to proclaim that evil is among them and their discussion on Dante’s “Inferno” Mr. Hilary goes so far a to state that if people continue to focus on evil, “we shall have a new art of poetry, of which one of the first rules will be: To remember to forget that there are any such things as sunshine and music in the world” (Peacock 69). Hilary’s thought process assumes that the current fashion is based in innocence and imparted divinely to the artist by a positive force, perhaps heaven. During this discussion, Marionetta is playing the piano and when she stops for to join the discussion the men suppose they have disrupted the art of her playing and discontinue their conversation in order to engage in her music. Mr. Flosky says “I should be most happy if Miss O’Carroll would remind us that there are yet both music and sunshine-“ (70) which suggests again the ethereal gift of music could remedy the “dry” discussion about the devil’s lair. This idea is not true as art within this book is a reaction to and reflection of the anxieties caused by negative and evil traits of human beings.
Indeed, Marionetta did not on her own use the piano to express the joys in her heart, rather to release the sorrows, which were bundled inside of her. After quarelling with Scythrop, her sometime lover, se “was comforting herself at the piano, with singing the airs of Nina pazza per amore” (58) which shows that her music was a manifestation of distress. It is true she could play the piano regardless of what mood she is in, however music is produced with the release of her energies and thus creates the art. If she were not feeling anxiety over Scythrop perhaps she would not be compelled to play the piano because she would not need to release. Furthermore, the song she chooses to play for the men upon their request to experience the positive “music” and “sunshine” is a sad song about longing for forbidden love. A woman is trying to entice a friar, whom she knows feels for her, away from his duty. She is like the snake tempting humanity away from paradise and in the scope of Peacock’s understanding she is driving Scythrop to an unholy, incestuous relationship. The men are in the process of realizing that art comes from “evil” anxieties, as Dante’s devils “constitute the fundamental feature of fashionable literature” (66) but they do not transpose that idea onto Marionetta and other forms of art as she can. She understands where art is developed and uses it to sustain the “cheery” attitude that the men attribute to her, which makes her favorable among them.
If the type of art Peacock is referring to does stem from evil in a deliniation between good and evil, then the positive affect it has on people must render a sublime concept. Whereas the artist could feel simultaneously unsettled by outside circumstances while also satisfied by the artistic release of these tensions, those who are purely receiving the art find it “pleasant” as Marionetta’s music is described. Mr. Flosky notes that “the devil has been cast into outer darkness, and now the delight of our spirits is to dwell on all the vices and blackest passions of our nature” (68). His thought process reflects how when artists are consumed by negativity they can produce pleasure by releasing that into the world. The men realize how evil is producing art, but they also assume good can produce art. However, by virtue of their own discussion and definition of art, a good force could not produce it because there is no anxiety in “good.” Art relieves the negative feelings, so if they don’t exist, there is no reason for the creation.
I am a little over half way through this story so my response therefore only addresses issues at hand in the former half. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, Thomas Love Peacock wrote Nightmare Abbey. The story’s almost ridiculous and somewhat overbearing tone is emphasized when the story takes on the form of a play and the characters have a conversation about the meaning of happiness, love, and the idea of one’s self.
One of the more amusing parts so far is the character of Scythrop Glowry. His moody behavior and tendency to fall easily in love is rather entertaining. Because I felt that this story was written as a satire on the romantic genre in general (and how completely over the top it can be in terms of emotion and sentiment), it appears as though Scythrop is supposed to represent a romantic poet/author during this time period. With that notion in mind, Lord Byron immediately came to mind, as well as Percy Shelley. I admit that I find Scythrop’s pain in rejection humorous, especially when he exclaims to Marionetta, “‘Let us each open a vein in the other’s arm, mix our blood in a bowl, and drink it as a sacrament of love. Then we shall see visions of transcendental illumination, and soar on the wings of ideas into the space of pure intelligence’” (Peacock 52). After he says this to her, she becomes sick at the idea. I enjoy Peacock’s attempt to poke fun at the romantics, all the while creating characters that are able to recognize the absurdity of it all. If one takes a closer look at that passage, it becomes even more bizarre. Scythrop’s exaggeration of flattery and persuasion puts stress on the idea that love and affection are connected to taking lovers off to a land of enlightenment; all issues they have questioned in their lives will be answered because love is on their side. This is something that is boldly covered and I think that Peacock does a solid job portraying love’s “abilities” to merely pose questions, not answers.
As this story is not solely about Scythrop as it focuses on several other characters that make their way through the Abbey. I find particular interest in Mr. Hilary’s pleasant nature and his talks of happiness. When he says, “‘a happy disposition finds materials of enjoyment every where,’” and “‘a happy disposition derives pleasure from both, a discontented temper from neither, but is always busy in detecting deficiencies, and feeding dissatisfaction with comparisons’” (Peacock 79), I feel as though he is speaking directly to the audience. He wants to know why it’s so hard for some people to simply find enjoyment in little things and find appreciation for things that also tend to go unnoticed. Even though he is the jovial voice of the story so far, he puts forth questions that the reader should find easy to answer. However, especially within the context of the story, his questions run a lot deeper than what it takes to merely be a contented person. That is also why Mr. Asterias’ arrival is one of importance. He brings Mr. Hilary to speak about these issues as he recollects notions of human fortune and the importance of living in a society that influences thought; that is why he so much enjoys exploration and discovery. He feels a kin to this other world of the unknown and that is something that makes him happy. These are interesting issues to look at, especially in terms of the characters’ interaction with one another.
Percy Shelly’s Prometheus Unbound begins with Prometheus in chains. The figure of mankind’s knowledge, power and potential is already held captive within a system of tyranny. Shelly does not begin with either Prometheus’ disobedience or his binding, but rather starts where Aeshylus’ Prometheus Bound leaves off: the first scene direction introduces the Titan, “Prometheus is discovered bound to the precipice” (1095). Prometheus is not a fixed allegorical figure, but rather an imprisoned state of humanity that can be discovered. The fluidity of this state allows the reader to reconsider the system of tyranny Prometheus is bound to. His revelations do not overthrow Jupiter’s tyranny, but rather reveal that the system of tyrant and slave exists only as a signification.
Before Prometheus addresses Jupiter there is silence. It as though Prometheus has endured only the immediate thoughts of his pain during the ages between Aeshylus and Shelly. Prometheus’ break from silence reads as an invocation to a tyrant. It is the moment that Prometheus steps away from the immediacy of his torture and begins to consider the system under which he is being tortured. Prometheus calls out:
Monarch of Gods and Daemons, and all spirits But One, who throng those bright and rolling worlds Which thou and I alone of living things Behold with sleepless eyes! Regard this earth Made multitudinous with thy slaves, whom thou Requitest for knee-worship, prayer, and praise (1095).
The passage explicitly reinforces the relationship between tyrant and slave, placing Jupiter on a throne of Monarchy above the masses of the oppressed. However, there is also an implicit questioning of Jupiter’s power. “Thou and I” (Jupiter and Prometheus) are in opposition to one another, but the syntax begins to overlap the two figures. Both Jupiter and Prometheus share a vision of a Platonic “One” that no other figure beholds. The conjunction “and” begins to unite the oppressor and the oppressed, so that Prometheus’ next thought, “Hast though made reign and triumph, to they scorn, / O’er mine own misery and thy vain revenge” becomes a question. In addressing Jupiter’s system of tyranny, Prometheus is able to understand the inherent possibility of its deconstruction. The binary of “thou and I” may be reconsidered and broken down until only the “One” of all spirits is realized.
Prometheus attempts to overthrow Jupiter’s power by rescinding his original curse. He continues to address Jupiter, “As then, ere misery made me wise. The curse/ Once breathed on thee I would recall” (1097). In recalling the original curse, Prometheus endeavors to recall the system of oppressor and oppressed, as if going back to the source of the system and undoing it may undo the system. However, at this point Prometheus only succeeds in perpetuating his relationship with Jupiter. Prometheus is still appealing to Jupiter; his repeal of the curse is only another repetition of the curse.
It is not until Prometheus pities his torturers that he is able to be freed. As the Furies torment him with images of man’s external and internal sufferings, Prometheus reconsiders his position as victim. The last Fury describes humankind’s condition to Prometheus: “Many are strong and rich, and would be just, /But live among their suffering fellow-men / As if none felt: they know not what they do” (1112). The quotation of Christ seems to inspire Prometheus’ reconsideration. As he utters his response, “Thy words are like a cloud of winged snakes; / And yet I pity those they torture not,” he turns his relationship with Jupiter upside down (1113). By pitying his torturers, Prometheus is able to deconstruct his relationship to them. He is no longer a victim, but an agent capable of enacting pity upon a tyrant. The reversal of the tyrant/slave relationship collapses the binary. It allows Prometheus to understand that his sufferings are the result of his own constructions and then to take apart his constructions. Prometheus calls out again to Jupiter:
This is defeat, fierce King, not victory: The sights with which thou torturest gird my soul With new endurance, till the hour arrives When they shall be no types of things which are. (1113)
The final line returns Prometheus to the “One who throng those bright and rolling worlds” (1095). After he has deconstructed his relationship to Jupiter, the furies vanish and are replaced by a chorus of spirits. Prometheus has removed the significations of hierarchal systems and is left with the infinite: a single voice of made from a multitude. His deconstruction of tyranny is essentially the realization of his gift of fire: without the icons of power structures, mankind may be truly free.
11 comments:
Carolyn Hanig
Professor Franco
Romantic Literature
15 May 2008
Response to Prometheus Unbound
Percy Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound” reminds me of Blake in the sense that Shelley seems to be distorting and manipulating what is happening in the poem. Shelley uses Greek mythology and Christian imagery in metaphors that overlap one another and yet he hints at what the world could be like without either of the two. It is no wonder why he chose this play to write since he can both free Prometheus and the people in the play and the minds of the people that he was writing for. Perhaps this was why there is so much mixing because he seems to be something that implies that this is not only for one religion or in the context of Greek mythology, but something very universal to the human condition.
The Christian language is strongly felt in the dialogue between Asia and the Demogorgon. The Demogorgon calls out “God. Almighty God” (15), which is clear that he is using the Christian language because one of the words frequently used to describe God as “almighty.” Later then he tells Asia that “He reigns” (29), not specifying who “he” is. Immediately I think the association is put on the Christian God since that is the way that Christians refer to him, but in the context of the story, the Demogorgon would have had to been calling out to Jupiter. Yet this supplication does not ultimately fit because the Demogorgon is supposed to bring about the fall of Jupiter. As Prometheus equalizes himself with Jupiter and thus forth abolishes the master-slave relationship that they have, the Demogorgon reinforces it. It does not seem right that he should be crying out to Jupiter because he is still the slave and slaves, at least I believe in Shelley’s head, as we talked about in class, one must believe they are equal in mind and spirit before they can overcome their masters.
The mixing of imagery ends after the fall of Jupiter in the poem there is no when there is no power ruling over these people. This passage describes the post-apocalyptic world in an almost perfect world instead what people usually think of the apocalypse. The spirit of the hour says that:
“Thrones were kingless, and men walked
One with the other even as spirits do,
None fawned, none trampled; hate disdain, or fear,
Self-love or self-contempt, on human brows” (135-139).
I am a little skeptical of Shelley’s resolution of the play. While I do agree that it would be better for humanity to strive to be equal, I point back to Burke who says that our passions “Pain or Pleasure, or of the modifications of those, may be reduced very nearly to these two heads, self-preservation and society” (85). As much as we would all like to believe in the selfless Hollywood hero, all human beings constantly think of preserving themselves first; it is human nature. The quote from the Shelley describes a situation in which the tyrants, whoever they are, are deposed, yet I do not think that this would be the case ever since someone else would feel it in their nature to take hold. I suppose I am trying to say that I do not buy into what Shelley is doing in his play.
Works Cited
Burke, Thomas. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful. Ed. Womersley, David. Penguin Group. London, England. 2004.
Shelley, P. B. “Prometheus Unbound.” Ed. Wu, Duncan. Romanticism: An Anthology. Third Edition. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford UK. Copyright 2006. Pages 1091-1164.
Weekly Response 6: Introspection and Poetry as Technologies of World Change
Scott Offutt/May 16, 2008
Prometheus Unbound challenges the reader not as a result of its density but because Percy Shelley provides a formal explanation of how to improve the outer world by addressing the weaknesses and conflicts which we impose upon ourselves internally, as individuals. Prometheus is an exemplar of our condition as people—his triumph over his own limitations in miniature, while persuasive, appears inconceivable. I was less mystified by this poem than troubled by its philosophy, and by the knowledge that despite my investment in the deconstruction of dichotomies as a rule, that is, in the perception of absolute divisions as illusory, I struggled to accept Shelley’s contention as valid. Even after reading the play, I still want to believe in the binaries of “us” and “them,” in the notion that oppressors must be contested by the representatives of the oppressed. Unlike Prometheus, I cannot “pity” the “cruel King[s]” of this world, possibly because the iconic sufferer of Shelley’s poem knows that “Ruin” will come for his antagonist, whereas more prosaic foes, whether real or metaphorical, appear omnipotent (Shelley 1094).
Notwithstanding the moral considerations of the play, its portrayal of inner harmony as a key to outer harmony, and of poetry as a transformative expression, stand apart. The Earth’s description of the state of death, which unites “the shadows of all forms that think and live […],/Dreams and the light imaginings of men,/And all that faith creates or love desires,/Terrible, strange, sublime and beauteous shapes,” establishes the vulnerability of perceptual distinctions between forms—binaries dissolve in death, and the mind and the imagination acquire primacy (Shelley 1100, 199, 201-203). Prometheus responds to the nightmarish assault of the Furies with an invitation to “[p]our forth the cup of pain,” before refuting their command with a proclamation of inner peace: “[y]et am I king over myself, and rule/The torturing and conflicting throngs within,/As Jove rules you when Hell grows mutinous” (Shelley 1109, 493-495). By responding to the tortures of the Furies as means by which he may “gird my soul/With new endurance” before the fall of Jove, Prometheus displays the power of the imagination as an adaptive measure: he makes positive use of his situation, rather than idly lamenting it. Indeed, the “soul of love” which the First Spirit describes as the “hope” and “prophecy” of the future, “begins and ends in thee”—literally, change must occur within the mind for the possibility of improvement to exist in the outside world (Shelley 1114, 706, 707, 708). Thus, Demogorgon’s statement, “[w]hat to bid speak/Fate, Time, Occasion, Chance, and Change? To these/All things are subject but eternal Love,” becomes a positive affirmation of human willpower and creative influence—if the self is the source of love in its most essential state, then the individual may transcend the burdens imposed by the primordial forces which shape experience, or even generate new experiences (Shelley 1131, 119-121). At least conceptually, the tyrannical impulse embodied by Jove is vulnerable to the mercurial powers of art and perception.
Later, the consistent equation of the physical world to the human form confirms the central role played by humanity in the drama of life. The beams which move with the Earth are “swifter than thought,” and reveal “the secrets of the earth’s deep heart” (Shelley 1156, 275, 279). When illuminated, the planet reflects its inhabitants, who will, through “Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance,” realize harmony despite the sovereignty of despair (Shelley 1164, 562).
Works Cited
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. Prometheus Unbound: a Lyrical Drama in Four Acts. Romanticism: an Anthology Third Edition. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
Sean Frohling
Professor Gina Franco
Romanticism
May 16, 2008
Prometheus and the Bindings of Time
Shelley’s play, Prometheus Unbound, starts out in an epically dramatic scene, with the ruins of humanity smoking around the pained figure of Prometheus, chained to a rock for the theft of Fire from the Gods. Throughout this play, Prometheus will play many parts in time, from that of Lucifer to Christ to humanity itself, as the sun rises to reveal the smoking ruins of humanity in its worst hour behind the chained Prometheus. As Prometheus lies against the rock, in unbridled agony as the eagle gnaws at his liver we begin to see his redemption.
“Shall drag thee, cruel King, to kiss the blood
From these pale feet, which then might trample thee
If they disdained not such a prostate slave.
Disdain Ah no, I pity thee What Ruin
Will hunt thy soul, cloven to its depth with terror,
Gape like a hell within! I speak in grief” (50-55)
This is the first moment within the play, but it is clear here that Prometheus is being emulated as a Christ figure, as he, spread out against the rocks in torture, pities his torturers, mourning the choice that they have made to side with a tyrant so vile and cruel to do unto them as he has him. Yet at the same time Prometheus is not just a Christ figure preaching for purity and nonviolence, he is also Lucifer, calling out for a rebellion against the current god, a rebellion that finally ends up succeeding.
“Sink with me then;
We two will sink on the wide waves of ruin,
Even as a vulture and a snake outspent
Drop, twisted in inextricable fight,
Into a shore less sea…. Ai! Ai!
The elements obey me not. I sink
Dizzily down – ever, forever, down –
And, like a cloud, Mine enemy above
Darkens my fall with victory! Ai! Ai!” (70-84)
(sorry I deleted this, I forget to separate the paragraphs which made it fairly dense)
Kathy Brown
Eng 344- Franco
Response #5
5-16-08
Percy Shelley’s Optimistic View of Humanity
In Percy Shelley’s work, Prometheus Unbound, Shelley portrays a utopian society that is the direct result of removing tyrants and, in essence, reforming society. In his perfect world, once the tyrants are gone, we should be able to remove the parts from ourselves that make us each act like tyrants in everyday life, or they will fall away on their own. Once there are no hierarchies in society, people will be able to stop believing that they are better than one another which will stop crimes, wars and a basic human hatred for one another. Prometheus shows how the boundaries between people are hazy at best in terms of how we are all really the same. When the hero of the play acts out how he is the same as both tyrant and slave, he shows Shelley’s rather optimistic views on humanity by showing that it is possible to lose the hierarchies that govern our society by internalizing the loss of power structure that is set in place by tyrants within our own minds.
Prometheus is a perfect example of how Percy Shelley believes that all people are the same. Prometheus is the hero of this play, yet he is compared to people that seem so different to us that it is clear that he is the same as everybody because all people the same, regardless of their position in society. He is both slave as well as tyrant, as is everyone else in the world. He is most obviously a slave because he is bound to a rock to suffer as a punishment, but he is a tyrant as well. He can be both because by not fighting back against the tyrant, he is allowing one to be in control. By letting Jupiter be in control, Prometheus is responsible for his tyranny. He stands as opposition to evil but also as the initiator of it because he allows it to come about and stay. At the very beginning of the play Prometheus also addresses Jupiter by saying “thou and I” which ties him to his captor and tyrant by lumping them together as a unity. Prometheus is also compared to Christ in Act I scene i (around line 564), but the preface to the play juxtaposes the character of Satan. The ideas of evil and good get us nowhere because opposition does not allow progress. Prometheus is the same as both Christ and Satan, which shows just how easy it is to realize that we are all the same. The hierarchies that are present in society are only constructions that we forge for ourselves. We created them, so we should be able to tear them down.
Once we get rid of the hierarchies that govern society, we will finally be able to shed the hierarchies that govern ourselves. When we see a glimpse of the earth after the fall of Jupiter, “thrones were kingless, and men walked/ One with the other even as spirits do-/ None frowned, none trampled… None, with firm sneer, trod out his own heart/ The sparks of love and hope” (III iv, lines 135-7, 148-9). Once the hierarchy of ruling is demolished, we can begin to do the same for ourselves. In Shelley’s very optimistic view, without a tyrant governing the world, people will be able to live up to all of their potential. All that was needed to get rid of humanity’s evils toward one another was to get rid of those that enforced a hierarchy upon them. All that is necessary to remove the evils of man is to lose the boundaries that force people to believe that some of them are better than others. Once this is gone, anything is possible because all people are now on equal footing. Later in the passage the Spirit of the Hour goes on to say that even women are now “speaking the wisdom once they could not think,/ Looking emotions they once feared to feel,/ And changed to all which once they dared not be” (III iv, lines 161-3). So even women are able to be on the same level as men, the only thing that was holding them back before was the hierarchy that told them that men were better and smarter than them. Once these hierarchies are gone, even women are part of the collective equality of mankind.
Brigette Jolene Todt
Eng 344
May 16, 2008
Response #6
Perhaps it is just one student’s opinion, but Thomas Love Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey is quite a refreshing read after stumbling through Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. Peacock wrote “seven satirical novels on which his fame rests”, Nightmare Abbey included as “a satire on ‘black romanticism’” (Penguin Classics pre-title page blurb).
Peacock describes his characters and setting brilliantly while giving them a satirical edge. Everything dark and dreary seems to be favored by Mr Glowry. Most of the characters seem in agreement with this viewpoint as well. In fact, a major conflict comes about when Scythrop falls in love with his cousin Marionetta and his father tries to discourage him in this,
“‘Now that is very provoking, Scythrop, and very disappointing: I could not have supposed that you, Scythrop Glowry, of Nightmare Abbey, would have been so infatuated with such a dancing, laughing, singing, thoughtless, careless, merry-hearted thing, as Marionetta – in all respects the reverse of you and me. It is very disappointing, Scythrop. And do you know, sir, that Marionetta has no fortune?’”
(Peacock p 54).
Just as dreariness emphasized as a satirical element in this work, so education is also, though it takes much abuse. When describing Scythrop Glowry at the beginning of the story Peacock details the schooling which he goes through,
“When Scythrop grew up, he was sent, as usual, to a public school, where a little learning was painfully beaten into him, and from thence to the university, where it was carefully taken out of him; and he was sent home like a well-threshed ear of corn, with nothing in his head,”
(Peacock p 40).
Later when he is slighted he takes to reading (a form of education) once more,
“He had some taste for romance reading before he went to the university, where, we must confess, in justice to his college, he was cured of the love of reading in all its shapes; and the cure would have been radical, if disappointment in love, and total solitude, had not conspired to bring on a relapse.”
(Peacock p 46).
So, even if Scythrop did end up not learning much at all in his extensive schooling, the one aspect we are supposed to be grateful of is that is cured him of his fascination with romance, until he is slighted and takes it up once more, for which we are urged to be mournful. There are many other instances of these things, which depict how Peacock made a satire out of “‘black romanticism’” and the dreary depression that comes with is and specifically in relation to education.
Quinnetta Bellows
ENG 344
Professor Franco
May 16, 2008
Nightmare Abbey
Peacock takes a satirical approach in Nightmare Abbey, as he light heartedly makes fun of English Romanticism. Nightmare Abbey as well as its characters is overly obsessed with “misanthropy and morbidity.” Peacock ingeniously uses these allegorical figures of “gloominess and dilapidation” to comment on pressing subjects of the time, such as Immanuel Kant’s transcendental idealism and the literary genre of Romanticism and Gothic (where both genre, in many respects, hand-and-hand).
One character in particular that I have found to be interesting is Peacock’s Mr Flosky. He is “a very lachrymose and morbid gentlemen.” He, in many respects reminds me of Coleridge. Peacock seems to borrow from Coleridge, as Mr. Flosky is a man that “dream[s] with his eyes open.” Just as Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria appears, at first glance, to lack a lucid structure, Flosky does the same. Marionetta is unable to receive a straightforward response from Flosky as she inquires about Scythrop. Obsessed with “Kantian metaphysics” it is hard to follow what Flosky is saying. He seems more concerned with the means of arriving at a statement, an answer, than the end, and thus virtually finds himself in that “visionary world in which nothing is, but what is not.” Yearning for the days of “polemic theology” the entire text manifests this passion for rival. There is the polarity between Marionetta and Scythrop, Scythrop and Listless, Marionetta and Flosky, etc.
However, what exactly is Peacock truly saying about the tension produced between these warring factors? Thinking of an answer to this question, I think again of Marionetta’s and Flosky’s conversation. Evading, or rather circumventing a direct answer, Flosky’s response seems comical and senseless, despite his dedication to his system of deduction and logic. Overly meditative, there is no end or beginning to Flosky’s philosophical enquiries. Peacock seems to note the absurdity and pointlessness of Flosky’s and even transcendentalism endless, paradoxical logic.
In some ways, all the characters manifest an inherent absurdity in their belief. Scythrop, much like Shelley himself, plans to create a “perfect society.” As he creates this world in an airy imagination, Peacock reveals other poignant absurdities. Like the many of the other characters, Scythrop finds contentment in darkness, silence, superstition, sublimity. However, as we see in the end, this ascetic lifestyle leaves Scythrop without love and leaves him with thoughts of suicide.
Maybe what Peacock is trying to do is comment on how the extremities of gloominess, solitude, meditation, and transcendentalism lead to no gain. So not only is Flosky’s response circular, but the story itself becomes circular, arriving at not end, but back at the beginning. Like his mother, lost to external things, Scythrop himself becomes lost to internal things. In some ways, these extremities call for the necessity of balance. If there were, one person in the play that might speak to this necessity would be Mr. Hilary. In light of Nightmare Abbey’s excessive darkness and decay, Mr. Hilary is the only character that maintains an alacrity for optimism, nature, and music.
A Dislocation of Time in Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound
In general, I am intrigued as to how time is being used and worked with in Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. I am aware that it is rather pointless to try to understand or decipher why Shelley is choosing to create an ambiguous scenarios with time. One can never make a distinct correlation between time and meaning and, perhaps, having time work naturally is how Shelley creates such a mysterious play. Instead it seems to be more advantageous to the reader to simply explore abstract concepts that arise in Prometheus Unbound and recognize what something is doing rather than how it is doing it.
While exploring the concept of time throughout this play, I hope that I have some focus and the exploration is not all over the place. I like to look at what time is doing in this play, especially in parts that feel unclear and not cohesive to the reader. One way to look at time in this play is that it is ever-changing and that it practically can never have a solid existence and place in the world (especially Prometheus’ world). Time is in a state of continuum from every angle that it can be perceived from (past, present, future) where the three elements of time do not exist or function with one another. A place where the reader would find this occurring is watching the relationship between the part of the “Dream” and the part of the “Echoes”. The Dream tells Panthea to “Follow, follow!” (line 132) and Panthea describes her dream with an overload of landscape imagery” “The mountain mists, condensing at our voice / under the moon, had spread their snowy flakes, / from the keen ice shielding our linked sleep” (lines 58-60). The concept of time is already beginning to get jumbled once a dream is involved because a dream happened in the past but could be recollecting about the past, present, or future or a mixture of both. This play is working with the mixture of the three elements of time. Soon enough, a reflection of time occurs in the play when the Echoes speak, seemingly mimicking the dream that was just discussed. The echo is the continuum through time and space and gives the reader a sense of discomfort when the echo will not let the reader locate time. The “Echoes” mimic the dream by saying: “Oh follow, follow / Through the caverns hollow; as the song floats thou pursue, / By the woodland noontide dew, / By the forest, lakes, and fountains” (lines 194-200). This echo is rather reminiscent of Panthea’s dream especially with the repetition of landscape imagery. The echo also encourages Panthea to follow her dream (since the dream also told her to “follow”) and to follow the song that takes place in the spirits that make of the echoes. These spirits show the inability to locate a time in themselves since a spirit never lives nor dies and the concept of an echo implies that it will keep going on into the future but never have an exact ending point in time to have a distinct past, present, or future in the echo’s location. The Echoes keep Panthea following the path timelessness where she will end up meeting her love Prometheus who also lives in a lack of time.
During several sections of Thomas Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey, the men are preoccupied with the devil and how its manifestation corrupts their everyday life. In addition to the scene where Mr. Toobad decides to proclaim that evil is among them and their discussion on Dante’s “Inferno” Mr. Hilary goes so far a to state that if people continue to focus on evil, “we shall have a new art of poetry, of which one of the first rules will be: To remember to forget that there are any such things as sunshine and music in the world” (Peacock 69). Hilary’s thought process assumes that the current fashion is based in innocence and imparted divinely to the artist by a positive force, perhaps heaven. During this discussion, Marionetta is playing the piano and when she stops for to join the discussion the men suppose they have disrupted the art of her playing and discontinue their conversation in order to engage in her music. Mr. Flosky says “I should be most happy if Miss O’Carroll would remind us that there are yet both music and sunshine-“ (70) which suggests again the ethereal gift of music could remedy the “dry” discussion about the devil’s lair. This idea is not true as art within this book is a reaction to and reflection of the anxieties caused by negative and evil traits of human beings.
Indeed, Marionetta did not on her own use the piano to express the joys in her heart, rather to release the sorrows, which were bundled inside of her. After quarelling with Scythrop, her sometime lover, se “was comforting herself at the piano, with singing the airs of Nina pazza per amore” (58) which shows that her music was a manifestation of distress. It is true she could play the piano regardless of what mood she is in, however music is produced with the release of her energies and thus creates the art. If she were not feeling anxiety over Scythrop perhaps she would not be compelled to play the piano because she would not need to release. Furthermore, the song she chooses to play for the men upon their request to experience the positive “music” and “sunshine” is a sad song about longing for forbidden love. A woman is trying to entice a friar, whom she knows feels for her, away from his duty. She is like the snake tempting humanity away from paradise and in the scope of Peacock’s understanding she is driving Scythrop to an unholy, incestuous relationship. The men are in the process of realizing that art comes from “evil” anxieties, as Dante’s devils “constitute the fundamental feature of fashionable literature” (66) but they do not transpose that idea onto Marionetta and other forms of art as she can. She understands where art is developed and uses it to sustain the “cheery” attitude that the men attribute to her, which makes her favorable among them.
If the type of art Peacock is referring to does stem from evil in a deliniation between good and evil, then the positive affect it has on people must render a sublime concept. Whereas the artist could feel simultaneously unsettled by outside circumstances while also satisfied by the artistic release of these tensions, those who are purely receiving the art find it “pleasant” as Marionetta’s music is described. Mr. Flosky notes that “the devil has been cast into outer darkness, and now the delight of our spirits is to dwell on all the vices and blackest passions of our nature” (68). His thought process reflects how when artists are consumed by negativity they can produce pleasure by releasing that into the world. The men realize how evil is producing art, but they also assume good can produce art. However, by virtue of their own discussion and definition of art, a good force could not produce it because there is no anxiety in “good.” Art relieves the negative feelings, so if they don’t exist, there is no reason for the creation.
Romantic Satire in Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey
I am a little over half way through this story so my response therefore only addresses issues at hand in the former half. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, Thomas Love Peacock wrote Nightmare Abbey. The story’s almost ridiculous and somewhat overbearing tone is emphasized when the story takes on the form of a play and the characters have a conversation about the meaning of happiness, love, and the idea of one’s self.
One of the more amusing parts so far is the character of Scythrop Glowry. His moody behavior and tendency to fall easily in love is rather entertaining. Because I felt that this story was written as a satire on the romantic genre in general (and how completely over the top it can be in terms of emotion and sentiment), it appears as though Scythrop is supposed to represent a romantic poet/author during this time period. With that notion in mind, Lord Byron immediately came to mind, as well as Percy Shelley. I admit that I find Scythrop’s pain in rejection humorous, especially when he exclaims to Marionetta, “‘Let us each open a vein in the other’s arm, mix our blood in a bowl, and drink it as a sacrament of love. Then we shall see visions of transcendental illumination, and soar on the wings of ideas into the space of pure intelligence’” (Peacock 52). After he says this to her, she becomes sick at the idea. I enjoy Peacock’s attempt to poke fun at the romantics, all the while creating characters that are able to recognize the absurdity of it all. If one takes a closer look at that passage, it becomes even more bizarre. Scythrop’s exaggeration of flattery and persuasion puts stress on the idea that love and affection are connected to taking lovers off to a land of enlightenment; all issues they have questioned in their lives will be answered because love is on their side. This is something that is boldly covered and I think that Peacock does a solid job portraying love’s “abilities” to merely pose questions, not answers.
As this story is not solely about Scythrop as it focuses on several other characters that make their way through the Abbey. I find particular interest in Mr. Hilary’s pleasant nature and his talks of happiness. When he says, “‘a happy disposition finds materials of enjoyment every where,’” and “‘a happy disposition derives pleasure from both, a discontented temper from neither, but is always busy in detecting deficiencies, and feeding dissatisfaction with comparisons’” (Peacock 79), I feel as though he is speaking directly to the audience. He wants to know why it’s so hard for some people to simply find enjoyment in little things and find appreciation for things that also tend to go unnoticed. Even though he is the jovial voice of the story so far, he puts forth questions that the reader should find easy to answer. However, especially within the context of the story, his questions run a lot deeper than what it takes to merely be a contented person. That is also why Mr. Asterias’ arrival is one of importance. He brings Mr. Hilary to speak about these issues as he recollects notions of human fortune and the importance of living in a society that influences thought; that is why he so much enjoys exploration and discovery. He feels a kin to this other world of the unknown and that is something that makes him happy. These are interesting issues to look at, especially in terms of the characters’ interaction with one another.
Prometheus Unbound Response
Percy Shelly’s Prometheus Unbound begins with Prometheus in chains. The figure of mankind’s knowledge, power and potential is already held captive within a system of tyranny. Shelly does not begin with either Prometheus’ disobedience or his binding, but rather starts where Aeshylus’ Prometheus Bound leaves off: the first scene direction introduces the Titan, “Prometheus is discovered bound to the precipice” (1095). Prometheus is not a fixed allegorical figure, but rather an imprisoned state of humanity that can be discovered. The fluidity of this state allows the reader to reconsider the system of tyranny Prometheus is bound to. His revelations do not overthrow Jupiter’s tyranny, but rather reveal that the system of tyrant and slave exists only as a signification.
Before Prometheus addresses Jupiter there is silence. It as though Prometheus has endured only the immediate thoughts of his pain during the ages between Aeshylus and Shelly. Prometheus’ break from silence reads as an invocation to a tyrant. It is the moment that Prometheus steps away from the immediacy of his torture and begins to consider the system under which he is being tortured. Prometheus calls out:
Monarch of Gods and Daemons, and all spirits
But One, who throng those bright and rolling worlds
Which thou and I alone of living things
Behold with sleepless eyes! Regard this earth
Made multitudinous with thy slaves, whom thou
Requitest for knee-worship, prayer, and praise (1095).
The passage explicitly reinforces the relationship between tyrant and slave, placing Jupiter on a throne of Monarchy above the masses of the oppressed. However, there is also an implicit questioning of Jupiter’s power. “Thou and I” (Jupiter and Prometheus) are in opposition to one another, but the syntax begins to overlap the two figures. Both Jupiter and Prometheus share a vision of a Platonic “One” that no other figure beholds. The conjunction “and” begins to unite the oppressor and the oppressed, so that Prometheus’ next thought, “Hast though made reign and triumph, to they scorn, / O’er mine own misery and thy vain revenge” becomes a question. In addressing Jupiter’s system of tyranny, Prometheus is able to understand the inherent possibility of its deconstruction. The binary of “thou and I” may be reconsidered and broken down until only the “One” of all spirits is realized.
Prometheus attempts to overthrow Jupiter’s power by rescinding his original curse. He continues to address Jupiter, “As then, ere misery made me wise. The curse/ Once breathed on thee I would recall” (1097). In recalling the original curse, Prometheus endeavors to recall the system of oppressor and oppressed, as if going back to the source of the system and undoing it may undo the system. However, at this point Prometheus only succeeds in perpetuating his relationship with Jupiter. Prometheus is still appealing to Jupiter; his repeal of the curse is only another repetition of the curse.
It is not until Prometheus pities his torturers that he is able to be freed. As the Furies torment him with images of man’s external and internal sufferings, Prometheus reconsiders his position as victim. The last Fury describes humankind’s condition to Prometheus: “Many are strong and rich, and would be just, /But live among their suffering fellow-men / As if none felt: they know not what they do” (1112). The quotation of Christ seems to inspire Prometheus’ reconsideration. As he utters his response, “Thy words are like a cloud of winged snakes; / And yet I pity those they torture not,” he turns his relationship with Jupiter upside down (1113). By pitying his torturers, Prometheus is able to deconstruct his relationship to them. He is no longer a victim, but an agent capable of enacting pity upon a tyrant. The reversal of the tyrant/slave relationship collapses the binary. It allows Prometheus to understand that his sufferings are the result of his own constructions and then to take apart his constructions. Prometheus calls out again to Jupiter:
This is defeat, fierce King, not victory:
The sights with which thou torturest gird my soul
With new endurance, till the hour arrives
When they shall be no types of things which are. (1113)
The final line returns Prometheus to the “One who throng those bright and rolling worlds” (1095). After he has deconstructed his relationship to Jupiter, the furies vanish and are replaced by a chorus of spirits. Prometheus has removed the significations of hierarchal systems and is left with the infinite: a single voice of made from a multitude. His deconstruction of tyranny is essentially the realization of his gift of fire: without the icons of power structures, mankind may be truly free.
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