Search for Knowledge
...ound that in “Prometheus Bound” Aeschylus transformed Io from a passive, selfless creature to one who holds knowledge. This is how she was able to develop Caroline in “Frankenstein”. On Io’s journey to find her purpose she came upon Prometheus, who told her about her future, and the extent of suffering she was to endure. Shelley used that to develop her character Caroline, who also was a passive rescued woman who was traveling on a journey to find her purpose and use of knowledge. Caroline is the daughter of a proud, failed businessman, who follows her father into self-imposed exile to avoid the humiliation of failure where he then falls into a terrible sickness of humiliation. However, when her father comes to death she immediately transforms from a caring, productive woman to an “orphan and beggar” (Shelley 32). Shelley uses this from Aeschylus like Io, who was also an orphan and beggar. As she begged Prometheus to tell her about the suffering she was to come upon during her journey to Egypt. Despite the fact that Caroline possessed the ability to provide for herself, her description and social status remained tied to her father. In “Frankenstein”, Alphonse Frankenstein was modeled after Prometheus in the way that they both rescue the passive women in the stories. Alphonse is an associate, friend of her late father who “came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his care” (Shelley 32). Caroline’s journey for purpose was to the feminine life of passive servitude which includes rescuing other girls from poverty and educating them in the virtues of boundless domesticity. Caroline ends up on her death bed, because of her selflessly d...