CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF SHELLEY’S PROMETHEUS UNBOUND IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF EXISTENTIALISM

Abstract

This paper attempts to reconsider Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound in the light of Existentialism as applied in literature. In this regard the paper has taken help of Bob Corbett’s discussion on what is Existentialism. Bob Corbett (1985), in his discussion ,is of the opinion that life is very difficult and it does not have an “objective” or “universally” known value, and thus it could not be lived by merely talking about, rather an individual must create value by affirming it and living it. The current research analyzes Shelley’s lyric drama Prometheus Unbound (1820) in the frame of the above mentioned existentialistic outlook .Prometheus Unbound, the hero, suffers all sorts of social, religious, political and economic pain with optimism that one day from nothingness, from this inhumanity, from this never ending pain; a new life, a new being will arise giving a new color to life and world at large. This optimistic view of Shelley’s hero is beautifully justified by Ghadeer Al-Hassan and Shadi Neimneh when they in their research article contended “it is a new Eden illuminated by Prometheus’s fire , which enables man to master the world and govern himself without relying on some external forces” (2012,p.24). The paradigm of the research for this paper is qualitative, the research ontology constructivist and content analysis is being used as a research tool. This research discovers Prometheus Unbound as an existentialist fighter who as a hero considers himself responsible for the essence of his existence and holds himself accountable for every choice and chance in life and prefers to conquer himself rather than the world. In the end this research finally comes to the conclusion that Prometheus Unbound is an existentialist lyric drama where the protagonist through his actions proves that life has no pre-existing meaning rather an individual through his freedom has to create an essence for existence and has to give a purpose to his own life.