"Both Faust and Frankenstein can be seen as titanic overreachers: the difference lies in the authors' evaluation of this overreaching." Discuss.

Both the character of Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein" and Goethe's eponymous hero in the play "Faust - Der Tragödie, erster Teil" are very similar to the mythical character of Prometheus. Prometheus' story, which originates in Greek legend, it is the tale of a titan who steals fire from the gods. Like both Faust and Frankenstein, Prometheus is a man who attempts to elevate his own status to that of a god …

…and political slant to the legend. In each case we are presented with a figure who wants to achieve more than is humanly possible and in each case this figure must sacrifice something in order to gain this enlightenment, similarly to Prometheus, who recognised that he would be punished for stealing the gods' fire, these sacrifices are perhaps not entirely thought out by the protagonists of each story, yet each leads to a different fate.