Prometheus Unbound
Prometheus Unbound is a four-act play by the greatest Romantic poet P. B. Shelley. The play opens a Ravine of Icy Rocks in the Indian Caucasus. PROMETHEUS is discovered in chains bound to the Precipice. Prometheus is tormented by Zeus. Ultimately, Prometheus is liberated. He is a symbol of the liberation of mankind. He may be described as the correct manifestation of the highest moral and intellectual nature.
He is often compared with Satan in Milton’s Paradise. But we should remember that he is devoid of any feeling of revenge or envy that we find in Satan. Shelley himself says: “Prometheus is, in my judgment, a more poetical character than Satan, because, in addition to courage, and majesty, and firm and patient opposition to omnipotent force, he is susceptible of being described as exempt from the taints of ambition, envy, revenge, and a desire for personal aggrandizement, which, in the hero of Paradise Lost, interfere with the interest.”
This book reveals Shelley’s revolutionary vision, the vision of a perfect world without any cruelty, the vision of ideal Beauty and Love. This vision is necessary for the moral progress of the miserable race of man.
The Epilogue expresses Shelley's tenets as a poet and as a revolutionary:
To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory
The first two lines are amazing and full of exalted wisdom. In the above lines we find Shelley’s fervent passion to renovate the world and to bring about Utopia. But to transform the world we will have to defy dictatorship and barbarism.
This poetic drama by Shelley reveals his unsurpassable lyricism. “Shelley was alone the perfect singing god ; his thoughts, words and deeds all sang together” (Swinburne). It has often been said by most of the critics that Shelley outsang all poets on record.
“There is always a tendency in the poetic drama to become lyrical, to concern itself more with emotional effects than with the action that causes them; and the more lyrical a drama becomes, the nearer it approaches to music, and particularly to the symphony. Prometheus Unboundis nearer to music than any other drama I know, and in form it is nearer to symphony than to drama”-A.Clutton Brock
He is often compared with Satan in Milton’s Paradise. But we should remember that he is devoid of any feeling of revenge or envy that we find in Satan. Shelley himself says: “Prometheus is, in my judgment, a more poetical character than Satan, because, in addition to courage, and majesty, and firm and patient opposition to omnipotent force, he is susceptible of being described as exempt from the taints of ambition, envy, revenge, and a desire for personal aggrandizement, which, in the hero of Paradise Lost, interfere with the interest.”
This book reveals Shelley’s revolutionary vision, the vision of a perfect world without any cruelty, the vision of ideal Beauty and Love. This vision is necessary for the moral progress of the miserable race of man.
The Epilogue expresses Shelley's tenets as a poet and as a revolutionary:
To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory
The first two lines are amazing and full of exalted wisdom. In the above lines we find Shelley’s fervent passion to renovate the world and to bring about Utopia. But to transform the world we will have to defy dictatorship and barbarism.
This poetic drama by Shelley reveals his unsurpassable lyricism. “Shelley was alone the perfect singing god ; his thoughts, words and deeds all sang together” (Swinburne). It has often been said by most of the critics that Shelley outsang all poets on record.
“There is always a tendency in the poetic drama to become lyrical, to concern itself more with emotional effects than with the action that causes them; and the more lyrical a drama becomes, the nearer it approaches to music, and particularly to the symphony. Prometheus Unboundis nearer to music than any other drama I know, and in form it is nearer to symphony than to drama”-A.Clutton Brock
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Faith in the Almighty Lord creates love, peace, brotherhood, inner joy, patience, humbleness, righteousness, kindness, and self-restraint.These good qualities alone can protect our world "where ignorant armies clash by night".