Prometheus, the First Rebel

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Amy Bushong 3rd period Mrs. Palmer APE IV. Prometheus: Emblematically Silent, the Classic Rebel Within the poem “Prometheus” by Lord George Gordon Byron, the titanic figure is conceived by Byron and the romantics as a symbol of divine rebellion subjected to experience the characteristics of mortal beings as punishment. The flavor of defiance within the poem is only heightened by the constant images of oppression and the pride with which Prometheus carries his punishment, bearing with it the theme of unapologetic revolution. According to critics, Prometheus is meant to represent the all too human Napoléon Bonaparte, a kindred spirit who, like the Titan, “no more loved or hated his kind; he was a determined rebel against them, who craved to subdue them-or at least to be an object of wonder and terror.”(Dennis) Beginning in the very first stanza, Prometheus displays compassion towards the lower race of man, despite being in possession of the power to remain apathetic. This unique characteristic is rewarded with torture, expressed by the imagery and figurative language present throughout the poem. “What was thy pity’s recompense?/A silent suffering and intense;”(5-6, Byron). The use of the descriptive word “silent” represents both the way the other gods looked upon Prometheus’s sentence and the pride with which he held himself in its duration. He is viewed by Byron as a martyr of liberty, a cause that Byron was very adamant about and eventually gave his life for in the Greek War for Independence. Prometheus’s compassion for lesser mortals is juxtaposed against the natural hierarchy of his society, due to the fact that “Titans, like gods, have hitherto been the object of human attention, models of human aspiration and resentment. Now the polarities of imitation apparently switch.” (Dennis). The question “What was thy pity’s recompense?”(5), sets up the contrast
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