Discuss Shelley’s philosophy of
love in Prometheus Unbound.
Shelley’s philosophy of love is based
on Platonism. Being a Platonist, his idea of love is idealistic and spiritual.
He gives a fig to the sensuousness in love. Love, according to him, is the soul
of universe. Love is the power which interpenetrates all things, circling them
like the breath of life, and without which this glorious world were a blind and
formless chaos formless chaos. In his words, “Love is the bond and sanction
which connects not only man with man but with everything which exist.”
Shelley’s platonic philosophy of love
is clearly reflected in his lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound. Love is
the main theme in Prometheus Unbound. The central idea of the play is
that man is able to will his own destiny. The way to end evil is not by
countering it with violence but by suffusing the collective spirit of humanity
with love.
In Prometheus Unbound, Prometheus
represents human reason at its noblest and Asia love. When love and reason are
united, evil is doomed. Love, according to Shelley, sets reason to work. In
words of Shelley,
“Fate,
Time, Occasion, Chance and Change? To these
All
things are subject but eternal love”
“It is by his love for Asia that
Prometheus shows he is completely fit to be freed, and he has positive virtues
as well as the stoic qualities which have enabled him to survive torture and
temptation.”(Desmond King – Hele) The dramatic element in Prometheus Unbound
consists in the awful mythological story of the conflict between Jupiter and
Prometheus of which centuries ago Aeschylus produced the dramatic version Prometheus
Bound. Prometheus is suffering nailed to the rock, his heart being eaten up
by an eagle. The Furies torture him. Mercury comes for conciliation which Prometheus
rejects. The main action, however, comes in the last part of act ii and act iii
of the play when Asia penetrates into the den of Demogorgon followed by the
fall of Jupiter with happiness restored everywhere.
