Frankenstein's Monster and the Classical Hero

Whoo, made it on time this time. Kinda sorta not really. ANYWAY, here goes.

This time around I read ahead since I think this will be the last time I write a blog post on Frankenstein. I'm gonna write about how Frankenstein's monster is really a tragic hero in the Greek tradition.

Mary Shelley, being a woman better read than many of her male counterparts, was very well versed in classic (read: Greek and Roman) tradition. She makes constant allusions to other works, but it's what her characters say and do that really cinches it. Perhaps the most obvious reference to a Greek epic is the way the monster discusses ending his own life after the death of his master, Victor Frankenstein.

After he breaks into room where his master lies, the monster weeps and alludes to Heracles/Hercules climbing up onto his funeral pyre to end his own life and "exult in the agony of the torturing flames". Why this reference? Does Shelley really want us to think of the monster as a tragic hero of sorts? While it's up to interpretation, I think the answer may be a reluctant yes.

From the moment he was created, we know that the monster had the capacity to achieve great things, much like any epic hero. He's unnaturally strong and incredibly intelligent but, like all tragic heroes, he has a fatal flaw. Unlike most heroes, his flaw is created externally. Instead of being like the rage-prone Heracles/Hercules, the monster's greatest flaw was that he never received the positive interaction with other people that every growing mind needs. Instead of learning to love, he learned jealousy and hatred toward others. The death of his master was the completion of his great labor - the destruction of the Frankenstein clan. Like Hercules, it didn't fill him with a great sense of accomplishment. Rather, he was tired and sought only to end his struggles. He, like Hercules, burned away what remained of his imperfect body, leaving only the mind (or soul, if you will) to drift away.

With that in mind, why have the alternate title the "Modern Prometheus"? Is it Frankenstein himself that is a modern Prometheus?