Prometheus Unbound

In a conventional play or narrative, the fall of Jupiter would be the height of the dramatic action in the work. To some extent, Prometheus Unbound follows this traditional structure, as this climax occurs at the opening of Act III. However, the scene is very short, and the majority of the Act is dedicated to the repercussions of Jupiter’s fall instead. Further, the literal mechanism of the fall is obscure. There is no climactic battle or other action depicted. Instead, Demogorgon ascends to Olympus and commands Jupiter to come with him, stating, “Descend, and follow me down the abyss” (III.1.53). Jupiter attempts to resist but is ultimately forced to surrender. Because this is a closet play, not written to be performed, the details of the presumed battle between Demogorgon and Jupiter are left to the reader’s imagination as they take place during a stanza break:

I trample thee! thou lingerest? 

Mercy! Mercy! (III.1.63).

In plays intended for the stage, the playwright would offer some direction to actors portraying these characters (even William Shakespeare’s notably sparse stage directions offer the clarification “They fight.”). Instead, what should be a dramaturgical extravaganza—combat between two gods—is left entirely undescribed.

Shelley’s political and social beliefs are essential to understanding this scene as a Myth Rewritten as Political Allegory. Shelley was fascinated with the French Revolution as he understood it through the writings of the conspiracy theorist Abbé Barruel, whose Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism (1797) promote the myth of the Illuminati. Based on his reading of Barruel’s work, Shelley celebrated the role of Enlightenment values and humanistic knowledge in spurring on the Revolution, but lamented the resulting bloody and violent Reign of Terror that followed and prepared the way for the installation of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. In the scene of Jupiter’s fall, Shelley puts forward an alternative possibility for republican revolution: one led by love and not violence, and one that does not lead to another tyrant. Here, Demogorgon represents the power of the people, rising from the depths and carried aloft by the zeitgeist (see Act II Analysis). When Demogorgon confronts, Jupiter, or tyrannical monarchy, he is led by love and intelligence, so the failures of the French Revolution will be avoided: “the tyranny of heaven none may retain, / Or reassume, or hold, succeeding thee” (III.1.57-58). Within this context, the lack of dramatic, violent battle between Jupiter and the Demogorgon becomes legible. In this idealized revolution, Love is a Revolutionary Force powerful enough to topple a dictator without the need for violence.

Following Jupiter’s fall, Prometheus is released and a utopia flourishes. Prometheus and Asis are reunited, representing the union of knowledge and love. There are long lyrical descriptions of Cosmic Harmony as an Ideal of Human Progress, which propagates throughout the Earth and, as described in Act IV, the heavens. These verses are replete with detailed descriptions of the united and restored world, free of the tyrannical rule of Jupiter, where humans are once again integrated into the natural order. Mother Earth calls humans just some of her offspring, now equal to the various other forms of life: “the many children fair / folded in my sustaining arms; all plants, / And creeping forms, and insects rainbow-winged, / And birds, and beasts, and fish, and human shapes” (III.3.90-93). This vision is teleological, implying an end of history because the universe has reached the pinnacle of possible achievement so there is no further left to go. Because the result is a benevolent and wholly pleasing stasis, the Spirit of the Hour no longer requires its horses and chariot to carry time forward; it has developed a clear understanding of all “the mysteries of the universe” (III.4.105). Humanity is in an idealized state, having lost many features of identity that typically divide and set them against one another: They are “equal, unclassed, tribeless, and nationless” (III.4.195). This is a republican vision of the world where hierarchies are abolished.