Paper Title: The Limits of Power in Man's Relationship with Nature.
Author: Susan St. John Ryan
Email: susansryan02@yahoo.com
Quote: "Had I been a God of Power..." (Miranda, The Tmp,1.1)

     "The theme of my thesis was the exploration of the limits of power, inherent in man's relationship to nature as represented in two key literary texts, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and William Shakespeare's The Tempest. 
     My interest was to investigate the nature of man's use of power in his idealistic desire to break through the boundaries of life and death.
     Why is it that man, in his hubris, has what Mary Shelley called the" fatal Impulse" to penetrate and dominate nature, to compete with God other Divine, to create perfect beings?
     And what in the end is perfection?
     Focusing our lens of ecocriticism on the limits of power, specifically comparing the "Frankenstein Idea" in Shelley's work--with the relinquishing of power, as Prospero breaks his staff and drowns his book in The Tempest, perhaps we can illuminate the contemporary crisis of man's power and control over environment
that we are faced with today.
      In a nuclear age where and a time of global warming- it is vital that we examine that strange spark that gleam in the scientists eye, that endless desire to unlock and conquer the secrets o Nature. It is vital that we examine our own humanity."