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Act 3, Scene 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Prometheus Unbound, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Knowledge and Freedom
Authority and Resistance
Christianity and Forgiveness
Nature, Imagination, and the Sublime
Summary
Analysis
Ocean and Apollo stand at the mouth of a river on the island of Atlantis discussing the fall of Jupiter. They have witnessed Jupiter tumbling through the air, entangled with an eagle. Ocean rejoices that his “realm, will heave, unstained with blood” while Apollo celebrates that he will no longer have to look down on “deeds which make his mind obscure with sorrow.” They part ways joyfully.
Ocean and Apollo are classical personifications of natural phenomena: the sea and the sun. In this scene, Shelley reinforces the idea that all of nature is affected by human cruelty and suffers when witnessing violence and destruction. This ties in with pantheist ideas, as it suggests that nature is alive, and with Christianity because it suggests that hurting one person means hurting all people.
Themes
