Penny Dreadful and One Hundred Years of Solitude

In a show called Penny Dreadful, the characters have all taken actions in the past that they now regret. They try to hide from their pasts, but they can’t. They have to face their demons, which in some cases, are literal demons. The members of the Buendia family are unable to hide from their past as well. Victor Frankenstein is a charter in Penny Dreadful, and, as he does in Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein, he creates his creature. He tries to run from it and ignore its existence, also like in the book. The creature acts as the ghost of Prudencio did in One Hundred Years of Solitude; it’s a constant reminder of past actions. Frankenstein also creates a new creature who is more human like. He tries to escape the past and his past creation through this new one, but the first creature (SPOILER) murders the second one; there’s no escaping the past. Frankenstein is driven mad by the first creature’s constant appearances and harmful actions against his friends, as well as his obsession with his work and using his power of creation. This reminds me of Jose Arcadio Buendia; he too was haunted by his past actions, by the ghost of Prudencio. He was driven mad by his obsession with gaining knowledge. Jose is tied to the tree as a symbol for eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and Victor too crossed a line with god by giving himself the power to create life.