Frankenstein vs. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Throughout this semester we have been reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Our task throughout this reading has been to analyze and interpret the text in our own way. After reading the novel in class we watched the movie version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein directed by Kenneth Branagh. Many aspects of the film, such as changes in character, new scenes, and graphics, made me rethink my original interpretation of the novel.
Throughout the movie there were many scenes added which were not in the novel, which change the feelings of the viewer. At many points in the movie there are many graphic and disturbing scenes. For example, the scene in which Victor brings his project to life is very graphic and strange in the sense that Victor is intentionally portrayed as an evil, mad scientist. Interestingly enough, in the novel Victor seems to be portrayed as the victim of a horrible mistake. When I saw the creation scene I was disturbed by it due to the realness of the creation. When Victor hung the creature up in the chains, then came back to find the creature missing, a tone of horror and anxiousness came over me which was not a feeling I remember experiencing when reading the novel. Another aspect that made this scene stand out from all the rest is the fact that it had very distinct music in the background which helped set the mood and get the audience more involved in the film. Unlike in the novel a certain eerie tone was set by many aspects of this scene that were able to easily gain the attention and emotions of the audience.
Further along in the film, the creature attacks what appears to be the landlord of the family he has been watching and learning from. This scene is very aggressive and sad, not only does the creature seriously injure the landlord but when the family returns, they physically chase and beat him out of the house. After a while the creature decides to return to the family’s house, which is when he discovers that they have taken their belongings and fled. Instead of leaving when he finds the empty house, the creature decides to burn the house down. This scene is particularly ironic in my opinion because earlier in the film the creature helps the family out immensely by picking loads of potatoes for them, which makes me wonder why would he burn their house down? When reading the novel I believed that the creature was meant to look like an awful monster when in reality he was a neglected being who was very misunderstood. In my opinion Victor Frankenstein is the true monster because he built this creature then completely neglected it. Unfortunately, for the purposes of entertainment the film portrayed Victor to be the innocent scientist who made a mistake which ended in this horrible monster.
Curiously enough, throughout the entire film, the words creature and or monster were never said. This caught my interest because throughout the novel both of those words appeared very frequently. I thought it was very clever of the director to leave those words out of the film because it allows the viewer to make their own assumption about the “thing” that was Victor’s project, despite the guidance and encouragement from the film to believe that the creature was a total monster. Another curious aspect of the film that I noticed was that there was never a time when Victor explained to anyone what he had done. But strangely enough, there was a scene in which a search party was looking for the creature, also when Victor was considering building a bride for the creature, his friend Henry tried to persuade him not to make the same mistake again, although as viewers we were never shown a conversation where Victor explained what he had done.
Up to a certain point in the film my interpretation of the novel had not changed, until the final few scenes were shown. Up until Victor and Elizabeth’s wedding night I believed that Victor was the real monster of the story because he built the creature then neglected it, and that the creature was just a mistreated and misunderstood being. When the creature killed Elizabeth by ripping her heart out of her chest, I started to think that in addition to Victor the creature is a monster too. The scene following Elizabeth’s death, where Victor brought her back to life, was extremely disturbing to me because not only was it some one else’s body but also for some reason her hair was all cut off and her face was seriously mangled. In the conclusion of this scene after Elizabeth was fought over by both Victor and the Creature, then killed, I decided that my original interpretation of the novel was also the same as my interpretation of the film. I believe that Victor is an absolute monster, but for other reasons in addition to creating then neglecting his project.
It was very interesting to see how the novel was translated into a movie. It allowed me the opportunity to analyze and interpret how the text of a novel is translated into film. Due to the difficulty of translating words into images, things obviously needed to be added to the film in order to make it engage the audience. Overall I believe that my interpretation of the novel was not changed by the film, more so molded by the presentation and the changes made in the movie.
