Frankenstein: The Story of Man

The following entry is actually a reworked term paper I wrote some four years ago. The class I wrote it for was called 'film and literature', which examined films based on how they were adapted from novels and plays. The book I worked with was, obviously, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein- which was one of my favorite novels at the time.

I'm posting this here because I feel that, while a few years old, this piece still accurately reflects many of my personal feelings and opinions on humanity. In this alte day I feel that many of my ideas on the state of human kind can be traced back to my youth and its interest in all things 'Monster' related; be it Ghostbusters, Monster Squad, or the various late night horror films I sneaked down to after the parents went to sleep.

Frankenstein: The Story of Man.

On the banks of a small lake in the middle of Europe a small girl is doing what small girls do, picking flowers. As she throws the tops of the pedals into the lake she is approached by a large, seemingly lost, man in heavy boots and a scarred face. For a moment the girl is afraid, but then calms herself and allows the man to approach, offering him flowers in friendship. In a moment the girl would be dead, thrown into the waters by her new friend.

From the start of the film it may have been destined that the Monster would go crazy on the townsfolk. The world he is born into is not the world that Mary Shelley created in her original text, which was filled with books and knowledge and learning. J. Whale’s world was one of darkness and destruction, from the moment of the monster’s birth he is tormented by the mean Fritz with fire. The Monster is chained to walls and when he finally is allowed to leave he is chased around by people with pitchforks.

In Shelley’s world, filled with knowledge, the Monster is allowed to mature into a free thinking adult man, perhaps aided by whatever knowledge his original brain stored. Sure, Frankenstein rejects him and goes off with his life, but it is in with this rejection that the Monster is allowed to go and learn. During his travels The Monster comes upon the family of the Delacey’s and proceeds to live in their cottage. It is here that he first views love and compassion from one person to another. On page 119 the Monster states “…how the father doated on the smiles of the infant, and the lively sallies of the older child; how all the life and cares of the mother were wrapped up in the precious charge; how the mind of youth expanded and gained knowledge; of brother, sister, and all the various relationships which bind one human being to another in mutual bonds.”

It is here that the Monster begins to wonder why if these children had parents and friends to look after him, why hadn’t he? He goes on to say “Where were my friends and relations?” and then “I had never yet seen a being resembling me, or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I?” ‘What was I?’ it seems to be more like the questions of an orphaned teenager than a mad and evil undead man. Soon enough his journey comes nearly full circle when he meets Frankenstein in the mountains.. He finds Frankenstein somewhat spiteful of his creation, but despite this is willing to talk. It is at this point that Monster asks Frankenstein to create another one.

“At length I wandered towards these mountains, and have ranged through their immense recess, consumed by a passion you alone can gratify. We may not part until you promise to comply with my requisition. I am alone, and miserable; man will no associate with me, but one as deformed and as horrible as I would no deny herself with me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects. This being you will create.”

Wale’s film also takes the ideas of the Monster’s innocent nature, this is where we have the scene with the small child and the lake. Unlike Shelley’s mature thinking Monster, Wale’s creates his version as one that resembles closely a mentally challenged adult. The Monster wasn’t evil, he just did not have the proper abilities to reason out his situation, his reactions to things were reasonable under this line of thinking. In the original trailer the announcer states the monster preys on young children against a clip of the monster holding hands with the girl. With the actual scene of the child and Monster throwing the flowers in the lake, one could see how the monster, lacking normal thought, could think the girl would float or at least swim.

All scenes of the Monsters humanization from the novel were removed from the film’s production. The Omission obviously created a more fierce monster, but also perchance created a more sympathetic version. His actions at the end of the novel, the killing of Victor’s beloved Elizabeth, were the actions of a man with reason. In contrast, the movie Monster does observe some actions of human life, but the majority of it is not good. In the openings of his life he is tortured by Fritz, the little man taunting him with fire when being unprovoked. The film version is ignorant of his actions because he does not have a working understanding of what life is, all he has known is pain and misery and so all he knows how to do is cause pain and misery. The novel’s version knows empathy, and indeed feels some toward the doctor as in the final chapters we see the Monster with his arms around the coffin of Frankenstein, mourning the death of his father as a son would despite the terrible relationship.

In the years following its release, the story Frankenstein and his Monster Frankenstein has been viewed as a source of fright and horror. With its themes of creating life from death, scenes of piecing together body parts from those stolen in cemeteries, and the awe inspiring scene in which the crazy doctor Frankenstein welcomes his new creation into the world would only serve as reason to. However, between the scenes of birth and death of the monster, we view scenes of the monster’s urge to forge friendships, his urge to find love and companionship. We see not a Monster, but a Man, trying to cope with what life has given