Category: Weekly Posts

There is often a disconnect between novels and their subsequent film adaptations. However, the disconnect is unusually large in the case of the appearance of the monster from Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and the films that followed. In the novel, Frankenstein’s monster is described by Frankenstein rather affectionately, even if Frankenstein goes on to be afraid of what he created. The monster himself is described as tall and hideous, with translucent yellowish skin and glowing eyes. He is described as having black hair, black lips, and white teeth. And yet somehow the enduring perception of Frankenstein’s monster is the one of green skin, ghastly stitches, and bolts through the neck. The relationship between the original appearance of Frankenstein’s monster and the contemporary idea of his appearance can be explained by the film’s desire to dehumanize the monster in order to make him a more convincing horror movie antagonist. By making him appear more frightening with the stitches and bolts, it is solidified that he is indeed the force to be stopped in the film. This isn’t to say that the film tries to sell that he is completely evil, for it does touch upon how the monster is misunderstood. But ultimately, by the end of the film it is clear that the monster is just that: a monster, who must be stopped. Throughout the novel we are constantly presented with the different ways in which the monster is misunderstood and we become sympathetic to his plight, especially when he saves a woman’s life and is still not received well. The choice to deviate from Shelley’s original idea of Frankenstein’s monster was done in order to alienate him even more so from our ideas of humanity and make him a convincing horror icon.

When you hear Frankenstein, you think first of a green monster that is a mashup of a human and a robot, fumbling out an inaudible phrase. You do not think of a prodigy scientist behind the monster whose true name is Victor Frankenstein. Even though modern adoption of The Modern Prometheus do capture the hideousness of the monster that is created, all seem to focus on the scare factor behind the monster and never focus on the humanity and genius that lies within (He teaches in self how to read, write and talk in a matter of days. It takes humans on average seven years to do all three with help.) But having people repeatedly call the creation Frankenstein, may have more merit than what we give the common mistake. The creation was made after Victor’s mother dies and he goes off to school therefore isolating himself from the world and more specifically his family. Some may call this common symptoms of depression. Since the creation was made during this time, it could be inferred that the creature may be an internal reflection come to life of the demons and the creature’s grotesque may be due to Victor’s feelings and fascination with death. Further that point, it can be said that people run from the creation because of the negative stigma that surrounded mental  illness in the 1810s.  Read more

When most people think of Frankenstein, they think of the big clunky, green monster with bolts coming out of the side of it’s head. Frankenstein has become this green monster instead of the doctor himself. Nobody ever dresses up as doctor Frankenstein for Halloween. Instead, they dress up in the most tacky, cheesy costume available with a green body, and walk with “zombie arms.” Although it is likely to gain popularity, the media’s idea of Frankenstein is completely different from the way that author Mary Shelley imagined it. Frankenstein, first of all, is the name of the doctor who creates the monster, who is never actually given a name in the novel. Second, the monster is not green. I don’t know who’s adaptation led to the conclusion that the monster was green. The media portrays Frankenstein in a completely different light in order to make money or gain popularity in movies such as “Young Frankenstein” starring the late actor Gene Wilder. As long as you have a popular star and a well known plot, that’s all you need to have a quick money-making production.

I agree with Shelley in saying that it’s not a ghost story. Spooky, yes, but not a ghost story. “Ghost story” has a certain connotation as well. Most people think “ghost story” and the image of a dark cabin in the woods and someone telling a story with solely a flashlight. Frankenstein is obviously not a ghost story but still can bring the chills to any reader who decides to pick up the novel.

Most movies and popular depictions of Frankenstein portray the creature as a monster named Frankenstein with green skin, a penguin walk,and hands outstretched, the poster-boy of Halloween. However, in Mary Shelley’s novel, the creature is never described as such, he is described as more human, with yellow, not green, skin, pearly white teeth, and lustrous black tresses, and his name is not actually Frankenstein, that’s the name of his creator. Shelley had never intended to write a ghost story, or even a simple scary story with occasional scares and frights. I feel, that Shelley wanted us to see ourselves as the characters, make us realize that there could be a “monster” among us, and that we have the power to turn someone evil, based on our own selfish desires. The creation wasn’t inherently good or evil when he was “born,” but he was raised in such a way that it made it him resort to “creating” destruction. This may even possibly be a commentary on raising children. Shelley could be comparing the creature to a child, not knowing the consequences of his actions, and not entirely responsible for them either. This novel shows that we don’t know what effect we have on others until we have already influenced them, and we often don’t realize the power we have, and this is the aspect of the novel that affects me the most. 

Throughout Frankenstein the monster is never named Frankenstein like people describe him in modern horror entertainment. In the novel, Frankenstein is actually the name of the monsters creator. Victor Frankenstein studied about how the body is made and how it decays in order to create his own living being. He successfully does this which shocks me the most. Frankenstein uses the parts of dead corpuses that he collected himself and put together parts of different human beings to create a monster. The modern Frankenstein is perceived as a green skinned  being with a box head and nails through his neck but Shelly’s version is extremely different. He is described to have yellow eyes and skin, black hair and lips, and bright white teeth. They are similar in that they both lack a life like appearance and a sort of hideous look to them. Another thing that shocks me is how violent the monster is when he kills Victor’s brother. He was so full of rage from Victor that when he heard the name Frankenstein we snapped and killed him. The monster had hated Victor for making him so hideous. He felt so neglected because no one would accept him for a person because of his appearance and they would drive him out of towns.

Based on the 20^th/21^st adaptations of Frankenstein, one might originally view Frankenstein as some type of horror or ghost story. Before reading the novel, I had that same 20th/21st-century view of a large green monster who terrorizes local villages. Originally, I would have thought that Mary Shelley wrote this novel as some type of horror story; that her intention was to create some sort of “legend,” that might be shared around a campfire. However, Shelley objected otherwise. She stated that Frankenstein was “exempt from the disadvantages of a mere tale of specters or enchantment.” After reading the first half of the novel, I seem to understand what her point was. Most ghost stories have the intention of scaring the reader in  a more supernatural or fictional way. The first couple of things that come to my mind when I think of a “ghost” story is anything along the lines of monsters, psychotic murderers in the woods, clowns or literal ghost. Once again, my original thought of Frankenstein fits into this category. I feel that Shelley’s intention was much more than that. Shelley wanted to take a look inside the human mind. Her novel deals with concepts such as isolation and guilt. I see this mostly because the novel, at least the first half, is told in Dr. Frankenstein’s point of view and shows much more of his character than the actual creature’s character. Sure the monster does commit murder and often cannot control his actions, but the scariest part is how deep Shelley goes into human nature/acceptance. How a brilliant man, such a Dr. Frankenstein, can feel little/no responsibility for his action because he is afraid he will be viewed as a crazy man.  It shows how society can affect people’s decision and actions. Frankenstein even let an innocent woman take the blame for his brother’s death based solely on this fear. He does feel some guilt towards the whole situation, but ultimately it is an insignificant amount considering he takes no action. Shelley might have viewed this as being more or better than a ghost story because it deals with true life horrors, instead of make believe ones.

Mary Shelley insists that her novel, “Frankenstein”  is “exempt from the disadvantages of a mere tale of spectres or enchantment.” Since it is not a ghost story, I believe that this novel goes far beyond a novel written to give the reader the chills and serves a greater purpose. In this novel Shelley writes with the intention of speaking about major topics like companionship, scientific discovery and the importance of taking responsibility. She addresses the negative consequences that accompany solitude and points out the fact that everyone needs affection. What I find most terrifying or haunting about the novel is that these ideas can and are meant to be compared to the reader’s everyday life. Shelley takes this crazy story and ties in major ideas that speak to what actually occurs between human beings. It is the fact that there are many people like Victor who push aside their moral values for their own personal gain which scares me.Victor is so self oriented that he ignores all of the responsibilities that are tied with becoming a “parent”  in order to focus on himself. Shelley should feel like she has written something better than a ghost story because rather than writing this novel for the purpose of a good scare she analyzes and critiques society’s selfish tendencies. She emphasizes the need for strong parental support and digs into the idea of loneliness. Shelley goes way beyond what a horror story would provide and allows the reader to think about how this monster and its creator could actually relate to their own life.

Shelley’s description of the monster was the first thing that surprised me because it is portrayed as having, “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion, and straight black lips.” Shelley described the monster at length but the adaptations of the character are very different to the description she gave. This bothered me so I looked it up and found that in the early days of film green makeup was used to give the monster the right shade of “dead grey” when they filmed in black and white. I do not know how accurate that is though. Also Frankenstein is the monster in the movie not the creator had someone not told me that before it probably would have messed me up a bit.