Frankenstein Novel vs the Movie
The Reanimation of Mary Shelley’s Novel
Mary Shelley’s Novel Frankenstein is a cautionary tale of a man named Victor Frankenstein who plays God and creates a monster that goes on to ruin his life. Victor attends the University of Ingolstadt, and is unnaturally gifted in chemistry and others sciences. During his stay at the university he constructs and reanimates an 8 foot tall ugly creature. This creature becomes the bane of Victor’s existence, killing his friends and family and reeking havoc whereever he is found. The original version of Frankenstein was published in 1818. Much later, director Kenneth Branagh attempted to recreate the captivating story in his movie Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Although many of the underlying themes and ideas were kept from the novel, the cinematic version of the monster is rather different than the original in terms of both personality and appearance.
One difference in the two versions being that Mary Shelley gave Frankenstein’s monster the ability to speak fluently and properly. While the creature was missing, it learned how to speak by watching the De Lacey’s through a hole in their wall. They were teaching their daughter to read and write at the time. It was because of the De Lacey’s that Frankenstein’s monster was able to speak, read, and write well. (Shelley) Branagh did not gift the monster with such abilities. The movie’s monster spoke in an uneducated tong. Because the movie did not place the monster in a position to learn formal language the monster never learned. The movie monster spends its time learning in the shadows of society where it picks up little pits and pieces of regular speech. Both monster, those from the movie and the novel, live in a hovel, but they spend their time learning outside of the hovel rather differently.
The motives of the monster are altered by the movie. In the original novel Shelley’s monster was misfortunate, but good intentioned. Its wants are fair and its motives good. It is the
Mary Shelley’s Novel Frankenstein is a cautionary tale of a man named Victor Frankenstein who plays God and creates a monster that goes on to ruin his life. Victor attends the University of Ingolstadt, and is unnaturally gifted in chemistry and others sciences. During his stay at the university he constructs and reanimates an 8 foot tall ugly creature. This creature becomes the bane of Victor’s existence, killing his friends and family and reeking havoc whereever he is found. The original version of Frankenstein was published in 1818. Much later, director Kenneth Branagh attempted to recreate the captivating story in his movie Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Although many of the underlying themes and ideas were kept from the novel, the cinematic version of the monster is rather different than the original in terms of both personality and appearance.
One difference in the two versions being that Mary Shelley gave Frankenstein’s monster the ability to speak fluently and properly. While the creature was missing, it learned how to speak by watching the De Lacey’s through a hole in their wall. They were teaching their daughter to read and write at the time. It was because of the De Lacey’s that Frankenstein’s monster was able to speak, read, and write well. (Shelley) Branagh did not gift the monster with such abilities. The movie’s monster spoke in an uneducated tong. Because the movie did not place the monster in a position to learn formal language the monster never learned. The movie monster spends its time learning in the shadows of society where it picks up little pits and pieces of regular speech. Both monster, those from the movie and the novel, live in a hovel, but they spend their time learning outside of the hovel rather differently.
The motives of the monster are altered by the movie. In the original novel Shelley’s monster was misfortunate, but good intentioned. Its wants are fair and its motives good. It is the
Cited: Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. By Steph Lady and Frank Darabont. Perf. Kenneth Branagh, Niro Robert De, Tom Hulce, Carter Helena Bonham, and Aidan Quinn. TriStar Pictures, 1994. DVD. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Karen Karbiener. Frankenstein. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. Print.