Physical Setting in Shelley’s Frankenstein Versus the Film
Eudora Welty argues that “place has the most delicate control over character...by confining character it defines it.” This quote cannot be any closer to the truth, as setting is known to be an integral part of any literature piece as it states where and when action is taken. The opening setting is also historical in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as it was originally rooted from her stay in the environs of Geneva in the summer of 1816, where she was challenged to tell the best ghost story. One might say the dwelling at Geneva prompted Shelley to create the characters in mind along with the setting to elevate the plot of her classic horror. Place is not just a location for the characters but the ignition behind the development of characters and steers the plot forward. The setting played a large role in James Whale’s 1931 adaptation that accounts, in large part to the current generation’s perception of Frankenstein to be a scarred and evil monster of dead flesh conjured by an evil scientist in his murky laboratory upon a dark and stormy night. Along with other similar adaptations, differences arise when the source text is changed from one medium to another. One major change is the domination that setting changes from one medium to another. One example is Shelley’s use of gothic literature devices such as the use of leaving a vague description of setting or characters, thus leaving a large part of the description to the imagination of readers. However, the gothic method is loosely used in Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein due to quite large differences in mediums such as the use of filmic images that already endures the description, thus leaving diminutive need for imagination from the audience. Nevertheless, the setting plays important parts in both the source text and Kenneth Branagh’s film as the adaptation tries to adopt near fidelity towards Mary Shelley’s original work. However, when a novel medium is adapted to a film medium, the setting
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