Mary Shelley’s FrankensteinThe characterization of Victor’s creature, the monster, in the movie although somewhat dramatically different from Mary Shelley’s portrayal in the novel Frankenstein also had its similarities. Shelley’s views of the monster were to make him seem like a human being, while the movie made the monster out to be a hideous creation. The creature’s appearance and personality are two aspects that differ between the novel and movie while his intellectual and tender sides were portrayed the same.
From the novel the creature’s physical appearance is left up to each reader’s imagination. Shelley wrote: His limbs were in proportion, and I had selectedhis features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His 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-whitesockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips (p.56).
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Although I imagined the creature a human being with somewhat distorted features, another reader might view his appearance as a grotesque monster. On the other hand, the movie has shown him as a hideous monster created by a mad scientist. The monster’s appearance was focused on creating life out of dead body parts, sewing the pieces together that left horrid physical scars, and activating him with electricity.
The creature’s personality, or actions toward society, was displayed as being very calm and compassionate in the novel. He made many attempts to converse with society, but society feared and mistreated…
…survive the cold season. The creature also requested a companion of the opposite sex, so he too could feel love from another instead of total rejection. At the very end of the novel and movie the creature was caught grieving over the death of his creator. Even though we are made to think that the creature was cold and destructive, in the end his human emotions prevailed.
The Frankenstein movie focused on outward action scenes rather than emotional themes to make it more popular and entertaining. It also portrayed Victor as a mad scientist engrossed in his desire to create human life. I was very impressed that the movie did keep some of the good qualities that came from the novel. I enjoyed the novel more, because it gave me the opportunity to put my imagination to work instead of having to accept someone else’s interpretation of Mary Shelley’s literary novel.
