Reblog If

Reblog if

A) you're panromantic

B) you like cats

C) you wish you were a dragon

D) you're hanging on by a thred

But don't say which

Mary shelly Frankenstein should be considered its own work from the movie

The movie adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has too many differences not to be considered its own work. There are many differences between the movie and the book, including major plot points not being explained and missing characters, there is also no preface. The preface gives an intro to the characters and the book's plot without it the reason for why Victor is after the monster is lost.

This is a quote from Frankenstein to Walton, who just found him out in the Arctic; they were looking for a trade route and stumbled upon him. “You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been.”(Shelly pg. 13)

{preface claim} Arguably, Walton is one of the most important parts of the story, offering the intro and how we first see Victor as a person and a creator. All of this leads into the story and how it is set up. In the movie, there isn’t a single explanation of what is going on or any kind of introduction at all; it opens with them watching a funeral (like creeps, I might add) and snatching the After the letters and meeting Walton, Victor starts to tell his story “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this, I had deprived myself of rest and health." (Shelly pg.35)

This quote shows how ambitious Victor is. In the movie, however, it doesn’t explain why he makes his monster or show just how much effort he puts into it. With no explanation, there can be no characterization of Victor or any humanity applied to his reasons. After making his monster he abandons the Monster almost immediately “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room” (Shelly pg. 35) this quote shows the man's blatant disgust with the work he created; this is something that the movie both represents and dose so unwell in the movie while it is there in the way “Henry” (they changed his name from Victor for some odd reason) speaks and acts but it comes off more as fear that a creator has for his creation this is a difference form the book to the movie. In the book, it is more disgust and horror at himself and the monster than the act itself and he deeply regrets it, However, in the movie it is fear of the monster and the act not at himself and what he has done.

There are also other characters who either have changed or simply do not exist altogether in the movie that should have been there. A while later after the monster has run away Victor gets a letter from his father that his brother is dead (I say a while because it is not explicitly stated). “About five in the morning I discovered my lovely boy, whom the night before I had seen blooming and active in health, stretched on the grass livid and motionless: the print of the murder’s finger was on his neck” (Shelly pg. 47) the murder of his brother is what spurs victor into going back to Geneva and finding the monster he says “the filthy daemon to whom I had given life. What did he do there? Could he be the murderer of my brother? No sooner had the imagination, than I became convinced of its truth” (Shelly pg.50)

Seeing the monster at his brother's Funeral spurs him to go after the monster to find him. This character's death is Victor's motivation to find the monster and talk with him or kill him to find out what he wanted or why he murdered Victor's brother. But in the movie, his brother doesn’t exist, so he loses that motivation that would normally be there.

The last and probably most important thing that is different from the book to the movie is that the monster is completely different in both the book and the film. Shortly after Victor finds the monster begins to tell his story “I began also to observe, with greater accuracy, the forms that surrounded me, and to perceive the boundaries of the radiant roof of light which canopied me.” (Shelly pg.72). This shows that after a while of getting his senses in order he started to understand what was going on around him and it shows about the same level of intelligence as in the film if not slightly higher. Later he tells Victor of his ability to read. “As I read, however, I applied much personality to my own feelings and condition.”(Shelly 91)

This quote is from the monster it shows how he can read and learn like the rest of us it humanizes him in the eyes of the reader and shows how he has a brain and feelings and the ability to comprehend what is going on around him at any given moment in the movie there is no humanization of the monster that he is simply a monster and that is all he kills with no reason and has no desire but to kill and hurt when the beast in the book just wanted to belong somewhere anywhere because all he had been met with was violence. By the end of the book the monster dies which is the same as in the movie. The two pieces of media are just simply too different there are missing characters and a preface and no explanation of the integral plot points and everything in the film seems to be done for no reason or the reason it is done has been changed. In conclusion, the film and the book are simply too different to not be considered their own separate works due to the lack of character explanations and backstory to the plot they should be considered different works.