Frankenstein Text Versus Film

In the text by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein seems horrified of his own creation. He sparks life into his creation “with an anxiety that almost amounted to agony”. This gives the reader the impression that he was so involved in his work that it was actually bad for his own health . Immediately after making his creature , Frankenstein claims that his emotions ran wild and his success turned out to be a “catastrophe” . Overall his tone is quite negative in Mary Shelley’s text. He says ” Now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished , and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart .” He continues on to say that he immediately rushes out of the lab and goes to his bed, unable to sleep due to his anxiety. The theatrical film adaptation from 1994 shows a doctor Frankenstein with alot of anxiety. However , the anxiety is coming from the Doctor’s excitement as he runs around his lab trying to synthesize his human being rather than guilt. This 1994 film was nothing like the text. Frankenstein was shirtless,loud, and had long hair. The theatrics were also grand because he used electric eels as his source of electricity which is absolutely ludicrous. Surely someone who was working for two years on an experiment would have come up with a simpler and more direct source of energy . The theatrics made the entire scene feel more comedic or light hearted . The 1931 film adaptation seems much more dark and displays a maniacal doctor Frankenstein. In this adaptation Frankenstein actually has a lab coat which relates to the text more . However this time he is surrounded by three spectators which is very inconsistent with Mary Shelley’s text. Frankenstein was supposed to be working alone and hiding his monster , not showing it off . To add to this egotistical agenda, the Frankenstein in the 1931 adaption yells out “now I know how it feels to be god”. Instead of horror, he displays pride and absolute excitement at his success . According to the text , Frankenstein was supposed to feel shame from his own experiment not hubris. The only similarity noted was the setting – a lab on a rainy night . Another similarity was the way the monster awoke -with convulsions . Overall , the film adaptation may have been very different because they show Frankensteins reactions at the exact time of his creation success . Meanwhile Shelley’s text displays Frankenstein’s emotions after the fact as he recants his story to Walton.