Young Frankenstein is a film released in 1974 as a parody to Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. This film was directed by Mel Brooks and stared Gene Wilder as the main character, Dr. Fredrick Frankenstein. Dr. Fredrick Frankenstein is the grandson to famous mad scientist Victor Frankenstein, but tries to distance himself from being related to him. Fredrick Frankenstein then gets word that he has inherited his family’s estate in Transylvania. When he arrives there, Fredrick discovers his grandfather’s laboratory and private journals. After reading his grandfather’s journals, Fredrick decides to resume these experiments and bring the dead back to life.
Much like Victor in Mary Shelly’s novel, Fredrick is successful in bringing a creature to life. Fredrick does this through electrical charges during a lightning storm. One key difference between this parody and novel is the reactions to bringing the creature to life. In Mary Shelly’s novel, Victor says “unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.” Once Victor bring the creature to life he is immediately overcome with emotions and cannot comprehend that his experiment has actually worked. Whereas in Young Frankenstein, Fredrick does not think his experiment has worked and leaves the creature strapped to the table. It is during dinner when Fredrick and the other characters hear moaning (that is not coming from them) that they discover the experiment was a success.
The creature in Mary Shelly’s novel is immediately abandoned and left to face the world alone. This abandonment by his father, Victor, causes the creature to resent him and want to take everything he loves away from him. However, in this film Fredrick attempts to teach his creation and is proud of what he has accomplished. Both creatures experience human feelings and come to realize that they are different from humans. They believe society will always reject them and therefore are unloved. But, in the case of the creature in Young Frankenstein Fredrick explains to the creature that he loves him and thinks he is beautiful. Instead of keeping him a secret, like in the novel, Fredrick wants to show him off to society and puts on a show with the creature. This does not go as planned, because society does not accept the creature. Since Fredrick loves his creature so much that his is willing to risk his own life for the creature.
At the end of the film, Fredrick transfers some of his own brain to the creature. This allows the creature to be accepted into society and live in peace. One major similarity both the novel and the film have is the key character Elizabeth. But, Elizabeth does not have the same brutal murder as she does in the novel. In Young Frankenstein, the now scholarly creature and Elizabeth fall in love and end up getting married.