Frankenstein's monster
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| Frankenstein's Monster | |
|---|---|
| Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus character | |
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| Created by | Mary Shelley |
| Portrayed by | Charles Ogle, Boris Karloff, Hans Conried, Peter Boyle, Robert De Niro and others |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | "The Monster", "The Creature", "The Wretch", "The Devil" and others |
| Gender | male |
| Family | None |
| Relatives | Victor Frankenstein (creator) |
Frankenstein's monster (or Frankenstein's creature, often incorrectly referred to as Frankenstein) is a character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. In the novel, the creature has no name—a symbol of his parentlessness and lack of human sense of self and identity. He does call himself, when speaking to his creator, Victor Frankenstein, the "Adam of your labours". He is also variously referred to as a "creature," "fiend," "the dæmon," "wretch," "devil," "thing," "being," and "ogre" in the novel.[1]
The monster's namelessness became part of the stage tradition as Mary Shelley's story was adapted into serious and comic plays in London, Paris, and France during the decades after the novel's first appearance. Mary Shelley herself attended a performance of Presumption, the first successful stage adaptation of her novel. "The play bill amused me extremely, for in the list of dramatic personae came, _______ by Mr T. Cooke,” she wrote her friend Leigh Hunt. "This nameless mode of naming the unnameable is rather good."[2]
The name of the creator—Frankenstein—soon came to be used to name the creation. That happened within the first decade after the novel was published, but it became cast in concrete after the story was popularized in the famous 1930s Universal film series starring Boris Karloff. The film was based largely on a play by Peggy Webling, performed in London in 1927.[3] Webling's Frankenstein actually does give his creature his name. The Universal film treated the Monster's identity in a manner that reflects its resemblance to Mary Shelley's novel: the name of the actor, not the character, is hidden by a question mark. Nevertheless, the creature soon enough became best known in the popular imagination as "Frankenstein".
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[edit] In Shelley's novel
Victor Frankenstein, eldest son of Alphonse and Caroline Beaufort Frankenstein, builds the creature in his laboratory through methods of science (he was a chemistry student at University of Ingolstadt) and alchemy (largely based on the writings of Paracelsus, Albertus Magnus, and Cornelius Agrippa) which are not clearly described. Immediately upon bringing the creature to life, Frankenstein flees from it in horror and disavows his experiment. Abandoned, frightened, and completely unaware of his own identity, the monster wanders through the wilderness searching for someone who would understand and shelter him.
He finds brief solace by hiding out in the woodshed of a remote cottage inhabited by the DeLaceys, a family of peasants. While they are unaware of his existence, he learns every part of their lives by eavesdropping on their conversations and comes to think of them as his own family, calling them his 'protectors'. He develops the power of speech from listening to the family teach their language (French) to an Arabian daughter-in-law, and very quickly becomes eloquent, educated, and well-mannered.
One day, the creature musters the courage to finally make his presence known. He introduces himself to the family's patriarch, their blind father, and experiences kindness and acceptance for the first (and last) time. The blind man can not see his "accursed ugliness" and so treats him as a friend. When the rest of the family returns, they are terrified of the creature and drive him away. Bewildered but still hopeful, he rescues a peasant girl from a river, but is shot in the shoulder by a man who claims her. Heartbroken, the creature renounces all of humankind and swears revenge on his creator, Frankenstein, for bringing him into the world.
The monster searches for Frankenstein relentlessly, guided by some papers which were in the pocket of the clothing he took from his creator's rooms. From these he discovers Frankenstein's whereabouts, but also discovers the horrific details of his own birth. Upon arriving near Frankenstein's village, he meets and tries to befriend a small boy, William, hoping that the innocent youth will not be prejudiced against him. The boy is instantly frightened and threatens to call for his father, Monsieur Frankenstein, revealing to the creature that the boy is related to his enemy. The creature kills him, and, in a further gesture of hatred against humanity, frames for the murder a girl named Justine Mouritz, who is the Frankensteins' maid servant. Justine Moritz is sent to the gallows because Frankenstein decides it would be futile to confess his experiment, as no one would believe him.
Full of grief and despair, Frankenstein retreats to the mountains to find peace within himself. The monster approaches Frankenstein on top of the mountain and insists that Frankenstein hear his plight. Here the monster tells Frankenstein his story and pleads with him to create a female equivalent to himself so that he can hide from humanity with one of his own kind. Frankenstein agrees, but relents just before finishing the mate, aghast at the possibility of creating a race of monsters. Enraged, the creature swears he will destroy everything Frankenstein holds dear. The creature's final words before fleeing are "I will be with you on your wedding night!".
He later fulfills his promise by killing Frankenstein's best friend, Henry Clerval, and his bride, Elizabeth Lavenza. Victor Frankenstein's father, Alphonse, then dies of grief. With nothing left to live for, Frankenstein dedicates his life to hunting his creation down and destroying him. The search ends in the Arctic Circle when Frankenstein loses control of his dogsled and falls into ice-cold water, contracting severe pneumonia. He is rescued by a ship exploring the region and relates the entire story to its captain, Robert Walton, before succumbing to his illness and dying. The creature later boards the ship, intent on taking his final revenge, but is overcome with grief upon finding Frankenstein dead, having lost the only family he has ever known. He pledges to travel to "the Northernmost extremity of the globe" and there burn his body to ashes, so that no man can ever create another like him. He leaps from the boat and is never seen again.
[edit] Appearance
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Frankenstein is 8 feet tall, hideously ugly creation, with translucent yellowish skin that "barely disguised the workings of the vessels and muscles underneath", watery, glowing eyes, flowing black hair, black lips, and white teeth. The monster attempts to integrate himself into human social patterns, but all that see him shun him. This feeling of abandonment compels him to seek revenge against his creator. A picture of the creature appeared in the 1831 edition.
By the time the 1831 edition came out, however, several stage renditions of the story had popularized the monster. Early stage portrayals dressed him in a toga, shaded, along with the monster's skin, a pale blue. Throughout the 19th century, the monster's image remained variable according to the artist.
In 1910, Thomas Edison's silent film company created a 20-minute adaptation of the story of Frankenstein. His monster (played by Charles Ogle) was wrapped in rags, with exaggeratedly pointed feet and fingers, a wild wig of hair, and boldly open eyes and eyebrows painted in lines reminiscent of a kabuki actor.
The most well-known image of Frankenstein's monster in popular culture derives from Boris Karloff's portrayal in the 1931 movie Frankenstein, with makeup created by Jack Pierce from possibly crucial sketched suggestions by director James Whale (credit for Karloff's look remains controversial). Karloff played the monster in two more Universal films, Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein. Lon Chaney, Jr. took over the part from Karloff in The Ghost of Frankenstein, Bela Lugosi portrayed the role in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, and Glenn Strange played the monster in the last three Universal Studios films to feature the character (House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein); but their makeup replicated the iconic look first worn by Karloff. To this day, the image of Karloff's face is owned by his daughter's company, Karloff Enterprises, which is the reason Universal replaced Karloff's features with Glenn Strange's in most of their marketing.
Since Boris Karloff's portrayal, the creature almost always appears as a bulky, startling, grotesque and gruesome figure, about seven feet (213 centimeters) tall, having broad shoulders and back; a hideously stitched and bolted-together body; a bulky flat square-shaped head with boxy forehead; a placid, gaunt, and elongated face; hooded eyelids over deep-set sunken eyes; neck-spikes or bolts to serve as electrical connectors or grotesque electrodes on his neck (by which he is presumed to have been animated); enormous long arms having long, huge, open, corpse-like, scarred hands with black nails; jagged surgical scars around his jaws; and a matted wig of black hair. He wears a dark suit having shortened coat sleeves and thick, heavy boots, causing him to walk with an awkward, stiff-legged, crude gait. This image has been used as the basis for several other fictional characters.
In 1985, Fred Saberhagen wrote an unofficial sequel called The Frankenstein Papers, which followed the events of Shelley's novel.
The 2007 pop-opera, "Frankenstein - A New Musical" returned to the original novel, portraying The Creature (not "The Monster") as an articulate and intelligent being, capable of love and kindness.
As written by Shelley, there are two specific sentences shortly after the monster coming to life valuable for a comparison between appearance and reaction. These include “The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature” and “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.” The immediate thought that comes to mind is that the creator of this new life is having second thoughts immediately upon the realization of what he has done. Accidents are generally accepted as incidents that are visible and affect our lives directly. These are unintended events and usually undesirable. Was Victor’s use of the words, “accidents of life” a reflection that his creation was an accident, an unintended result? Or, is Victor simply stating that the feelings of human nature are more changeable than accidents? This would be great contrast considering accidents can’t be changed. Could Victor be stating that his many hours of labor and careful formation of parts be an accident? Could we do this without careful consideration of the result and yet call it an accident? Perhaps Victor was so enthralled with the act of creating; he failed to consider the potential result both immediately after the act of bringing to life and the unknown future with the creature. Perhaps Victor’s feelings for the monster changed from what this new life could do for him and a life that he would gather enjoyment and advancement to a feeling of disgust simply based on appearance. Appearance was all that Victor took opportunity to experience before immediately concluding an accident had occurred and finding himself troubled. This trouble that filled his mind was of such force, that he rushed to his bedchamber. Bedrooms can be a place of solitude and a feeling of both privacy and protection. For Victor, this was the only place within his laboratory that he felt an escape. He may have escaped the physical presence of the monster but not one of us can escape our mind and its thoughts. He tried and tried to compose his thoughts to a point of sleep. The use of the word “compose” tells that Victor was beginning to understand what he had created and as much as he tried to reason within himself, he could not come to grips. Did he think it would not work? What if it did? What will happen when the monster is seen by others? What will happen to his reputation? The racing thoughts and questions were likely endless. The scientific mind works through all these factors before experimenting, doesn’t it? They must do this to some extent. These two sentences bring this conclusion to mind. Victor has at this time concluded that his creature has come to life in a form somewhat unexpected, was terribly unappealing to the typical human eye, and changed completely Victor’s feelings of human nature, perhaps even his own nature. He had created something viewed as an accident, something terrible, and something that could not be taken back or fixed. These statements and thoughts grab the reader’s attention to what the rest of the book could describe about the interactions that may occur.
As the monster learned more and grew more intelligent he became more aware of his own sorrow and pain. After the creature finds Victor Frankenstein dead aboard a ship it decides to commit suicide to end its human suffering that began when Victor created him. Victor had a crippling effect on the monster because he had a maddening desire for approval and acceptance. Mary Shelley uses the monster Frankenstein to explain the theme of man's cruelty and injustice. Even though the monster is not human it has the intelligence of a human. We can respect its conclusions about humanity, because it has journeyed the average humans life cycle of longing to be a companion to escape loneliness.
[edit] Personality
As depicted by Shelley, the creature is a sensitive, emotional creature whose only aim is to share his life with another sentient being like himself. The novel portrays him as immensely intelligent and literate, having read Paradise Lost, Plutarch's Lives, and The Sorrows of Young Werther. He is driven by despair and loneliness to acts of cruelty and murder.
From the beginning the monster is rejected by everyone he meets. He realizes from the moment of his "birth" that even his own creator could not be around him; this is obvious when Frankenstein says "…one hand was stretched out, seeming to detain me, but I escaped…" (Shelley,43). The creature tries to forget about this and move on, but everyone who sees him run away in fear. Upon seeing his own reflection, he realizes that he too cannot stand to see himself.
In the 1931 film adaptation, the creature is depicted as mute and bestial. In the subsequent sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, the creature learns to speak and discover his feelings, although his intelligence and capacity of speech remains limited. In the second sequel, Son of Frankenstein, the creature is again rendered inarticulate. Following a brain transplant in the third sequel The Ghost of Frankenstein, the Monster speaks with the voice and personality of the brain donor. This was continued after a fashion in the scripting for the fourth sequel Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, but the dialogue was famously excised before release. The Monster was effectively mute in later sequels, though he is heard to refer to Dracula as his 'Master' in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
[edit] In popular culture
The Monster has grown into a representation for science run amok, black-and-white monster movies, and lumbering brutes with their hands stretched out, among other things, and is now one of the most famous movie characters in history, perhaps the most famous and visually memorable of the Universal Monsters. The Monster's face has become very well known, especially for the electrodes sticking out of his neck and the square head. He has starred in numerous films, book spin-offs, games, and has appeared on shirts, laptops and lunchboxes.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Chris Baldick, In Frankenstein's Shadow, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.
- ^ To Leigh Hunt, 9 September [1823]
- ^ Susan Tyler Hitchcock, Frankenstein: A Cultural History, NY: WWNorton, 2007
[edit] External links
- Frankensteinfilms.com - Comprehensive site on Frankenstein movies, comic books, theatre plays and the original novel
- A Monster's Notes - A modern interpretation of Frankenstein's monster
