Changes in chracterization ultimatley change Shelley's vision

2008-04-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

In Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 film adaption of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein many liberties were taken with the storyline on many levels. As in most film adaptations this is very common because it is not always feasible to include every detail from a book nor is it possible to remain 100 percent true to a story. Changes in storyline are made for a variety of reasons but are most commonly due to the inherent differences in medium and the limitations imposed by those differences. Changes are often made for clarity but more commonly for time and sometimes there is no way around making adjustments or modifications. In the case of Branagh’s version of Frankenstein I think some of the changes were made for the sake of time or clarity, however some were made to deliberately alter the story. Perhaps to pay homage to other film adaptations of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or perhaps to streamline the story to create a new modern version of a classic horror story; no matter the reasoning behind the changes, the more drastic alterations definitely affected the characterizations and ultimately Mary Shelley’s artistic vision.
The differences between Shelley’s book and Branagh’s film range from small yet noticeable changes that had little or no affect and big drastic changes that completely changed the overall story. A good example of a small change was the introduction of Henry Clereval at Ingolstad in the movie instead of introducing him in Victor’s youth as in the book. This change was serves as a good example of a change that was likely made out of necessity. Because the movie spent little time on Victor’s childhood and giving the viewer only a brief impression of Victor’s early years there was probably no opportunity to introduce Henry at this point in the story. This change was not damaging to the story however because for the most part it didn’t have a major affect on the plot nor did it affect the mood, tone, or characterizations. There were many other small changes like this throughout the movie that while clearly different didn’t have huge impacts on the story or Shelley’s artistic vision.
Other differences in this category include the movie showing how Victor endowed his creation with life when the book did not explain this, Professor Waldman being killed in the movie and not in the book, Waldman’s brain being used for the creation of Victor’s being and the book not mentioning this. There were many other small changes such as these but they had little affect because most of them really weren’t changes, but rather additions that the book either did not mention or left to the reader’s imagination. The bigger differences however include some changes that greatly impacted the storyline and in my opinion greatly changed the characterizations of the story and in some ways altered Mary Shelley’s artistic vision.
The first of these big changes is the creation of the second monster. In the book when Victor first agrees to create the monster a bride and then later reasoned to abandon the pursuit and finally face his mistakes, it greatly affected my view of Victor. While it didn’t completely redeem Victor, it did significantly reshape my harsh view of him. Eliminating this from the storyline and replacing it with Victor not only creating a second creation, but using Elizabeth and Justine’s remains to do it completely changes Victor’s character making him seem more reckless than I think Shelley wanted him to seem at this point in the story. It seemed to me that Shelley wanted the reader to understand that Victor realized the error of his ways just too late to save himself and his family, and this change makes it seem as if he never came to that realization.
Another extreme change made in the movie was Walton’s invitation to the monster to join him on the ship in the end. In my opinion this undermines one of the most important elements in the story, the monster’s rejection by mankind. In the book the monster isn’t tolerated or accepted at all by a single person. This rejection is of course what creates his fury and his obsession with retaliating against Victor for putting him in a position where he cannot be loved, and retaliating against mankind for rejecting him. While I realize it could be construed and assumed that in the book it is more that Victor, his creator and father cannot accept him and the monster is more upset about that than being rejected by all of mankind, but to me it seemed like the book implied that the monster was upset about both because there was no chance he could ever be accepted by anyone. Walton’s actions in the end of the movie weaken the element I feel like is the basis for the story, the monster’s hopeless situation.
These two changes alone significantly change the characterizations and collectively change Shelley’s vision. I believe it would have been possible to make a film adaption that was more accurate to the vision of the original story by leaving out the part where Victor reincarnates Elizabeth and where Walton invites the monster onto the ship and showing Victor’s triumphant moment when he decides he will not comply with the monsters demands. However, while I think the changes made in the movie do change the artistic vision Shelley achieved in her novel, I don’t think they are detrimental to the point that her vision is completely lost. In fact these changes aside the movie does an excellent job of capturing much of the original story, specifically the mood and tone that it so well known for.

Welcome

2008-03-20T13:02:00.001-07:00

Welcome to my blog!

Infinite Wisdom

Changes in chracterization ultimatley change Shelley's vision

Welcome