Frankenstein By Mary Shelley: Film Analysis

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The original Frankenstein novel by Mary Shelley was a cautionary tale of the dangers of science and the pursuit of knowledge. Kenneth Branagh’s film does a good job at capturing these two major themes through the evil misdeeds of the Creature that Victor Frankenstein creates. After the Creature escapes from Viktor’s laboratory, he flees into the nearby woods. Later, he becomes bitter towards his creator and in his need for vengeance kills Victor's brother William and, indirectly, kills Justine in the process. When the Creature finally meets Viktor, he forces him to consider these deaths as consequences of his own actions in creating the Creature. These themes are effectively represented by the film as they were in the book and provoke much of the same questions as Mary Shelley intended.
The theme of secrecy, however, seems to have been rarely considered for most of the film, and completely discarded for the rest. Frankenstein’s confidential policy regarding his monster is an important part of Shelley's original novel. Viktor being the only person to know of the monster’s existence was a large contributor to …show more content…
loneliness. The worst offenders of this are the scenes surrounding Viktor’s short-lived process of creating another monster for the Creature to have as a companion. Rather than being miles from home in a different country and separated from his friends, he is right at home in his attic. This change in setting reduces the emotional impact of what is supposed to be a very impactful time. Comparatively, the loneliness of the Creature is also devalued. Very little occurs to make the Creature become so angered towards his creator. By erroneously leaving out any scenes of the Creature being spurned by humanity other than his experience with the DeLaceys, the Creature’s actions seem unjustifiable and the film leaves no room for discussion on the age old question, “Who’s the real
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