Victor Frankenstein
The story of Frankenstein is one that has been told and retold so many times and in so many ways. When I heard the title of this particular rendition, I was interested by the fact that this more than any other acknowledges that the story is more about the character of Victor than it ever was about the monster.
If you know the original novel, then you know that the story is about a young man whose mother passes away just before he moves to university. Having always been interested with alchemy, science, and the occult, Victor dives into his obsessions and, fed by his depression, he seeks a way to overcome death (but by creating life rather than undoing death). His life is subsequently ruined by his own actions and inability to cope with his mother's death when he creates a monster that despises him for giving it life and leaving it to fend for itself.
Thus when I heard about Victor Frankenstein, I thought the movie might explore more of the main character's emotional development. It did and it didn't.
The movie diverged even farther from the original story than I expected. It's as though this rewrite started with the classic retelling and then made changes to the story from there. The absent mother and the death of his brother are still worked in, but in different ways. His mother's death is never mentioned, but his brother's death is a bigger factor in his work. Feeling the guilt of his brother's death, Victor lives his whole life being reminded of his failures by his less-than-loving father. It is this that pushes him to attempt to create life.
What fuels Victor Frankenstein's work in this film is, yes, loss of a loved one, but it is more. It is an attempt to prove to his father that he is smart, capable, and worthy of the love and praise of his parent.
If you've read my blog on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, then you are familiar with the theme of absent creators and father figures in her novel (likely inspired by her own father and husband, as well as her feelings towards God). Interestingly, this movie still seems to tap into that idea. There are obvious conversations throughout the film about Victor's feelings that God doesn't exist, but perhaps these feelings closely echo Mary Shelley's—perhaps he, too, feels abandoned by God because his father doesn't love him and the person he loved and cared for was taken from him too soon.
Beneath all of the action and the inventive storytelling, it seems that the writers of this movie still managed to maintain the core of the original narrative. The one thing that we really don't see in this movie is the idea of the cycle that repeats itself as father after father, creator after creator, the male parental figures continue to abandon their offspring. Instead, Victor's desperation to be loved and to prove himself to his father is the element that changes the whole story, causing him to create something so dangerous and destructive that he can never let it loose in the world, with or without his love and guidance.
If you know the original novel, then you know that the story is about a young man whose mother passes away just before he moves to university. Having always been interested with alchemy, science, and the occult, Victor dives into his obsessions and, fed by his depression, he seeks a way to overcome death (but by creating life rather than undoing death). His life is subsequently ruined by his own actions and inability to cope with his mother's death when he creates a monster that despises him for giving it life and leaving it to fend for itself.
Thus when I heard about Victor Frankenstein, I thought the movie might explore more of the main character's emotional development. It did and it didn't.
The movie diverged even farther from the original story than I expected. It's as though this rewrite started with the classic retelling and then made changes to the story from there. The absent mother and the death of his brother are still worked in, but in different ways. His mother's death is never mentioned, but his brother's death is a bigger factor in his work. Feeling the guilt of his brother's death, Victor lives his whole life being reminded of his failures by his less-than-loving father. It is this that pushes him to attempt to create life.
What fuels Victor Frankenstein's work in this film is, yes, loss of a loved one, but it is more. It is an attempt to prove to his father that he is smart, capable, and worthy of the love and praise of his parent.
If you've read my blog on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, then you are familiar with the theme of absent creators and father figures in her novel (likely inspired by her own father and husband, as well as her feelings towards God). Interestingly, this movie still seems to tap into that idea. There are obvious conversations throughout the film about Victor's feelings that God doesn't exist, but perhaps these feelings closely echo Mary Shelley's—perhaps he, too, feels abandoned by God because his father doesn't love him and the person he loved and cared for was taken from him too soon.
Beneath all of the action and the inventive storytelling, it seems that the writers of this movie still managed to maintain the core of the original narrative. The one thing that we really don't see in this movie is the idea of the cycle that repeats itself as father after father, creator after creator, the male parental figures continue to abandon their offspring. Instead, Victor's desperation to be loved and to prove himself to his father is the element that changes the whole story, causing him to create something so dangerous and destructive that he can never let it loose in the world, with or without his love and guidance.
Comments
Post a Comment