Essay about A Comparison of Frankenstein 1994 to Frankenstein 1957

Society is inevitable. It will always be there as a pleasure and a burden. Society puts labels on everything such as good or bad, rich or poor, normal or aberrant. Although some of these stamps are accurate, most are misconceptions. In Mary Shelley's, Frankenstein, this act of erring by society is extremely evident. Two of the most inaccurate assumptions of society revolve around the central characters, Dr. Frankenstein and the monster. Society's labels for these two extremely different characters are on the exact opposite side of the scale of what they truly are. Dr. Frankenstein is more of a monster while the monster is more humane.

Creepy settings, monsters, victims, murders, weapons,eerie vibes, and creepy music are what define the horror movie genre. Two films that belong to this category are Frankenstein directed by James Whale 1931 and Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock 1960. They both properly represent the horror genre because they follow it’s characteristics. These two movies compare and contrast in their settings, characters, plot, iconography, mood, and cinematic style.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are two horrific tales of science gone terribly wrong. Shelley?s novel eloquently tells the story of a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who creates a living monster out of decomposed body parts, while Stevenson?s novel describes the account of one, Henry Jekyll, who creates a potion to bring out the pure evil side to himself. Although the two scientists differ in their initial response and action to their creations, there are strong similarities between their raging curiosity to surpass human limitation, as well as their lack of responsibility concerning their actions. These similarities raise an

Frankenstein and Beowulf, many people see them both as great characters and role models of how we should follow. But I’m here to show you that only one of these two characters, fictional, or not, is the true responsible adult in the two stories. When people think of an adult, they picture a human that has much experience living life and being mature in what they say and do, so just like described, Victor Frankenstein and Beowulf should be considered responsible right? False, the only one of those two who even come remotely close to a good candidate is Beowulf due to his recognition of his duty to his country and people, but also his ability to think through what he is doing while considering the possible consequences. Victor is immature due to his insufficient ability to take care of his responsibility and Beowulf is the definition of mature through all the responsibility that he handled and eventually handed off.

Frankenstein has become a symbol in contemporary society. Upon hearing the name, one might imagine a tall, muscular green man with short black hair, a flat head, and two bolts pierced on both sides of his neck. Although that is the Frankenstein present now, the modern Frankenstein is only an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s original creature. Shelley’s Frankenstein, 1818, is a gothic novel in which she tells the tale of a man creating life. This creation of Victor Frankenstein’s monster eventually hurt the people he held dear. Following the popularity of the book, James Whale directed Frankenstein, in 1931, which started the movement of Frankenstein’s contemporary image. While in comparison to the novel’s questionable identity of the monster,

Frankenstein Vs. The Monster At this point in the novel, I sympathize with the monster even though he has become a terrible person. As his creator, Victor Frankenstein should have cared for the monster despite his disgusting appearance. Frankenstein failed to provide the monster with any type of parental guidance and instead ran away from his responsibilities.

creature received from Frankenstein and the other people around him. I often wonder how things

Although Mary Shelley and Julia Alvarez are very different authors, and Frankenstein and In the Time of the Butterflies are very different books, there are still similar themes between the two fictional stories. Some common themes are the power of words, murder, family relationships, and misused power. Additionally, there is a similar style of writing that mixes the narrative voices used to tell the stories. Some parts of the stories are first person narratives and some are second-hand retelling. The mix of voices telling the two stories makes both of them more interesting.

A Comparison of Film and Novel Versions of Frankenstein The nature of horror stories gives the reader/audience a feeling of intense fear, shock or disgust. It creates an atmosphere of tension for the reader/audience. Horror stories are designed to entertain people by causing enjoyable feelings of horror.

“Horror and science fiction tend to present radically opposite interpretations of what may look like comparable situations.” (Kawin, 1981.) Bruce Kawin helps the reader to understand how a story in the genre of science fiction could be adapted, or bastardized if you like, into a horror. This is similar to the film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Both “Frankenstein” (1931) and “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935) portrayed characters and events differently than Shelley would have desired. Her novel had many deeper implications than the movie portrayed.

Relationship Between Frankenstein and the Creature Gothic novels are written mainly to strike fear in their readers; they also served to show the dark side of human nature. Nature is used often to create atmosphere. It predicts forthcoming events (e.g. the rainstorm on Victor’s wedding night foretells something evil is about to occur).

There are several movies based off Mary Shelly’s science fiction novel Frankenstein. Two of these movies include: the 1931 adaptation of Frankenstein, and the 1994 adaptation titled Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Though both movies are based off the same book, like many others, they vary from both each other and the movie. Frankenstein is a sort science fiction novel written by Mary Shelley in 1818. This novel has an interesting plot of a man versus his creature, but also, a man versus himself.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray both have a creator and a monster; however, the books contain two different opinions of what it means to be monstrous, in which Henry realizes his power over Dorian and Frankenstein abandons his creation. These creations had no choice in the way they turned out because they were made and molded by their creators, which in turn makes the creators that gave them life the real monsters. The works of Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Gray give clear warnings to a creator foretelling that if they fail to be responsible in providing their own creation with an appropriate upbringing, The Creation will fail and thus turn into a monster.

Percy Shelley uses ideas or nature or beauty to describe the human mind. Shelley compares humans and things that we experience to nature by showing the similarities. At times his poems seem very dreamlike and very thoughtful. Shelley is different from the earlier Romantic poets because at times his poems seem to get a little dark and his not scared to talk about death. He really bounders on the idea of death and life. Like his weighing their value and he at times make death sound beautiful.

In short, large ideas with much discussion at the occasional hindrance of the plot. In long my opinion is this, I liked the ideas and their discussion throughout the book, and it’s probably these and the innovative use of science fiction and horror for the time is likely what contributed to it being considered a classic. However, the book is not flawless. There were long segments of the book I found to be unengaging. I feel as though the protagonist is not interesting enough to hold sections of the book on his own, and as above, the ideas of the book do not meld seamlessly with the plot and are at points quite jarring.