An Analysis of Frankenstein

In this essay I will be analysing the film adaptation of Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' directed by Kenneth Brannagh. Frankenstein was originally written in 1818 and wasn't greeted as a wholesome moral condemnation of a proud man playing 'god'. When is was first reviewed by the Edinburgh magazine, their reviewer said it was 'bordering too closely on impiety. ' In 1823 the first adaptation of the popular book was made into a theatrical performance of which Mary Shelley herself attended and was said to be amused by the stage-effects but did not think very highly of Peake's version of her story.

Mary did release a Revised Version of her story in 1831. The first full film version was made in 1931, which Boris Karloff stared, as the monster. The film was critically acclaimed and is still well known to this day as a classic. In the newest version of the book titled 'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein'. The director wanted to give the audience the impression that the monster could think like a normal person with reason and logic behind its thoughts.

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He also wanted to show that the monster had a 'soul' and that it could love, hate a feel sad for itself and others e.

g. the family that he stayed with without their knowledge and also helped during the winter when they couldn't harvest their crops. The main idea of the film is to show the audience that the monster is more than just a monster that tries to put fear in other peoples hearts, and only kills to show his creator that he only wants someone to show affection to and to him in return.

Another main point of the film is to show people what can come of creations that aren't truly thought through, and that aren't dealt with in the correct way if they do become out of control.

There are many scenes, which have great importance in the film and show different aspects of the characters in the film itself. During the creation scene the music is very tense, fast and loud. The camera shots are very fast and close to Victor, the camera is also always following him up and down his laboratory. As the monster comes to life, the camera is kept at a distance showing all of the electricity flowing around the room. As victor believes that he has failed, the creature comes to life with a bang to its 'womb'.

Victor then proceeds to open the 'womb' to let the monster out into the open, he realises that the monster is baby-like and hideous to behold. This shows us that Victor has begun to acknowledge that he has made a grave mistake. He then proceeds to his room, when the monster has been hung up by chains, and when he awakens in the morning the monster has learnt to walk and has found his creator, they then both run around the lab, with Victor throwing objects at his creation in disgust. Victor then manages to get away, to only come back with an axe.

At this point in the film there is no music and all of the camera shots are based on Victor. But as he returns the creature has fled into the town. Another major scene is the scene when the family that the monster comes to love and trust without their knowledge, are being thrown out by their landlord, this then makes the monster kill for the first time in the film. When the rest of the family return to see the monster talking to the blind old man, they become very scared and then drive the monster out, without listening to the old man who is trying to tell them that the monster saved him and the rest of the family.

When the family has gone the monster comes back with a flower, to try and apologise for anything that he might have done wrong, but he returns to find that they have gone. The music at this point in the film becomes very loud and violent. The monster then rushes into the pig sty that he has been living in for the past months to read Victors journal, to find what he had written about his monster and that it should be destroyed and that nothing like this should ever happen again.

At this point the camera shot zooms straight into the monsters face as he begins to say that he will kill Victor Frankenstein. The monster then proceeds to burn down the house that his family lived in. This is a main point in the film because it shows that the monster can care and also hate like most humans, this is showing that he has a 'soul'. The next main scene is the scene after the monster has killed Victor's new Elizabeth during their wedding night. Victor then takes his dead wife's body back to his lab to create another monster, which will be his wife.

The monster meets victor there once the creation scene is complete. The monster wants this to be his wife, but Victor refuses to give his 'new' bride up to his mistake. So the monster makes the new Elizabeth chose, but she fills herself and sets the house on fire. During this scene the music is very tense and quite. But when she sets herself on fire, it becomes loud and the cameras pull out to show all of the damage that is happening to the house as she runs around.

Victor tries to run after his wife to stop her, but she jumps off the stair case, to complete her death. The story of Frankenstein is a story that is meant to tell people that experiments like Victor's should not be carried out and that they should be left alone for the good of humanity. Unfortunately the moral of this story has been lost through out the years in different versions of the book, e. g. the famous 1930s version. I believe that the best version of the book to date is that of which I am writing about in this analysis.