In honor of the Halloween season, I wanted to put together a comprehensive overview of one of the most well-known stories in Gothic and Cinematic fiction: Frankenstein.

While you might think you know everything, based on what you’ve seen in movies and TV, or just heard about from other sources, you’ve barely even scratched the surface (or you just don’t care). There’s much more to this story than a mad scientist and his undead monster, the qualities that made the story so compelling in the first place were dumbed down to make a now generic monster movie that, at the time, sold like gangbusters. In this post, I’m going to explore those hidden layers and show you what the story of Frankenstein is really about.

Now, I haven’t yet read the book, or even watched the classic film, so everything I say might be a little unfounded, arbitrary even, but I did enough digging to recognize the dichotomy between the original story itself and the Hollywood version imbedded in mainstream pop-culture.

Bear in mind that when I say Frankenstein, I’m referring to the story in general, not specifically the monster or the man. I know that the two get mixed up, or at least the name is used interchangeably between the two.

I’m going to cover the history of this story in as much detail as I can, starting from its inception up to the present day. Which, as far as I know, can’t be done without knowing the mastermind behind this monstrosity: Mary Shelley.

A LIFE UNHEARD OF…

The 18th century was a time of significant revolutions for us as a society. Science was blossoming into what we know it to be now, religion was drastically changing, and everyone wanted in on the “New World” action (that New World would end up becoming our own United States of America). You might be more familiar with this old world from what you’ve seen in media, specifically Pirates of The Caribbean, as it is the setting for all four movies. Many people feel disconnected from this time because of how different it is from our modern world, which, really, goes to show how much we’ve advanced since then. But it was during this time that art and science were quickly becoming what we know them to be now.

In the decade of the 1790s, the Industrial Revolution was in its heyday, Anti-Imperialists were calling for political change and the invention of a revolutionary new product that would forever change the course of history: The Top-Hat. In August of 1797, not long after Napoleon’s conquest of Venice; Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born to William Godwin, a philosopher, and Mary Wollstonecraft, a revered feminist. It’d be easy to say that little Mary led a distinguished and privileged life with her mom and dad, maybe a difficult relationship with her dad, but not bad overall. The day she was born, however, she was already bound for a sad life with her mother passing away not long after her birth, leaving her to grow up with her father and half-sister Fanny Imlay, Wollstonecraft’s daughter that she had with a French Revolution soldier. At the time, Mary’s father was a very well-known political anarchist/philosopher with some interesting theories. There’s nothing to suggest that he was difficult or abusive toward his daughter, in fact, they adored each other. Mary’s father growing up, besides her own reading and writing, was the center of her affections and their appreciation for each other ran deeper than most father-daughter relationships. Unfortunately, though, it’s probably safe to assume that Fanny Imlay was sidelined while Mary got all the attention. This, and the heartache she would suffer later in life, is probably what led her to kill herself in 1816.

When Mary was four, her father married writer and author Mary Jane De Vial, who became Mary Jane Godwin. The two Mary’s of the household did not get along well, Mary-the-step-mother was more devoted to her husband and her own children than she was toward whatever pre-packaged children came with Godwin. She wouldn’t let Mary-the-step-daughter get any sort of formal education because she just didn’t care. This led to a lot of friction that Mary (Shelley) candidly wrote about later in her life. So, while her half-relatives got to learn in a classroom, Mary (Shelley) was left to educate herself in her father’s massive library.

Other than Jane Clairmont, De Vial’s daughter and, incidentally, Mary’s stepsister, it seems like the to-be-author didn’t have many, if not any, friends growing up. It’s said that she mostly spent her time reading and writing, and when she wasn’t doing that she was in her own head and away from everyone else.

In 1812, at around the age of 15, Mary met Percy Bysshe Shelley at a family friends’ party. Percy was a well-known radicalistic political philosopher, poet, and atheist. At the time they met, he was married with children to Harriet Westbrook, a 16-year-old girl whom he was with mostly for his own agendas than actual love, and was struggling financially since his father cut him off because of his alternative beliefs. He and Mary were very much on the same wavelength, they both loved writing stories and reading books, and they both carried high-concept ideas everywhere they went. When they both faced opposition from their respective families about the affair, they decided to leave England, with Jane Clairmont tagging along, to explore other parts of Europe. They came back six weeks later, though, because of financial difficulties.

While researching Mary and Percy’s relationship, I had wanted them to be something of a power couple, an inseparable duo that had each changed fundamentally from their relationship. I wanted them to love each other enough to power through whatever obstacles faced them. But, while they certainly loved each other and while they did have many obstacles, their relationship in of itself was emotionally burdensome for Mary. Percy believed in “free love”, which means that whenever Mary’s sisters/step-sisters made advancements toward him, he openly accepted them. Not because he didn’t care about Mary or didn’t respect her, but it’s just part of what he believed in. When friends and colleagues made advancements toward Mary herself, Percy encouraged her to accept them. As far as I know, she only accepted one but got tired of him eventually.

If the monogamous aspects of their relationship weren’t bad enough for Mary, her emotional strain was compounded when her and Percy’s first child died before barely coming out of the womb, leading Mary to have a full-blown nervous breakdown. Things would get a little bit better when she and Percy were finally able to marry in 1816 after Harriet drowned herself, the emotional trauma of Percy’s indifference too much for her to handle. Mary and Percy certainly felt responsible for her death and mourned her accordingly, but the fact remains that if Harriet hadn’t killed herself, the two would never have been able to get married. While Percy’s personal beliefs hadn’t changed, the burden of a scandalous relationship being lifted from their shoulders had to have felt good in the least. On top of that, Mary successfully gave birth to her 2nd child, William Shelley.

In 1818, the two were invited by friends to stay in a fancy resort. One night, while relaxing by the fireplace, one of the friends dared everyone in the room to tell them the scariest story they could conceive. On this night, when Mary stepped up to tell them her story, a story of an ambitious scientist looking for a way to bring back the dead through science, her magnum opus was born into reality. She called it Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. That same year, with the help of Percy’s own writing skills, she published the book; and it was a hit. It’s rare for an author to be universally recognized upon their first work, but Frankenstein marked Mary Shelley as a literary icon from that point up to now. Unfortunately, at least in my experience, because of how much attention has been put on the story and creature, especially the creature, without giving much credit to the author, most people are only passingly familiar with the name Mary Shelley. Even so, make no mistake, Mary Shelley is a dynamic figure in the literary world, and it’s quite possible that our lives would not be the same if she had never contributed to the wonderful landscape of creative writing.

Grief was never far away for Mary Shelley though. The very next year after Frankenstein’s publication, while the Shelley household was visiting Rome, William would become sick and die, and at around 1822, not a long time after her third and only surviving child was born, her husband was sailing with a friend when a massive storm hit and sunk their ship, leaving Percy to drown in the waves.

As much as this must have broken Shelley, she was no stranger to loss. She would go on to write many more stories, novellas, travelogues, essays, and edited and published many of her husbands’ works. All while raising Percy Florence Shelley, her only child, by herself. In February of 1851, she died of a brain tumor at the age of 53. Her legacy lives on in her published works, most especially in one of the most recognizable horror stories ever told.

THIS MAN, THIS BEAST

Now we get into spoiler territory, Reader Beware…!

The original story, set in the 1800’s, chronicle’s the ambitious journey of Victor Frankenstein. A brilliant but misled man looking to play god. The original story is very conceptual and thematic in its execution, so much so that it’s regarded as the first modern Science-Fiction story, despite being written as a gothic thriller.

Ambition, alienation, and humanity, are some of the main themes of the novel. Victor’s ambitious nature drove him to isolate himself from everyone he knows (hence alienation as a theme), and his loneliness, as well as the monsters, prompts them both to do monstrous things, which gets the reader thinking about human nature, it’s strengths and flaws, and how one could avoid being monstrous. There is so much more to the story than that though, ideas and concepts are abound in the fabric of every word written within the pages of this book, and the interpretations of the reader are a part of that thematic depth.

While doing research on the main themes of the book, I couldn’t help but pick up on how reflective the story is of Mary Shelley’s life. She spent much of her younger years isolated from the world around her, the connections she did have saved her from misery (which is another important theme of the book: connection and misery). I also couldn’t help but think of her own thirst for knowledge, as a result of her stepmother alienating her from a proper education. Of course, the book doesn’t say everything about Mary Shelley as a person, but there are certain aspects that I recognized as being reflective of Shelley’s life at the time she wrote it. I suspect that I’ll recognize more when I actually read the book.

Now, let’s jump a whole century forward. Specifically to 1931. The Great Depression was just beginning, millions of American people were without jobs, families fell apart, suicides increased, and, at the time, the government was doing a half-nosed job of managing the situation, and this was before the “Dust Bowl” drought in the Midwest caused country-wide famine. Despite this though, people still went to the movies. Which, really, makes sense. Escapism at this time was certainly welcome. Of course, the preferred escapism was comedies to lighten the depressing mood, which explains the number of screwball comedies like The Three Stooges and Abbott & Costello (Fun Fact: The Three Stooges is my favorite classic comedy show ever. Of all time). Interestingly enough though, this was also the time when all those classic monster movies were booming in popularity. However, that’s later in the 1930s, we are specifically going to look at 1931. Not one year after the stock market crash that launched the Depression, while money was tight for most businesses’, Hollywood’s influence on American culture held a steady pace, which, as I said, makes sense given the problems of the time.

During, perhaps, the Summer season of that year, James Whale, successful director of WW1 drama Waterloo Bridge, was given a list of options for movies to make by Universal Studio’s chief Carl Laemmle Jr. 1931 was also the same year that Bela Lugosi’s Dracula premiered and gained notoriety. After the film’s success, Lugosi was slated to play Frankenstein’s monster himself in an adaptation, but the project would have been a lot different had we gotten his version, with a different director. Bela Lugosi’s version would have been a slaughterhouse movie, with the “monster” being a pathological nightmare that just killed people the whole film. Needless to say, the production fell through, and the rights to the movie were left floating in the air. Until Whale came around, mainly because he didn’t want to make another war movie or musical.

Many actors were looked at to play the role of Frankenstein’s monster, but Whale chose a lesser-known actor that he spotted during a commute. Boris Karloff, or William Henry Pratt, was an English born stage actor looking to break into the film industry (Boris Karloff is his stage name). At the time he was 44 years old and had been acting for a long time, but could never make it big. Until Whale gave him a note offering a screen-test. I think it’s easy to assume what happens from there.

The 1931 movie is what we all think about when we hear “Frankenstein” when we hear that term we think of an imposing figure with a flat-topped head, metal rods jutting out of his neck, and an inarticulate speech pattern. However, Karloff’s portrayal of the creature is vastly different from what Mary Shelley had written years before. Rather than imposing and ugly, the creature in the book was close to looking like an attractive human male. But, being an amalgamation of different human body parts, its face and body were immensely warped. Because of this, rather than accept the creature right from the get-go, Victor Frankenstein drove it away upon first sight. In the book, Victor shunning the creature is described as though a father were banishing his own child, which, incidentally, was a catalyst for the creature’s violent behavior later in the story. After being harshly discriminated against by other humans, it hid for a period of time learning to read and speak and write from studying different literature. At some point, it wanted nothing more than a genuine connection.

Overall it was actually a kindred spirit, which is one quality that is consistent between Shelley’s and Karloff’s interpretations. But, in the film, the monster accidentally kills a little girl he was playing with, which leads to a mob of angry humans chasing him down and burning him in a windmill. In the book, the monster intentionally kills as a result of being alienated. He goes back to Frankenstein demanding that he create another creature like him. This exchange leads to a chilling line that I am suddenly in love with and can be seen on pretty much every edition of the book: “You may be my creator, but I am your master. Obey!” (Frankenstein; ch.20, pp.3)

In the end, after suffering so much loss at the hands of the monster, Frankenstein spends his remaining years tracking it down to kill it but dies in his effort. The monster itself, having changed over time, feels pity for its creator and, in elusion anyways, kills itself. You can clearly see why there were so many modifications to the story in the film adaptation, it’s a depressing story, and no one wants a depressing story, especially at the time the film was made. All of that darkness in the book though drove home the ideas Shelley wanted to convey, ideas that are fundamentally human in nature. The film mainly conveyed ideas about genius and madness and the fine line between the two. However, in reality, the line between genius and madness is vague and imperceptible, and the concept of “genius”, just like the so-called “line”, is a human construct and doesn’t necessarily apply to fundamental ideas of human nature(imo).

James Whale and Boris Karloff would go on to make Bride of Frankenstein, but after that their ways split. I read somewhere that Whale was jealous of Karloff’s popularity, and as a result, he forced poor Karloff to walk repeatedly up a case of stairs while carrying a particularly heavy co-star (not a fat joke, the co-star was literally a little heavy). Maybe that’s why they never worked together again. Whatever the case, Karloff would play Frankenstein’s monster once more in Son of Frankenstein, which, to my (little) knowledge, was a box office flop. That same year, 1939, was when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and initiated WWII, bringing America out of the Great Depression for the war effort.

Many, many, movies would be made based on, or at least inspired by, the Frankenstein story (such as Frankenhooker, Rock N’ Roll Frankenstein, Bikini Frankenstein, and Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl among many other “classics” (don’t bother looking them up, I lost so many brain cells just typing the titles here)). Some that are worth mentioning (actually worth mentioning) are Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, a parody of the original movie from the director of Spaceballs, which is a parody of the Star Wars movies. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1994; a faithful adaptation of the book from Kenneth Branagh (Thor, Murder On The Orient Express(2017)), which was made in the same vein as Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) with beautifully done sets and costumes, and a TON of overacting. Van Helsing in 2004, which was made as one of many action/horror movies of the time like Underworld and Hellboy, featured Frankenstein’s monster as a prominent character. More recent examples would be I, Frankenstein (2014) with Aaron Eckhart as the monster, or Adam as he’s called in the film, and was another action/horror movie made along the lines of Underworld. In 2015, there would be two Frankenstein movies, or at least, two with “Frankenstein” in the title. Victor Frankenstein, in November, was an interesting hybrid of the mythologies from the book and the 1931 movie, with James McAvoy as Victor Frankenstein and Daniel Radcliffe as Igor. It’s not the best of the Frankenstein movies but I found it enjoyable enough. In October, the Sci-Fi aspects of the story would be ramped up with the release of FRANK3N5T31N by English horror filmmaker Bernard Rose, and features Carrie Ann Moss (Trinity from Matrix) as one of the modern-day scientists who create and then shun the “monster” to be abused and neglected by humanity. I haven’t seen this one but it appears to follow the plot of the novel pretty closely, the biggest difference being that it’s set in modern-day Los Angeles. Finally, we’re brought to the here and now, where a low-budget Frankenstein movie with a slasher/horror spin by an Amsterdam filmmaker will be released through Movieplex (I don’t want to mention it by name to avoid copyright claims).

A LEGEND OF LOVE AND HORROR

There have been so many alternate spins on the legend of Frankenstein, these days the very idea serves as a way for writers to convey their own ideas and pick apart the human condition. Given the current political state of the nation, there have been some Frankenstein-esque stories written to emphasize racism and police brutality in America. There have also been MANY television and movie specials incorporating the Frankenstein mythos with a contextual twist, whether it’s Scooby-Doo, Alvin & The Chipmunks, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and any sitcom referencing the monster, which, in turn, is referencing the movie.

Frankenstein is a disturbing tale that has embedded itself in our collective and individual subconsciousness. Everyone in America is at least familiar with the story of Frankenstein, mainly because of the original movie, and how it’s impacted popular culture since its release. I don’t know of the awareness in other countries, I’m willing to bet though that the U.K. is more familiar with the book itself and Mary Shelley than the 1931 film. Whatever the case, this is a story to treasure, and it seems to me that not enough people are giving it the attention it deserves.

Like all the best stories in history, Frankenstein is iconic because of how human it is. It dissects certain ideas of human nature and gives you an up-close look at them. Victor Frankenstein and his creation are interesting characters not because they’re likable or entertaining, but because their desires, the desire for renown, the desire for connection, are deeply human desires.

I still have not yet read the book, so I can’t really say anything else without it blowing straight out of my bum. Truth be told I haven’t had a lot of exposure to the story aside from movies I’ve watched. It’s hard to not know about the Frankenstein creature when it’s literally everywhere in popular horror culture. But all the research I’ve done for this post has shown me the deeper layers. It’s shown me the profound tragedy at the heart of the narrative, which was fueled by the author’s own tragic experiences with love and loss. I also loved learning about the origin of the classic movie and what made it so popular in the first place.

Whether you love the book for its story and messages or the movie for its cinematic voice, whether you watched Alvin & The Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein as a kid and was the only exposure you’ve ever gotten towards Frankenstein, its really incredible how this story has become an indelible aspect of American culture. What is it about it though that has made it reverberate across generations of storytellers and audiences? What is it about this really grim and disturbing fable that has captured so many people? I think it’s the fact that it speaks to the parts of us that know we are weak because we are human. It speaks to the sympathetic parts of us that can’t help but feel empathy for the doomed man and his unholy creation that is more human than its creator. Those of us who know of her watch for the original architect’s reflection off of her own words, which let us get to know her more. Maybe this story isn’t as enrapturing as it is because it has a monster in it, but because, at its core, it is a deeply, deeply, human story. And for centuries that has both fascinated and terrified us.

Sources

Reeve, Ryan M. “The 18th Century” YouTube.com, 24 Jun. 2015, https://youtu.be/sLSiw1c8ayc. Accessed 7 Oct. 2021.

OnThisDay.com/1797:https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1797

IMDb.com/MaryShelleyBiography:https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0791217/bio

Biography.com/MaryShelleyBiography:https://www.biography.com/writer/mary-shelley

FamousAuthors.org/MaryShelley:https://www.famousauthors.org/mary-shelley

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 116: British Romantic Novelists, 1789-1832. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Bradford K. Mudge, University of Colorado at Denver. Gale Research, 1992. pp. 311-325.

PoetryFoundation.org/PercyByssheShelley:https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/percy-bysshe-shelley

Philp, Mark, “William Godwin”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/godwin/&gt;.

Wikipedia.org/MaryJaneGodwin:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jane_Godwin

IMDb.com/TriviaPage/Frankenstein1931:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021884/trivia/?ref_=tt_trv_trv

SparkNotes.com/Frankenstein:https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/frankenstein/

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Frankenstein”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Mar. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Frankenstein. Accessed 30 October 2021.

IMDb.com/FrankensteinMovies.AListOfAllThingsFrankenstein:https://www.imdb.com/list/ls031241505/

Amazon.com/Frankenstein:https://www.amazon.com/s?k=frankenstein&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

IMDb.com/JamesWhaleBiography:https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001843/bio

Barson, Michael. “James Whale”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Jul. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Whale. Accessed 30 October 2021.

IMDb.com/BorisKarloffBiography:https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000472/bio

I apologize if my approach to this post was a little flawed. Please let me know of any details I might have missed because there most certainly are some that I missed.

I really ended up pouring a lot of myself into this and I hope it was worth it. Thank you and Happy Halloween!