Frankenstein and the Female

The film really uplays the role of women to the plot.  One of the major film additions was that Victor Frankenstein chose to reanimate the recently slain Elizabeth.  While he viewed his original creation as an abomination, he chose to forgo all of his “morals” and resurrect his wife.  It raises the interesting question, what is the difference?  Is it because he loved Elizabeth that it would be alright for her to be brought back to life, and thus she would be a ‘good monster’?  If he could give her a chance, why was he able to give up so quickly on his own monster?  Is it that the monster was a collection of random flesh?  The monster (in the film) did, after all, contain his deceased mentor’s brain.  Would he not retain some of those memories and recognition? This scene offers an interesting addition to the plot.  Frankenstein and his monster are now fighting for the affections of the same woman.  Victor wants her to cling on to humanity, the monster wants her to embrace monstrosity.  It is both a philosophical and physical tug of war.

In the end Elizabeth resolves the issue herself; she realizes what she is and destroys herself.

I felt the movie did a real disservice in downplaying the scene in which Victor reneges on creating a mate for his monster.  There is no reflection on the fate of the world and future generations.  There is no consideration to the possibility of a female monster’s possible rejection of her mate or potential for procreation.  There isn’t the episode where Victor gets halfway through creating the female, sees the morbid delight in his first monster’s eyes, and then chooses to destroy it right in front of him.  The monster’s agony is of key importance in the novel, and it lends more weight to his threat of being with Victor on his wedding night.  The film chooses to have Victor object to making a female monster because he can’t stand the idea of using Justine’s body.  The monster’s threat that follows, while he does stay true to his word, somehow doesn’t seem to have as much of an impact.  I will recognize, however, that the change, the monster choosing Justine’s body, is an interesting one.  Victor’s scientific method used random body parts, largely from people who were strangers to him.  But now he is presented with this pretty young thing that he has known all his life.  Is his refusal because he knows her or is it because he has never had to “dissect” a female before.  The monster even taunts him with the notion that it is just raw material.  I wonder if the monster chose this body in order to torment Victor or because he truly found her beautiful.  Victor doesn’t voice the reason behind his refusal, but the understanding should be that it is because he knew her.  But what is the full extent of the refusal.  Is it that (as I mentioned above) that he couldn’t stand the fact of working on her?  If reanimated, would she curse him for her existence?  Could he not stomach the idea of his monster having his way with this once lovely girl?  Whatever the reason, the audience is not let into the inner workings of Victor Frankenstein’s mind, and the monster doesn’t seem to lament the decision like he did in the novel.

A key depiction of the monster in the film is that he is somewhat lustful.  While the novel monster is a lonely outcast looking for companionship and understanding, the film monster is very touchy-feely with the females he comes across.  When he encounters Justine in the film, he waves his hand over her as if longing to touch, and the sound of dogs and searchers in the background interrupt him from whatever lengths he was preparing himself to do.

Additionally, it is Justine who he later chooses to be his bride.  In the book, while he does stare at her and notice her beauty, he is more angered than anything, knowing that someone like her could never want him.  He frames her and moves on.  When it comes to Elizabeth, in the novel the reader is only given two screams and the monster escapes.  In the film, the monster lies on top of Elizabeth (he even tells her not to scream), a position Victor was in only a few moments before.

The monster stares longingly at her for a considerable time and even compliments her beauty.  Once again, loud noise in the background interrupts him from whatever else he might have done, and he kills her right in front of Victor.  He vies for her affection when Victor revives her, but like Frankenstein pondered in the novel, she rejects him.  Love and lust is never fully reciprocated for any of the characters.  The females of Frankenstein are destroyed, and the males continue the rest of their lives as wretches.