It was pretty obvious that the movie adaptation of Frankenstein was vastly different from the novel. There were some aspects that stayed the same, but many more were changed around into something far more theatric than what actually happened. These changes were somewhat ridiculous and also changed how someone who has never read the story perceived certain characters.
The most interesting change that was made as far as a character went was Elizabeth. In the novel she was more of a passive person who never tried to improve her own situation. Victor went off and did whatever he felt like and although she would write him letters and tell him to come home, Elizabeth never tried harder than that to make Victor listen to her and consider her feelings.
However, in the film Elizabeth is a much more strong willed woman. When Victor becomes obsessed with his project and never tries to contact her, Elizabeth doesn’t just let it go. She travels to the city where Victor is living and speaks to him in person in attempts to get him back. After he comes home and refuses to tell her what’s going on, she attempts to leave him. This really changed how I viewed Elizabeth. Beforehand I thought she was just another useless side character, but in the film I respected her a lot more.
Another change was the manner in which the monster behaved towards Victor. In the novel the creature hated his master and wanted to cause him as much suffering as possible. He didn’t hold any feelings of affection for Frankenstein once he’d decided to get back at him.
In the film the creature still had a lot of animosity towards Victor, but he seemed much more mellow. At the end of the movie he called Victor his father and seemed to be extremely bereft that he was dead. Rather than going off on his own to die as he said he would in the novel, he killed himself with the fire intended to cremate his creator.
Finally we have how strong willed and brave the movie made Victor seem. He went off on his own to face off with the monster in the mountains and chased him all over the place. The film made him appear valiant in the face of adversity, and the type of character that you should admire.
This was obviously not so in the book. Victor was whiny and cowardly, and never made a move to help anyone but himself. People were dying all over the place because of him, and the whole time he sat by and just complained about his own misfortunes. Victor was a much less likeable person in the story than in the movie.
While the films was decent in it’s own right, it didn’t do the book justice in my opinion. It changed the true story around way too much for the sake of Hollywood theatrics.
