Comparing Frankenstein And The Godfather

Converting a classic novel into a film can be challenging for any director. From the movie's actors, setting, writing, and overall experience, it can be hard to replicate the same emotions and feelings as the book. This can be seen in many books and movie franchises such as Little Women, The Hunger Games, The Godfather, and even the Harry Potter series, yet I would say these are great adaptations of the books as movies. What these films have in common is that they take the main gist of the storyline, use it roughly, and change parts to make it exciting for a screen adaptation; the point is they change stuff, but it’s still approximately the same plot. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a classic gothic novel, with plenty of great material worthy

Henry and Victor both use freshly dead human parts to create a monster to advance the pursuit of human knowledge. The monster in both works is described very similarly, Victor describes him as “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion, and straight black lips,” (Shelley 39). In the scene of his reveal in the film, the monster is shown to have pale and rough skin, sunken eyes, dark hair, and is very tall. Both monsters want to kill Elizabeth, with one succeeding. Victor and Henry both are married to Elizabeth but find more interest and passion in expanding their research of alchemy and animating the dead. When creating his monster, Victor and Henry both exclaim feeling like God. Their passion overrides their normal duties until it consumes them, and both chase their monster in a mad

In the book, the story begins with a frame narrative; Captain Walton is writing to his sister about the story of Frankenstein (Shelley), while in Bride of Frankenstein, it’s revealed that Mary Shelley herself is telling the story to an audience (Whale, Bride of Frankenstein). When Victor created his monster, he was horrified by what he created and ran away in fear. Henry, in Frankenstein, was ecstatic and tried to help teach it commands and words (Whale, Frankenstein). In Bride of Frankenstein, Henry worked with Dr. Pretorius to create a mate for the monster (Whale, Bride of Frankenstein). Victor in the novel worked alone to create his monster, and he refuses to create the monster’s mate when requested by the monster (Shelley). Besides these changes, the plot is muddled, and the film loses some meaning. We never see much of the monster’s development besides with the blind man in Bride of Frankenstein. The films imply that the monster’s personality is due to his criminal brain, or his nature, while the novel shows his personality is due to the social construct and his understanding of society, his nurture. The epic chase into the artic never happens in either film, and there is no mention of Walton or his voyage. Henry never goes through the great torment Victor does, and gets a happy ending, while the monster kills everyone for his rejection and lets Henry and Elizabeth leave safely