The adaption from book to film is a hard fraught translation, in which many themes and fundamental ideas can be lost. This is apparent in the adaption of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein into the 1931 film directed by James Whale of the same title. While the two stories are of the same premise, they are fundamentally different in later story elements, ideas, and themes. Even though the film inspires horror and intrigue like its novel counterpart, it lacks the complex moral arguments and depth of the book it is based upon. Whale’s Frankenstein ultimately fails as an adaptation of Mary Shelly’s work, because the removal of the narration and moral conflict present in the novel, which causes the film to lack overall emotional depth. The loss …show more content…
In Shelly’s text, the Frankenstein’s abandonment of his creation causes him to revert to monstrosity. The monster himself laments this stating that his “feelings of affection…were requited by detestation and scorn” from Victor, which prompts him to seek “revenge” against him by murdering his friends and family (140). Because these acts stem from Frankenstein’s abandonment of his monster, the blame for all subsequent evils falls squarely to Victor Frankenstein. However, in the film, the monster is not made evil by abandonment so much as the accidental placement of a “criminal” brain in the creature as opposed to a “natural” one, a mistake made by Frankenstein’s bumbling assistant. By placing the blame for his monstrosity on innate, accidentally created qualities of the monster, the film absolves the blame for evil from Frankenstein. By removing blame from Frankenstein, the film negates a core theme of the book: the need to face the consequences of one’s actions. Subsequently, the film looses this level of moral depth. The consequences of Victor’s actions are further negated by the omission of the creature’s murders of William, Justine, and Elizabeth, all of which are the monster’s responses to Victor’s abandonment. Each of these actions has a profound emotional effect on Victor and his family in the novel,