Similarities Between Frankenstein And Edward Scissorhands

How do Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands use language features, stylistic features and conventions to explore the theme of difference?

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published in 1818. The story focuses on a scientist named Victor Frankenstein and a creature brought to life through electrical currents, a popular idea at the time called galvanism. The second text, Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands was released in 1990 and focuses on an artificial being called Edward who has scissors for hands. Both the creature and Edward are different to others, both being creations of a deluded scientist. Edward is different through his hands, while the creature is different through his stark appearance. Mary Shelley and Tim

The gossiping housewives of Edward Scissorhands are prejudiced against Edward because of his looks and gossip behind his back. Tim Burton’s satirical portrayal of these ‘typical’ American housewives makes fun of the obsession with appearance that they have, even one of the main characters, Peg, whose whole job is about altering looks, follows this image-based acceptance of others. Thus, bringing the ridiculousness of preconceived views into light. Likewise, in Frankenstein, this prejudice solely based on appearance is demonstrated, when a man states ‘I am blind and cannot judge of your countenance, but there is something in your words which persuades me that you are sincere.’ symbolising the prejudice many people hold due to how someone looks. Being blind, the man can not hold the looks of the creature against him as everyone else does because he can only hear the kind-hearted nature of him, indicating that if people stopped focusing on how one looks then they would be able to see past perceived ugliness to reveal the goodness within. Such as the blindness of the man allows him to see the goodness of the creature, the son of Peg does not see ugliness or freakishness in Edward, but considers him and his bladed hands to be cool, whereas others see him being ‘straight from the stinking flames of hell.’. They think he is the work of the devil purely because of a negative

Edward Scissorhands uses Edwards's hands as symbolism for his inability ever to be normal and that he can never be close to anyone as he will only hurt them, such as when he saves Peg’s son but his hands cut into the child and it is believed he is attacking them. Meaning that as kind as he may be, his actions may still appear malicious. So, Edward will always be an outcast looked down upon and rejected by society. Likewise, Mary Shelley uses irony to highlight rejection. The creature from Frankenstein acts heroically but ‘when [a] man saw [the creature] draw near, he aimed a gun, which he carried, at [the creature’s] body and fired.’ this is ironic in that the creature was being peaceful, having just saved a child’s life, and was yet met by violence by those who treated him as a monster, all the while their animosity raises the idea that those who reject others without giving them a chance first are the true monsters. While both were unfairly rejected, Edward was originally accepted, with Tim Burton harnessing the character’s unique abilities of scissor hands to give Edward a way of being accepted into society by cutting hedges and hair, emphasising that individuality, that everyone has their own skills, makes the world a better place and rather than rejecting them we allow them to flourish and allow difference. So, by exploring the idea of rejection and acceptance, Tim Burton and Mary Shelley convey