Who Is the Monster and Who Is the Man?: The changing imagery of Frankenstein’s monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Monster Mash is a song composed by Bobby “Boris” Pickett in the earl, which later became a classic halloween anthem around the globe. “Monster Mash” is narrated by a mad scientist, who’s half dead creation then rises from the surgery table to perform a swinging spooky dance, which is very closely associated with the choreography of the mashed potato.

“I was working in the lab, late one night, When my eyes beheld an eerie sight, For my monster from his slab, began to rise, And suddenly to my surprise, He did the Mash….” (Pickett)

By following the lyrics of this…

 As a modern adaptation, this story has the ability to be a bit more freeform with the look of Adam, The Frankenstein's creation. He starts off being a good-looking, young man, but as he begins to deform, he grows welts and burnt-like skin across his body. These deformities get worse the longer he is alive, thus throughout the movie, we see his decomposition. This adaptation focuses more specifically on one aspect of the original text, where Frankenstein chose the most beautiful features for his creation. Both modern and 1818 Victor Frankenstein desired to create something beautiful,…

 Since this adaptation strays so far away from the original text, so does the physical appearance of Adam. The only nods to the original text he physically has is his long, dark hair, which is cut off by the time we actually get into the main storyline. His physical features that connect him to being Frankenstein’s monster are diluted, with his scars being faint and his height being that of an average adult.

  Frankenstein’s Monster, The Creation, is constructed the same way as in the novel in this adaption, although his features are quite different. The Creation appears more natural than what is described in the original text, without the tight, jaundice-like skin, but simply covered in large scars. The Creation is tall, towering over the other characters as described in the novel, but lacking the long, dark hair.

In The Bride (1985), Dr. Frankenstein creates a creature who he calls Viktor. Then, Frankenstein is coerced to reanimate a recently dead woman to be Viktor’s mate. In this media representation, both Viktor and the reanimated woman, Eva, are created by Dr. Frankenstein. Eva is a beautiful woman with no indication that she was reanimated from a corpse. Contrastingly, Viktor is tall and has a leathery, deformed face that looks like a mask. He has disheveled dirty blonde hair and appears generally dirty. These representations of the monster bear no resemblance to the monster described…

In Frankenstein (1984), Frankenstein’s monster is a man who has been artificially resurrected, not put together piece by piece from cadavers. In the film, Frankenstein’s creation is referred to as “Creature” and is not given another name. The creature has the features of an average man with the exception of bad burns on his face and body. The creature is of average height and build, and does not possess any extraordinary physical capabilities. There is no resemblance to the monster described in the 1818 text.

In Elvira’s Movie Macabre: Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks (1984), the monster created by Count Frankenstein is a reanimated disabled man who was lynched by villagers. In the movie, the monster has white skin with a large u-shaped incision in his chest and a gash near his eye. The monster also has an enlarged skull, missing hair, and a large incision that suggests his brain was examined or removed. The man is relatively large but not extraordinarily so, and has clownish orange hair and a large orange unibrow. The monster does not speak in the movie. This representation of the…

The Rocky Horror Picture show was released in August, 1975. The show was written and directed by Jim Sharman and Richard O'brien, and later became a smash hit for halloween themed musical films. The Rocky Horror Picture Show plays into Mary Shelley's 1818 Frankenstein in a rather humorous manner, for starts Frankenstein's name is Frank-N-Furter in the show who instead of being a confused and raged monster, Frank-N-Furter genuinely concerns himself with healthy domestic home life relationships, and host's parties for other Transylvanian party goers. Frank-N-Furter’s image represents a…

In the 1974 Marvel Comics adaptation of Frankenstein, the monster appears to have extreme muscle tone, and a more human looking body figure. Instead of having green skin, and long nails Frankenstein appears to be a caucasion white male with scars on his face from the scientific procedures done on him. Marvel Comics might have taken this image approach because if they were to have made Frankenstein green, he would look too much like the Incredible Hulk.

His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!—Great God! 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 this post-World War II adaptation, the monster is wrapped in bandages until the atomic reactor he was made in explodes, killing him and the baron and that is when the monster, played by Mike Lane, is revealed. This version of the monster obviously deviates from Mary Shelley’s original plot, however the monster isn’t shown as palish green or scarred like previous adaptations and he resembles a human except for his distinct stiff and rigid stance throughout the movie. The monster is referred to as the monster but also goes by the name, Hans Himmler, but he is not confused with Dr.…

Frankenstein’s monster, played by Christopher Lee, has the distinctive cropped black hair, yet his skin is pale and covered in scars. His teeth seem to be rotting and his eye is milky as if his eye has been seriously damaged, which is the biggest similarity between this adaptation and Mary Shelley’s novel. He is also referred to as the creature and is not confused with Dr. Frankenstein himself. The monster is also depicted as having brain damage and being violent, which further deviates from the original description of Frankenstein’s monster, who is considered highly intelligent and even…

The Ghost of Frankenstein is the fourth film in Universal Pictures’ Frankenstein series and thus, the monster mirrors the depiction of the monster in the previous three films. Frankenstein’s monster, played by Lon Chaney Jr., is correctly referred to as “the monster” and he has the same palish green skin, squared-off skull, jet black hair, screws in his head, and distinctive walk and stature that we commonly associate with Frankenstein’s monster today. This is the first movie in the Frankenstein series that doesn’t have Boris Karloff playing the monster and although the makeup and…

In The Son of Frankenstein, the monster is a resurrected creature, indicating that the movie is a continuation of a plot, rather than existing on its own. The monster maintains the same appearance in this movie as he has in previous films within the series; however, his hair is more abundant and darker than it was in The Bride of Frankenstein, where he looked like he was balding. The monster intentionally looks like a deceased being, similar to what a modern-day zombie would be portrayed as. The monster looks more similar to the television show The Walking Dead, …

The appearance of the monster in The Bride of Frankenstein does not differ from the first movie in this series, Frankenstein (1931). The monster is still a green, sickly-looking creature; however, his only attribute to Shelley’s description of the monster is that Whale decided for the creature to try and learn to speak. In Shelley’s novel, the creature is communicative. That plan was thwarted in the movie, but regardless the monster presents himself differently in this movie than before. Nevertheless, the monster still has the defined screws coming out of his neck, but…

In Thomas Edison’s adaptation of Frankenstein, the creature is depicted as a ghastly creature with skeletal and clawed hands, a hunched back, wild hair, and a seemingly sallow complexion (Mills). As the film is in black and white, it is hard to tell exactly what color the Creature’s skin is, but it is of a paler complexion than his later adaptations, and as shown in the image above of the figure that was made of the creature in the 1910 film, his skin is in fact of a sallow complexion.

In Richard Brinsley Peake’s 1823 play adaptation of Frankenstein, the creature is portrayed as being a brute who is unable to speak. The creature’s physical appearance is described in the beginning of the play as: “dark black flowing hair – a la Octavian – his face, hands, arms, and legs all bare, being one colour, the same as his body, which is a light blue or French gray cotton dress, fitting quite close, as if it were his flesh, with a slate colour scarf round his middle, passing over one shoulder” (Kinney).