Averi Wasser

Frankenstein Project
4/26/16

SCIENCE VS.
RELIGION
FRANKENSTEIN - Mary Shelley
Mary Shelly was born August

Coleridge and William Hazlitt. She

30, 1797 in London, England. Her

wrote stories for fun throughout her

father was a radical philosopher that

childhood. In her adult life, Mary fell in

was known for his books Politicial

love with one of her fathers students.

Justice and Caleb Williams. Her

Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary ran

mother was a famous feminist that

away together to start their new life.

was well known for her A Vindication

Their life was full of financial struggles

of the Rights of Women that was a

and the loss of children. Mary wrote

plea for state regulated education for

several books in her lifetime such as

girls. Her mother died shortly after she

Valperga, The Last Man and The

was born so she was mainly raised by

History of a Six Weeks Tour. The book

her father until he remarried to a

that Mary is most known for is

women that Mary did not get along

Frankenstein which was written while

with. Her step mother did not feel that

visiting a friend in Switzerland. When

Mary needed to have a formal

Frankenstein was a successfully

education so instead Mary took use of

published book, people actually

her fathers extensive library. Her

thought that her husband Percy wrote

father also let her sit in on his

it. After her husband died from a tragic

discussions regarding philosophy with

drowning incident, Mary devoted her

his friends. He friends included people

life to raising her only child and writing

such as Williams Wordsworth, Charles

more novels. Marys books have been

and Mary Lamb, Samuel Taylor

labeled in the genre of Romance and

Gothic.

comes across Victor. Robert had been

Mary Shelley wrote her best

novel Frankenstein which brought up
the conflict between the value of
human life and the value of scientific
discovery. The
book is about a
crazed Scientist
named Victor
Frankenstein
who was hell
bent on

writing his sister about the loneliness

he had been feeling and the need for a
friend. Victor who had basically shut
everyone out of his life also enjoyed
Roberts company. Victor confides in
his new friend Robert and tells him of
this monster that he had created,
destruction it had brought and the
guilt he has been feeling the entire
time. He tells Robert about William
being murdered by the monster and
that he let someone else take the

discovering

blame for his creation. You cant help

how to create

but feel bad for the monster because

life.

he was brought to life and then shut

out of everywhere he went. Even his
creator, Victor, wanted nothing to do
with him and would call him terrible
names and shoo him away when the
monster would ask for help.
Throughout the book the monster
learned different things by watching
people. Towards the end he begs
Victor for a mate because he is so
lonely.

It starts out with Robert Walton

who is on a journey by boat when he

The way that Mary wrote this

next. The conflict of the story is

book was very creative. The book

between Victor and his creation

starts off with the point of view from

because Victor will not take

Robert Walton and then switches to

responsibility for creating his life and

Victor Frankensteins point of view and

refuses to help him in any way. The

then back to Walton. Victor is the

rising action is the monster coming

protagonist in this book that the story

after Victor and the resolution is Victor

revolves around as he is telling his

being killed and the monster

story of his creation. The monster

disappearing into the darkness right in

could either be considered the

front of Waltons eyes.

antagonist or the dynamic character

or both. The allegory of the story is
about taking responsibility for your
creations and in the case Victor not
taking any for the monster he made.
For example, the monster murdered
people and even then Victor did not
claim any responsibility and even let
Justine die for his mistakes. The
imagery is pretty strong in the book

FRANKENSTEIN (1931) James Whale

James Whale was an English

especially when Victor is describing

film director who created a film that

the perfect body he has put together

was reflection of Mary Shelleys

as it is coming to life.

infamous book. He is most known for

The plot of the book is Victor

trying to play god and create life
which he does succeed in doing but
soon realizes that it was not worth the
pain and destruction that he caused
yet he could not take the life away
from the monster he created. The
suspense kept going throughout the
entire book when the reader wonders
when the monster will appear to Victor

films such as Frankenstein, The

Invisible Man, The Old Dark House and
Bride of Frankenstein. James was born
July 22, 1989 in Worcestershire,
England. He knew he had a gift of
talent early on in his life but it was put
on the back burner when he enlisted
as an officer in the British army. While
his time in the army, James was
capture by the enemy and put into a

POW camp where he learned to put on

used to attend for his creation. In Mary

plays. James learned that he loved

Shelleys book, Victor is a lonesome

drama and followed his dreams once

man that locks himself away from the

he was released from the POW camp.

world. However in the movie, at the

His first play that he directed was a

time of the monster awakening Henry

Journeys End which ended up being a

is accompanied by his old professor,

success and led to him ending up in

his assistant, Victor and Elizabeth who

Hollywood where he lived for the rest

all witness the discovery of life. His

of his life. James was openly gay

science experiment is not so much a

throughout his entire life which was

secret as it was the book. The monster

something that was not normal in the

ends up getting out of the old windmill

1920s and 30s. He suffered from

where he was created and wanders

strokes in his later life and ended up

around the country side. Henry

committing suicide by drowning

thinking he had just disappeared goes

himself in his pool.

about his life and plans his wedding

with his lovely Elizabeth. Meanwhile
the monster is escaping from people
he runs into but gets himself in trouble
when he comes across a child playing
with flowers near a river. The child
shows him how the flowers float so in
turn he throws her in to see if she
floats but she ends up drowning. As
soon as her
father
realizes what

Frankenstein (1931) was from

the point of view from Henry
Frankenstein who was the mad
Scientist trying to create life. In the
movie Henry has an assistant that is
helping him gather body parts
including a brain from the college he

happened,
he takes his
dead child
into the city
and
demands
justice. It also happens to be Henry
and Elizabeths wedding day. Soon a

search party had started and the

Elizabeth lives.

whole town is looking for the monster.

The monster knows exactly who his
creator is so when he gets Henry
cornered he throws him over his
shoulder and heads back towards the
Old Mill which is the only familiar place
that he knows of. The monster is very
angry with Henry and ends up
throwing him out of a window. The
villagers then decide to light the
windmill on fire to kill the monster. The
cherry on top of the movie is that
The characters remain the same
in this story as far as who is the
protagonist and who is the antagonist.
The theme is still Dr. Frankenstein
trying to play god and realizing how
much responsibility it is after it is too
late. An example of this is when the
little girl is killed and the fingers are
pointed towards the monster. In the
book he does not take much
responsibility and his hiding from what
he made but in the movie he is
actually one of the leaders of the
village search party. The movie takes
place in a time period that was
religious and people only thought God
was the creator of human life so the
monster was definitely not welcomed.
The plot and the suspense remain the
same in the movie as in the original

book but Henry taking responsibility

no part in this experiment, he was left

for his creation changes the conflict.

with no choice when his lovely

The conflict is still between the

Elizabeth was kidnapped by the

scientist and the creation but he is

monster and held hostage until a mate

trying to keep Elizabeth safe and

was created for him. Henry

wants to destroy the monster after it

Frankenstein worked until he was able

killed the little girl.

to create the Bride of Frankenstein.

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN James

Whale
James Whale created this sequel to
continue the storyline of Frankenstein.
In this movie it shows that the
monster did not die after the old
windmill burned to the ground. Dr.
Frankenstein was trying to get on with
his life and his new bride Elizabeth
was urging him to stop his silly
experiments. During his recovery from
the fight with his creation, the doctor
is visited by another Scientist. This
one however is madder that Henry
was and wanted his help in creating

The relationship did not start out very

well and the woman creation was not
fond of the man creation. The end of
the movie was touching when the
monster sees the love between Henry
and Elizabeth and realizes that he will
not have that. He decides to spare the
life of Henry and Elizabeth and take
the lives of the bride, the mad
Scientist and his own.
The theme of this movie is also the

more life. To be more exact, he wanted

to create a woman for the man that
Henry had created. Even though Henry
had told Dr Pretorius that he wanted

new mad Scientist trying to play god

and not realizing what happens when
you mess with fire. I am sure that if
the movie went on longer, he would

have the same problems with the

analyzing the movies and will probably

women creation as Henry did with the

watch more movies that have to do

man creation. The plot of this movie is

with Frankenstein since they all seem

Dr. Pretorius trying to create a woman

to tie together in a way.

monster for the monster that Dr.

Frankenstein already made but
needed his help doing it. The suspense
throughout the movie is how they are
going to go about doing this and what
will happen once it is done. The
conflict is between Dr. Frankenstein
and doing the right thing in which he
does not succeed in since he decided
to test his luck again even though he
only did it to get his dear Elizabeth
back. The rising action is when the
woman creation does not like the
monster and the Scientists are not
sure what to do. The resolution is the
monster realizing that he does not
belong in this world and even though
it is not his fault for being brought
back to life, he knows that he must
sacrifice himself, his new bride the
crazy Scientist to restore order.
CONCLUSION
I really enjoyed reading and watching
these movies. It was interesting how
my knowledge of Frankenstein was
based of the movie made by James
Whales and that I had no idea of the
famous book that Mary Shelley had
created that started it all. I enjoyed