Sparky: The Closest Representation of The Monster in Recent Times

In the original Mary Shelley interpretation of Frankenstein, the monster of Victor Frankenstein is depicted as a large, horrifying man sewn together out of various dead body parts. As terrifying its appearance may be, the monster showed signs of a rather high degree of intelligence and empathy. So why are there so many variations of the monster in modern media that depict it as a dumb, slow, and evil?

I have never seen the 1931 film version of Frankenstein, but it’s famous enough to have been referenced in several other popular media sources. The Frankenstein monster is almost always depicted with a squared head, two bolts attached to its neck, and walks with its hands upright. While the appearance of the monster is free to be interpreted according to the viewers’ imaginations, there are several other traits of the monster that has changed through the many different versions that has made the monster very different from the one that originated from Mary Shelley’s novel. For example, the monster from Shelley’s book is very cunning and intelligent. It was able to evade an entire fleet of humans that tried to track it down and kill it. It even outsmarted the brilliant scientist and its creator, Victor Frankenstein. The monster is also very agile and able to avoid detection from humans when it wants to. It is only discovered by people when it wants to, such as when it tried to talk to the family it was providing food for. The monster is also probably the most empathetic character in the entire novel, since all it does from the moment of its creation is to try and find a being that it can connect and relate with. While the monster may have killed several people, all of these instances can be considered an act of self-defense or an accident. Finally, the monster in Shelley’s book remains nameless. All of these traits are what is lost in the modern versions of the Frankenstein monster. It is depicted as an unintelligent, rigid, and murderous by nature. It is essentially a zombie that is large and reanimated by lightening striking body parts that have been sewn together. The monster is also usually named Frankenstein for some reason as well, even though that is the surname of its creator. The new monster barely resembles the original of Shelley’s book. A monster changing drastically from its source material is nothing new however. We learned in class that witches and werewolves were significantly different from their modern versions. The Frankenstein monster probably changed for similar reasons, such as what is relevant in the world at the time of its creation. For example, the monster might have represented people’s fears of scientific advancement, which is not quite relevant in modern times. The monster might have lost all its depth and personality due to be simpler and easier to depict in a motion picture. The monster may have lost its humanity so that it can be easier to hate compared to the human heroes. There are several reasons that could explain the transformation of the way the monster acts. The reason behind the name Frankenstein being tied to the monster is most likely due to the monster being the title character of every media it appears in. The monster is usually the most important character of any monster story, and the title of monster films and books usually refer to the monster (for example, Alien, The Thing, Godzilla, etc.). Another less likely explanation for its name is because some people may view the monster as the child/family member of the creator, Victor Frankenstein. The monster considers Victor as its father or at least a family in Shelley’s novel. It is understandable why many believe that the monster is named Frankenstein instead of its creator. The closest representation of the Frankenstein monster I can remember is oddly the dog Sparky from the animated film, Frankenweenie. That dog is not named Frankenstein (his creator/owner is, actually), he is quite mobile and agile, he loves humans, and there are evil humans that want to hurt him. Sparky of course is much better off than Shelley’s monster, since he was created by someone who actually loves him, unlike the egomaniac Victor Frankenstein. I am sure that there have been accurate depictions of the original monster, but the majority of the versions only loosely represents the unnamed monster.