Mary Shelley's birthday: Two reinterpretations of Frankenstein
Welcome to Beware of Creepy Houses where I share my thoughts on ghost stories and other creepy tales, recommend spooky yarns, and post writing prompts to help you with your own eerie (or not!) creative writing.
Yesterday was Mary Shelley’s birthday, who wrote several novels, non-fiction, including travel writing, and edited her late husband’s poetry. Go on, name one of her novels. Frankenstein! There were others, but Frankenstein is the one which is remembered the most.
So today we are delving into two very different reinterpretations of Frankenstein. There are a lot of adaptations, re-imaginings, pastiches, parodies and every other way to wring out the first science fiction novel’s every theme (both real and imaginary), so I have chosen something very old and something pretty new. Dress for rain. There’s a dark and stormy night coming.
Frankenstein (1910) produced by Thomas A Edison
This short film is the very first movie adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel and, yes, it is that Thomas Edison. Considered lost for many years, we are very lucky to be able to view this today.
Of course the age of the film has affected the quality of the footage somewhat, but it’s still very watchable and very entertaining. It’s also very short, telling the (sort of) whole Frankenstein tale in a swift (unlucky!) 13 minutes.
This is, as it admits, a “liberal adaptation” and plays fast and loose with the actual plot of Shelley’s novel. Obviously, it’s a silent movie, but the dramatic Danse macabre (Saint-Saëns) soundtrack keeps the drama and tension at a good level.
The film revels in the essential melodrama which was so popular at the time, and both the excitement and horror of Augustus Phillips, playing Frankenstein, is palpable. The Creature (played by Charles Ogle who also designed his own make-up) is genuinely horrific during the coming to life scene, though when he begins chasing his creator, the effect outside the laboratory is less so; he looks a little like the Grinch from some angles.
This adaptation has a happier ending than Shelley’s original novel, and ends, like all? most silent movies with a kiss. The Creature’s horror over his own appearance is sad, and the climax sparked my imagination over much darker possibilities than we are shown.
Frankenstein is a bad man who deserves everything he gets, and perhaps there is more of a story to be told here where that happens.
Frankenstein, co-produced by imitating the dog and Leeds Playhouse
I saw this play, which is a contemporary tale, inspired by Shelley’s novel, in the spring. It features snippets of her original plot alongside the modern story. I was going to write a review of it at the time, but one of the cast members was ill, so it was performed script-in-hand by an understudy, and it didn’t seem fair to critique in those circumstances.
However, I do want to mention it here, firstly because I love imitating the dog’s work (Dracula: The Untold Story was particularly fabulous) and it is the newest adaptation of Frankenstein I’ve seen. It is also incredibly different to Thomas Edison’s silent movie, which I think is fascinating considering they were both working with the same source material.
The play is set in a bleak, sterile room with a bed and little else. We meet a young couple who are arguing after a surprise positive pregnancy test, which they are unprepared for and feel too young to deal with. Shelley’s text is read as a radio play and our couple transform into characters from the novel on the oft-forgotten boat where the book opens.
As always, with imitating the dog, the visuals were stunning with lighting being ingeniously used to create storms within the immersive set. The increasing tension of both parallel stories is done well and the play sweeps you along, seamlessly moving between both narratives.
The theme of a potentially unwanted pregnancy is very emotional, and a very different way to view the often explored themes of fertility and loss in the story, which are linked with Shelley’s own bereavements: of her mother, of her husband, and, tragically, of all but one of her children. Discussions around when to announce your pregnancy, when it might be safe to do so, contrasting with the anxieties of what kind of a world you are bringing your child into, are a poignant exploration of Frankenstein’s key theme around the responsibilities associated with creating life.
Struggles with communication also offer an interesting slant on Frankenstein’s inability to communicate with his creation, caused both by the Creature’s initial inability to speak and Frankenstein’s own paralysing fear.
This adaptation is a really interesting piece of work, which offers a new take on several elements of Shelley’s novel. Again, I wanted Frankenstein to face more consequences for his dastardly actions and it would be interesting to see further exploration of the effects of being abandoned on the Creature, but this is a worthy addition to the Frankenstein vault and I’m really looking forward to seeing what imitating the dog do next.
If you like these…
Read… Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, obviously. I’ve only ever read the 1818 edition, which I love and see no need to read the 1831 edition, which I’ve heard bad things about, but I don’t know how much of it was changed.
Read… Anything else by Mary Shelley! There’s a lot more than you might think, and you might find something you love.
Read… The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Another Victorian Gothic piece about a man repulsed by his own creation. Unfortunately for Dr Jekyll, he can’t run away from his… (not that I’m condoning that coward Victor).
Read… The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. So, I might have a bit of a thing for Victorian Gothic, but this story of a man who sells his soul for eternal youth while his portrait rots from sin in the attic is fabulous.
Watch… Blood and Ice by Liz Lochhead. This is another play which reinterprets Shelley’s novel, this time focusing on Shelley herself during that infamous stormy summer. I saw this performed by Leeds Arts Centre in 2017. If you see it being performed anywhere, it’s well worth a watch.
Watch… The Frankenstein Chronicles. This TV series re-imagines Shelley’s novel in all kinds of ways and I found it really fun. This is not one for being pernickety over the finer details of the novel, as it’s a whole new story. It’s a good one to binge over the coming autumn evenings with a mug of hot chocolate.
Watch… Frankenstein (1931 film). The quintessential adaptation with Boris Karloff. Again, it’s not 100% faithful to the original novel, but it’s a great classic horror film and Jack Pierce’s make-up design for Frankenstein’s “Monster” has become the image we associate the most with Shelley’s creation.
My microfiction, We Will Bring You Home, published by Paragraph Planet on 13 August 2023, explores the theme of creating life.
Writing prompt
Frankenstein began life as part of a challenge to write the best ghost story, but many people argue that, even though Shelley’s novel was incredibly successful, she didn’t actually win, because Frankenstein doesn’t create a ghost; his creature is flesh and blood and very much alive, so it isn’t a ghost story at all, meaning she lost by default.
But the creature is of course death brought to life, so in a way, is a ghost, just one that walks and talks.
Think of a horror character that you could reinterpret in a new way, like a ghost with a living body, instead of just an apparition. Examples could be:
Vampire - existing works include Carmilla and Dracula
Zombie - existing works include Shaun of the Dead (this is really not my genre!)
Werewolf - existing works include The Wolf Man (1941 film) and the Kitty Norville book series
Witch - existing works include The Craft and Her Majesty’s Royal Coven
Mermaid - existing works include The Little Mermaid and The Mermaid of Black Conch
Flip your character so that they have something different about them. Something so different that would make people say “well, they’re not even a real vampire”, like sparkling like diamonds in the sun, but better… (meow!)
Now think about where this difference would really make them stand out and put them slap bang in the middle of it and see what happens. Maybe people feel a little sorry for them. Nobody wants to be the werewolf with laryngitis.
Have fun with it and see where you end up. There are at least 65 films featuring Frankenstein, plus TV series, more books, plays, podcasts and a gazillion fancy dress parties. You could create the next must have costume for Halloween 2025!
I hope you find this prompt interesting and useful, and I’d love to see anything you write from it.
Please also send over any films or plays you'd like me to cover and let me know what your favourite adaptation of Frankenstein is.
Sending tricks and treats and love to the misunderstood,
Donna
PS: If you’d like to buy a six acre island with a private beach and fifteen friendly ghosts, you’re in luck, because one is available right now!