Similarities Between Mel Brooks And Frankenstein

Intertexuality Frankenstein Essay Mary Shelley and Mel Brooks both held a love for the character of Frankenstein but both displayed him in very different ways. Mary Shelley’s novel and Mel brooks Film both were very enjoyable but the differences they hold are so abstract it’s hard to think they could be related. Not only were the stories oddly different but so were the social and historical cultures in which both Mary Shelley and Mel Brooks Created their versions of Frankenstein. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in the summer of 1831. During the time in her diary she wrote, “But it proved a wet, unenviable summer, and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house.” This Diary entry that she wrote makes me believe that the weather in the summer of 1831 helped shaped her writing of Frankenstein. Mary Shelley based Frankenstein around a gothic and dark era, and the theme of Frankenstein could literally send chills up the readers spine. Within
Frankenstein the sublime natural world, embraced by Romanticism (late eighteenth century to mid-nineteenth century) as a source of unrestrained emotional experience for the individual, initially offers characters the possibility of spiritual renewal. Mary Shelley set a more serious social and historical culture for her version of Frankenstein, but it was necessary to do in order to create such a magnificent horror story. The reader is so sucked into Victor’s world and the creation of Frankenstein, that they also become serious about the project at hand. The social and historical culture Mary Shelley created within the book is really what set the book apart from Mel Brook’s movie, Young Frankenstein. Mel Brook on the other hand created a hilarious version of Frankenstein, and yet still held on to the basis of what Mary Shelley created when she wrote Frankenstein.
The movie, Young Frankenstein, came out in theaters in December of 1974, this was more than a decade after Mary Shelley’s novel and the twist of the movie set a completely different social and historical culture of that time. The social and historical culture of Young Frankenstein is much more advanced and much more appropriate for that time. Although, the movie can be said to be quite scandalous and very opposite of the book, it was still a major hit. The crazy thing Mel Brooks did do is keep the movie in black and white, trying to symbolize the time period in which he wanted the movie set, this I believe helped relate the movie to the book Mary Shelley wrote. Mel Brook’s put an interesting spin on the movie compared to the book, but he did it in a way that the audience could still enjoy Mary Shelley’ creation of Frankenstein as
well. Frankenstein, and Young Frankenstein hold two different social and historical cultures, and both were equally enjoyable. I’m sure Mary Shelley and Mel Brook’s would both be disappointed with the others creation, but in an audiences point of view it’s all just up to the readers or audiences opinion of which they like more, and a lot of that has to do with which social and historical culture you relate to more.