Sympathy For The Monster In Whale's Film

Accordingly, I agree with what Heffernan said that the elimination of the monster’s ability to speak is providing the opportunity for people to have sympathy toward the monster. The first person that the monster had killed in the novel in William Frankenstein, who is one of the brother of Victor Frankenstein. He wants to kill William because he wants to take a revenge on Victor. However, the first person that the monster killed in Whale’s film is Henry Frankenstein’s servant—Fritz. Fritz tied the monster in the basement and locked himself with the monster in a room. Fritz is trying to attack the monster and instigate his anger. Unfortunately, he got killed by the monster in the basement. And that is what makes Henry Frankenstein to admit his experiment is a failure.
Similarly, after Frankenstein throw the monster out of his house, the monster walked into a wood and found a girl Maria who does not scare of his appearance and is willing to be friend with him.
Nevertheless, the lack of intelligent and the ability to speak, the monster throws Maria into the lake while Maria is showing the monster of how to throw the followers to the water (Frankenstein). Apparently, the monster is doing what Maria is showing him but he is doing it in a wrong way. I think Whale excludes the monster’s intellectual and the demonstration of this scene depict the innocence of the monster. Throughout the whole movie, the only sounds that the monster makes are “ewwww and awwww”. The monster’s sounds and acts remind me of how the newborn baby would be, which they are learning and observing what other people would act and not being able to tell other people of what they want. Comparing the monster in Mary Shelley’s novel, the monster in the film does not have the intention to kill other people while the monster in the novel killed people for the revenge. Even though the elimination of the monster’s eloquent speech reduces his intelligence, it can gain audiences’ sympathy toward the
monster. As you can see, the demonstration of the James Whale’s film and Mary Shelley’s novel of Frankenstein demonstrated different interpretation of the content and the personalities of the characters. Although the animation and the sounds in the films can show the monster’s appearance and attribution to provide a better image to the audience. However, films might not show everything exactly the same as the novel and we can only see the movement of the characters instead of their inner expression. In addition, Whale used the rearrangement of the personality of the characters to develop and change the content of Frankenstein. Whale is exchanging the names and the personalities of Victor and Henry to intensify Frankenstein’s humanity. Henry Frankenstein does not relinquish the monster after he created. Even though he is scared of the monster, he is a more optimistic character in the film which has the similar personality as Henry Clerval in the novel. Also, Whale gives a “criminal brain” to the monster in the beginning of the film to foreshadowing the tragedy that the monster might create, even so, he “dispense with the monster’s intellectual equipment” to gain sympathy from the audiences (Pirie 278). Consequently, films may not completely demonstrate the novel, but it may illustrate different aspects that the novel cannot show. The way James Whale and Mary Shelley interpreted Frankenstein can change the content that affect audience’s impression and perspective and the characteristic of the characters.