Victor Frankenstein

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the 2015 film, see Victor Frankenstein (film).
Victor Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus character
Victor Frankenstein recoiling from his creation
Created byMary Shelley
Portrayed byAugustus Phillips
Colin Clive
Cedric Hardwicke
Peter Cushing
Ralph Bates
Kenneth Branagh
Benedict Cumberbatch
Sting
Jonny Lee Miller
Alec Newman
Samuel West
Aden Young
David Anders
Harry Treadaway
Helen McCrory
Raul Julia
James McAvoy
Tim Curry
Hunter Foster
Oscar Isaac
Voiced byCharlie Tahan
Arthur Darvill
In-universe information
NicknameDr. Frankenstein, Heinrich "Henry" von Frankenstein (1931 film), Mad scientist, The Modern Prometheus
GenderMale
OccupationScientist
FamilyParents:
  • Alphonse Frankenstein (father)
  • Caroline Beaufort (mother)

Siblings:

  • Ernest Frankenstein (younger brother)
  • William Frankenstein (youngest brother)
  • Elizabeth Lavenza (adoptive sister)

Descendants:

SpouseElizabeth Lavenza (adoptive sister/wife)
ReligionChristian (Roman Catholic)
OriginNaples, Italy
NationalitySwiss

Victor Frankenstein is a fictional character and the main protagonist and title character in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. He is a Swiss scientist (born in Naples, Italy) who, after studying chemical processes and the decay of living things, gains an insight into the creation of life and gives life to his own creature (often referred to as Frankenstein's monster, or often colloquially referred to as simply "Frankenstein"). Victor later regrets meddling with nature through his creation, as he inadvertently endangers his own life and the lives of his family and friends when the creature seeks revenge against him. He is first introduced in the novel when he is seeking to catch the monster near the North Pole and is saved from near death by Robert Walton and his crew.

Some aspects of the character are believed to have been inspired by 17th-century alchemist Johann Konrad Dippel. Certainly, the author and people in her environment were aware of the experiment on electricity and dead tissues by Luigi Galvani and his nephew Antonio Aldini and the work of Alessandro Volta at the University of Pavia.[citation needed]

Origin of the character

Bysshe Shelley, 1st Baronet of Castle Goring, and Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel.[3] As stated in the novel, Frankenstein's family is one of the most distinguished of the Genevese republic and his ancestors were counselors and syndics. Percy Shelley's sister and Frankenstein's adopted sister were both named Elizabeth. On 22 February 1815, Mary Shelley delivered a baby two months premature; the child died two weeks later.[4]
The question of Frankenstein's responsibility to the creature – in some ways like that of a parent to a child – is one of the main themes of the book.

One of the characters of François-Félix Nogaret [fr]'s novella Le Miroir des événements actuels ou la Belle au plus offrant, published in 1790, is an inventor named "Wak-wik-vauk-an-son-frankésteïn",[5] then abridged as "Frankésteïn", but there is no proof Shelley had read it.[6]

History

Victor Frankenstein was born in

Swiss family.[7] He was the son of Alphonse Frankenstein and Caroline Beaufort, who died of scarlet fever when Victor was 17.[8] He describes his ancestry thus: "I am by birth a Genevese; and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic. My ancestors had been for many years counsellors and syndics; and my father had filled several public situations with honour and reputation."[9] Frankenstein has two younger brothers – William, the youngest, and Ernest, the middle child.[10] Frankenstein falls in love with Elizabeth Lavenza, who became his adoptive sister (his blood cousin in the 1818 edition) and, eventually, his fiancée.[11]

As a boy, Frankenstein is interested in the works of

Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus, and he longs to discover the fabled elixir of life. At the age of fifteen, he loses interest in both these pursuits and in science as a whole after he sees a tree destroyed by a lightning strike and a scientist explains the theory of electricity to him. It seems to him as if nothing can really be known about the world, and he instead devotes himself to studying mathematics, which he describes as "being built upon secure foundations."[12] However, at the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria, Frankenstein develops a fondness for chemistry,[12] and within two years, his commitment and scientific ability allow him to make discoveries that earn him admiration at the university. He then becomes curious about the nature of life and his studies lead him to a miraculous discovery that enables him to create life in inanimate matter.[13]

Assembling a humanoid creature through corpse assembling and ambiguous means involving electricity, Frankenstein successfully brings it to life, but he is horrified by the creature's ugliness.[14] He flees from his creation, who disappears[14] and, after several negative encounters with the locals, swears revenge on his creator.[15] When William is found murdered, Frankenstein knows instantly that his creation is the killer,[10] but says nothing. The Frankensteins' housekeeper, Justine, is blamed for the boy's death and executed; Frankenstein is wracked with guilt but does not come forward with the truth because he thinks no one will believe his story, and he is afraid of the reactions such a story would provoke.[16]

The creature approaches Frankenstein and begs him to create a female companion for him.[17] Frankenstein agrees, but ultimately destroys this creation, fearing the idea of a race of monsters. Enraged, the creature swears revenge; he kills Henry Clerval, Frankenstein's best friend, and promises Frankenstein, "I shall be with you on your wedding night."[18] The creature keeps his promise by strangling Elizabeth on her matrimonial bed. Within a few days, Frankenstein's father dies of grief.[19] With nothing else left to live for, Frankenstein dedicates his life to destroying the creature.[20]

Frankenstein pursues the "fiend" or "Demon" (as he calls his creation) to the Arctic, intending to destroy it. Although he is rescued by a ship attempting an expedition to the North Pole, he dies after relating his tale to the ship's captain, Robert Walton. His creature, upon discovering the death of his creator, is overcome by sorrow and guilt and vows to commit suicide by burning himself alive in "the Northernmost extremity of the globe;" he then disappears, never to be seen or heard from again.[20]

Characterization

While many subsequent

Hammer Films series starring Peter Cushing) have portrayed Frankenstein as the prototypical "mad scientist", the novel portrayed him as a tragic figure
.

In the book, Frankenstein has many characteristics of a great scientist. At a young age, he has the initiative to study natural philosophy and mathematics.[12] As an adult, he attributes his accomplishments in chemistry to the effort he put into the discipline, rather than his intelligence.[13] Frankenstein also has great curiosity about the world, and even recalls that some of his earliest memories were his realizations about the laws of nature.[12] It is his curiosity about the cause of life that leads him to creating the monster.[13]

Obsession plays a major role in the development of Frankenstein's character. First, as a

life sciences – mainly dealing with death and the reanimation of corpses.[13]
Finally, after the monster is created, Frankenstein is consumed with guilt, despair, and regret, leading him to obsess over the nature of his creation and seek revenge.

Mythological influences

Mary Shelley's novel presents a Promethean theme of defiance of the gods, in reference to the mythological hero. The title of the novel echoes the call of the French materialist philosopher, La Mettrie (1709-1751), in 1747, in his Homme machine, for the advent of a "new Prometheus" who would set in motion a reconstituted human machine.[21][N 1]

Mary Shelley did not invent the expression, which had already been used in the early 18th century and, closer to its end, by Immanuel Kant,[22] and Frankenstein goes far beyond the technical substratum, presenting, in addition to its borrowings from myth, metaphysical, aesthetic and ethical aspects.[23]

Frankenstein tells the story of a man seeking to surpass his condition, akin to that of Icarus, the bird-man destroyed by the physical order of the universe.[24] It also evokes the more recent eighteenth-century Faust;[25] Shelley refers to the Faustian idea that knowledge intoxicates the soul and proves dangerous when it becomes excessive, becoming in itself "a serpent's bite".[26] Frankenstein also evokes Pygmalion,[26] king of Cyprus and a sculptor in love with the statue of a woman he has just completed, a new Galatea of flesh and blood after Aphrodite breathes life into her.[27]

References to the original Prometheus myth

Mary Shelley first refers to the Greek myth of Prometheus, struggling against the omnipotence of

Jupiter and heralding the liberation of mankind.[31]

It was likely from Ovid's Prometheus that Mary Shelley drew both the idea of a living humanoid and the method for breathing life into it.[32] What was the work of a Titan became that of a mortal, but one intoxicated by science to the point of believing in his own immortality. Like the Titan, he uses know-how, in this case acquired through study, particularly of the so-called natural sciences, physics and chemistry.[33]

In other media

Books

Besides the original novel, the character also appears or is mentioned in other books from pastiches to parodies.

  • In the book Frankenstein's Aunt, the Baron's aunt comes to Frankenstein's castle to put it back in order, following the chaos caused by her nephew's experiments. In the novel Frankenstein's Aunt Returns, Frankenstein has created a child for the monster and his bride.
  • In Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein – now going by the alias of Victor Helios – has survived into the present, now living in New Orleans while arranging for the creation of his 'New Race' of humanity, now growing his creations in tanks after acquiring funding from the likes of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Fidel Castro over the centuries. His creations are mentally and emotionally defective, however, and Helios is forced to kill them, all while convinced that it is due to a flaw in his process rather than being able to acknowledge that his own warped views are the reasons his creations break down due to the hopelessness of their lives and inability to find their own purpose. He is opposed in his 'quest' by his original creation – now called Deucalion, who has mastered the ability to teleport due to the unique circumstances of his creation – and two New Orleans detectives.
  • In Kenneth Oppel's novel This Dark Endeavor and its sequel Such Wicked Intent, Frankenstein is portrayed as a 16-year-old aspiring scientist who creates his own creature from the body of his deceased twin brother, Konrad.
  • In Peter Ackroyd's novel, The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein, as the protagonist begins conducting anatomical experiments to reanimate the dead, he at first uses corpses supplied by the coroner. But these specimens prove imperfect for Victor's purposes. Moving his makeshift laboratory to a deserted pottery factory in Limehouse, he makes contact with the Doomsday men – the resurrectionists – whose grisly methods put Frankenstein in great danger as he works feverishly to bring life to the terrifying creature that will bear his name for eternity.[34]
  • In the 2001 Curtis Jobling book, Frankenstein's Cat, it features Frankenstein, sometime before creating his monster, creating a cat called Nine (named because he was made out of nine cats). This book was later adapted into a television series in 2007.

Film

Victor Frankenstein (1910 film)
  • Victor Frankenstein's first appearance on screen was in a 1910 film (produced by Thomas Edison) in which he seemed more of a magician.
  • The character's first significant film appearance was in Universal Pictures' 1931 film adaptation, directed by James Whale. Here, the character is renamed Henry Frankenstein (a later film shows his tombstone bearing the name Heinrich von Frankenstein) and is played by British actor Colin Clive opposite Boris Karloff as the monster. Clive reprised his role in the 1935 sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, which reunited Clive, Whale and Karloff, as well as first giving Frankenstein the official title of Baron. Although the character is not present in the following sequels due to Clive's death in 1937, an oil painting of Frankenstein (as portrayed by Clive) appears in 1939's Son of Frankenstein; he is also the title character, in spite of having only a cameo, in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), where his ghost is portrayed by Cedric Hardwicke (who also plays Henry's son Ludwig Frankenstein in the film).
Frankenstein played by Peter Cushing in The Curse of Frankenstein
  • The character gained new life in 1957 when
    Hammer Films' The Curse of Frankenstein, opposite Christopher Lee as the Creature. Cushing went on to star as Victor Frankenstein, identified as a Baron, in five more films for the studio, with each subsequent movie in the series uncovering different aspects of the character; for example, in 1958’s The Revenge of Frankenstein he shows genuine concern for the patients of the poor hospital he controls, in contrast to the Baron as portrayed in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), where Cushing is a ruthless megalomaniac
    who utilises blackmail, rape and murder to terrorise those around him.
  • The 1967 film Mad Monster Party? featured Baron Boris von Frankenstein (voiced by Boris Karloff) who is based on Victor Frankenstein. Boris discovers the secret to total destruction and plans to reveal it to the Worldwide Organization of Monsters while announcing his retirement. He has a nephew named Felix Flanken, whom he claims is the son of his youngest sister (an expert in witchcraft) and a medicine man, though the film's twist ending reveals him to actually be a sentient automaton built by Boris.
  • After Cushing temporarily retired from the role following 1969's Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, Hammer decided to reboot the series for the 1970s. The Horror of Frankenstein was a tongue-in-cheek black comedy remake of The Curse of Frankenstein, which featured Ralph Bates as a younger, "hipper" Baron in the sinister mold of Cushing's interpretation. After the film failed to be the success Hammer had hoped for, they brought Cushing back for one final film, in 1974's Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.
  • The 1972 TV film Mad Mad Mad Monsters (a "prequel of sorts" to Mad Monster Party?) featured Baron Henry von Frankenstein (voiced by Bob McFadden impersonating Boris Karloff). In the TV film, Henry and his assistant Igor construct and bring to life a female monster, intended to be the original creature's bride. Frankenstein goes to the Transylvania Astoria Hotel in order to make the wedding arrangements.
  • Udo Kier played Baron Victor Frankenstein in 1973's Flesh for Frankenstein. This version of the character is a serial killer who is married to his own sister.
  • Leonard Whiting played Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein: The True Story (1973).
  • Robert Foxworth played Victor Frankenstein in a 1973 television adaptation Frankenstein.
  • In Mel Brooks' 1974 comedy Young Frankenstein, Gene Wilder portrays Frederick Frankenstein, grandson of Victor Frankenstein, who inherits the family estate, but is ashamed of his grandfather's work (to the point of insisting that his name is pronounced "Fronk-en-steen"). He is ultimately inspired to take up the work, eventually creating his own monster (played by Peter Boyle).
  • Barrett Oliver portrays a young version of Victor Frankenstein in 1984 short film Frankenweenie, directed by Tim Burton. Charlie Tahan plays Victor in the 2012 animated remake
    .
  • Sting appeared as "Charles" Frankenstein in 1985's The Bride opposite Clancy Brown as the monster.
  • Raul Julia portrayed Frankenstein in Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound (1990) based on the Brian Aldiss novel.
  • In 1992, a
    Turner Pictures. It starred Patrick Bergin as Victor and Randy Quaid as the monster. In this film, Victor clones himself instead of creating the creature from the dead. In this adaptation, Victor and the monster share a psychic
    link, and can sense each other's presence.
  • Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) opposite Robert De Niro
    as the monster.
  • In the 1999 animated film Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein is the main antagonist voiced by Michael Bell. After secretly creating the monster in a roller coaster, his lab is discovered by the Chipmunks and he sends his creation after them. After the creature had not returned, he goes to the Chipmunks' house and kidnaps Alvin. He then uses a formula that makes Alvin go out of control. After Alvin is returned to normal, Frankenstein, in disguise as the park's mascot Sammy the Squirrel, tries to electrocute him, but is electrocuted by his own creation. When he regains consciousness, he is unable to get the mask off him. Later near the end of the film, he appears as the theme park's entertainer.
  • In the 2004 film
    Gabriel Van Helsing
    .
  • The 2004 independent movie Frankenstein features a Victor Frankenstein known as Victor Helios (portrayed by Thomas Kretschmann), who has used his own research to extend his life into the modern day, where he continues his experiments to create life with the goal of replacing humanity with his own creatures. He is opposed by his original creation, who is determined to defeat his creator while being hampered by a mental 'block' Helios has installed in all his creatures to prevent them from harming him.
  • The 2004 Hallmark TV production of Frankenstein starred Alec Newman as Victor Frankenstein opposite of Luke Goss as the monster.
  • The 2007 film Frankenstein introduces Victoria Frankenstein. Instead of making the creature out of corpses, she uses stem cells, intending to use her experiment to save her dying son. The experiment goes wrong, however, and the creature escapes. When Frankenstein catches up with the monster, she comes to love it because it is her only remaining link to her son who has since died.
  • Victor Frankenstein briefly appears in the 2014 film I, Frankenstein, in which he is played by Aden Young.
  • Victor Frankenstein was portrayed by James McAvoy in the 2015 film Victor Frankenstein. In this version, he rescues Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) – formerly an unnamed hunchback from a circus who impressed Victor with his exceptional self-taught medical skills – to enlist him as his partner in creating life, later attributing his desire as a means of making up for a childhood incident where his elder brother died in a blizzard. Although Victor acknowledges that his first human creation has no true spark of life in it, the film concludes with him speculating how he shall improve on his project in the future.

Television

Theatre

  • The 2007 Off-Broadway musical, Frankenstein – A New Musical portrays Victor Frankenstein as the naïve young student of Mary Shelley's original novel.
  • In 2011 the stage adaptation Frankenstein (by Nick Dear) directed by Oscar winner Danny Boyle premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, who swapped the roles of Frankenstein and his creature at his representation. The play won numerous awards and massive acclaim from critics and audiences, was recorded live twice to capture both sets of performance, and has been broadcast to cinemas around the world as a part of the National Theatre Live programme.[36]
  • Also in 2011, a unique, musical adaptation called Frankenstein's Wedding: Live in Leeds was performed in front of a group of 12,000 at the Kirkstall Abbey. It incorporated footage, filmed prior to the performance, focusing mostly on Frankenstein (played by Andrew Gower) and his creation of the creature, with the live show focusing mainly on Frankenstein's wedding to Liz (played by Lacey Turner), and the tragic story that follows. The show also starred Mark Williams as Alphonse Frankenstein, and David Harewood as The Creature. The show was broadcast live on BBC Three on 9 March.

Computer and video games

Web

  • A 2014 ongoing web series Frankenstein, MD, created by PBS Digital Studios and Pemberley Digital, focuses on Victoria Frankenstein, a medical student determined to prove herself in her field. This series gender-swaps several characters – Elizabeth becomes Eli Lavenza and Henry becomes Rory Clerval.

Ballet

  • In 2016, The Royal Ballet[38] and The San Francisco Ballet[39] co-produced an adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel. The evening-length ballet was choreographed and led by the former Royal Ballet principal dancer and Artist in Residence of The Royal Ballet, Liam Scarlett. The ballet features music by Lowell Liebermann, set design by John Macfarlane, lighting by David Finn, and production design by Finn Ross. It held its world premiere at The Royal Ballet's Covent Garden on 4 May 2016 and the SF Ballet premiere on 17 February 2017.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Insofar as La Mettrie was part of a movement of mechanistic philosophers and even technicians striving to create an artificial man, the emphasis right from the start is on manufacturing, and on the very modern.

References

  1. ^ Sandy, Mark (2002-09-20). "Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire". The Literary Encyclopedia. The Literary Dictionary Company. Archived from the original on 2006-11-08. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  2. ^ "Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)". Romantic Natural History. Department of English, Dickinson College. Archived from the original on 2006-08-16. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  3. Percy Shelley#Ancestry
  4. ^ "Journal 6 December – Very Unwell. Shelley & Clary walk out, as usual, to heaps of places...A letter from Hookham to say that Harriet has been brought to bed of a son and heir. Shelley writes a number of circular letters on this event, which ought to be ushered in with ringing of bells, etc., for it is the son of his wife." Quoted in Spark, 39.
  5. Gallica
    .
  6. S2CID 143492105
    .
  7. ^ Shelley, Mary (1831). Frankenstein (3 ed.). Chapter I.
  8. ^ Shelley, Mary (1831). Frankenstein (3 ed.). Chapter III.
  9. ^ Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus Chapter 1 (first sentence)
  10. ^ a b Shelley, Mary (1831). Frankenstein (3 ed.). Chapter VII.
  11. ^ Shelley, Mary (1831). Frankenstein (3 ed.). Chapter XXI.
  12. ^ a b c d e Shelley, Mary (1831). Frankenstein (3 ed.). Chapter II.
  13. ^ a b c d Shelley, Mary (1831). Frankenstein (3 ed.). Chapter IV.
  14. ^ a b Shelley, Mary (1831). Frankenstein (3 ed.). Chapter V.
  15. ^ Shelley, Mary (1831). Frankenstein (3 ed.). Chapter XVI.
  16. ^ Shelley, Mary (1831). Frankenstein (3 ed.). Chapter VIII.
  17. ^ Shelley, Mary (1831). Frankenstein (3 ed.). Chapter X.
  18. ^ Shelley, Mary (1831). Frankenstein (3 ed.). Chapter XX.
  19. ^ Shelley, Mary (1831). Frankenstein (3 ed.). Chapter XXIII.
  20. ^ a b Shelley, Mary (1831). Frankenstein (3 ed.). Chapter XXIV.
  21. ^ Duperray 1994, p. 33.
  22. ^ "L'homme-machine et Emmanuel Kant". jeanpaulcoupal.blogspot.fr. 22 January 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013..
  23. ^ Eslahpazir, Jobin, Résumé, Fiche de lecture, Frankenstein ou le Prométhée moderne (in French), Québec, p. 3.
  24. ^ Férone, Geneviève; Vincent, Jean-Didier, Bienvenue en Transhumanie : Sur l'homme de demain, Paris, Grasset, 2011, chapitre 1.
  25. ^ Lecercle 1988, p. 24.
  26. ^ a b Essaka Joshua, Mary Shelley: Frankenstein, Humanities-Ebooks, 2008, 77 p.
  27. ^ "Pygmalion roi de Chypre et sculpteur". mythologica.fr. Retrieved 15 May 2013..
  28. ^ Blunden, Edmund, Shelley, New York, Viking Press, 1947, pp. 153-154.
  29. ^ Bigland, Eileen, Mary Shelley, Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1959, pp. 94-95.
  30. ^ Zillman, Lawrence, Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1959, p. 3.
  31. ^ Mulhallen, Jacqueline, The Theatre of Shelley, Cambridge, Open Book Publishers, 2010, pp. 147-176.
  32. ^ Shelley, Mary, Journal, p. 43-47.
  33. ^ Duperray 1994, p. 19.
  34. OCLC 297147180
    .
  35. Titan Books, London, October 2013, p. 162. Facsimile by Google Books.
    "David Anders Talks Once Upon a Time Season 3 & Which Disney Characters He Wants to See Next!". Archived
    from the original on 2017-04-15. Retrieved 2017-07-27.
  36. ^ "National Theatre Live programme / Broadcasts – FRANKENSTEIN – with Benedict Cumberbatch & Jonny Lee Miller – (directed by Danny Boyle)". National Theatre Live. 2013. Archived from the original on 6 September 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
  37. ^ Noble Wolf (10 July 2011). "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow The Movie Episode 10". Archived from the original on 2021-11-17 – via YouTube.
  38. ^ "Frankenstein – Productions – Royal Opera House". www.roh.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2017-10-16. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  39. ^ "San Francisco Ballet – Production". www.sfballet.org. Archived from the original on 2018-03-29. Retrieved 2018-03-28.

Sources

  • Duperray, Max (1994). Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (in French and English). Vanves: CNED.
  • Lecercle, Jean-Jacques (1988). Frankenstein: mythe et philosophie. Paris: PUF.
    ISBN 978-2-13-041872-6
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Victor_Frankenstein&oldid=1220385925"