Hardships of a Single Mother in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Many people believe that there are several noteworthy issues in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. These issues include parenting, metaphors of the relationship between Victor and the creature, and Shelley’s own anxiety about parenting. Out of the three movies that we have seen, it is clear that the 1994 film Frankenstein directed by Kenneth Branagh is the most compelling film adaptation of the creation chapters in Shelley’s novel. During the creation scene in this movie, the viewer can clearly see that Branagh is showing the relationship between Frankenstein and a single mother. The 1931 production of Frankenstein had an interesting character portrayal of Frankenstein. Young Frankenstein, produced by Mel Brooks, also had good character portrayal along with some comical scenes. However, both of these films have poor special effects, such as video and sound quality. Because of this, I found it hard to even follow along with each of these movies. In Young Frankenstein, it was almost too comical for me to make a relationship between the movie and Mary Shelley’s book. I appreciate what Mel Brooks is trying to do, but Shelley did not write the story in a comical manner.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley examines her own fears and thoughts about pregnancy, childbirth, and child development. Pregnancy and childbirth, as well as death, was an important part of Mary Shelley's young adult life. She had four children and a miscarriage that almost killed her all before the age of twenty-five. Mary was expressing her fears related to the death of her first child, her ability to nurture, and the fact that her mother died having her. All of this is expressed in Victor Frankenstein's complete failure in parenting. For approximately nine months, Victor Frankenstein labored on the creation of his child. Finally, he witnesses the birth and says “I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard,...