{"id":12909,"date":"2026-03-27T22:14:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T22:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=12909"},"modified":"2026-03-27T22:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T22:15:00","slug":"from-creator-to-fatherhood-a-new-take-on-frankenstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2026\/03\/from-creator-to-fatherhood-a-new-take-on-frankenstein\/","title":{"rendered":"From Creator to Fatherhood: A New Take on Frankenstein"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWho is the true monster: the creator or the creature?\u201d is a common question revolving around Mary Shelley\u2019s novel Frankenstein<\/em>, or The Modern Prometheus<\/em>. Published on New Year’s Day 1818, this immensely popular and enduring classic was written for a horror story contest when Shelley was just 18. Frankenstein<\/em> told the tale of a mad scientist and the consequences of creating an unnamed creature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set against the backdrop of the Enlightenment, Frankenstein<\/em> was widely considered the first science fiction novel, owing to its use of concepts such as galvanism (the use of electricity to create life). Its success was also rooted in the use of Gothic elements and the increasing popularity of romanticizing horror during the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guillermo del Toro\u2019s adaptation of Frankenstein<\/em> was released on Netflix last November. The movie has the heart and bone of Shelley, but the flesh is \u201cunmistakably del Toro\u2019s<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shelley\u2019s personal life heavily influenced her work. Her husband, Percy Shelley, often read Milton\u2019s Paradise Lost<\/em> out loud while Shelley was writing Frankenstein<\/em>. Themes of creation, rebellion and abandonment in the poem directly inspired major parallels in the novel. The creature himself stumbled upon a copy of Paradise Lost<\/em>. Reading brought him comfort, but it also inflicted pain. The creature\u2019s comfort came from realizing that he was like Adam, the first of his kind, and that he also resonated with Satan, who was rejected by his creator. This comfort didn\u2019t last long: the creature came to realize that at least Satan had his followers, but he was completely alone. The poem helped him understand his suffering, where he expressed: \u201cSatan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and detested.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Shelley, del Toro also suggests that the true monster is Victor Frankenstein, not his creature. However, his own twist on Shelley\u2019s novel can be seen in the process by which the viewer reaches that conclusion. In an interview with Tudum by Netflix, Del Toro said, \u201cFor me, it\u2019s the Bible. But I wanted to make it my own, to sing it back in a different key with a different emotion.\u201d While del Toro also had the creature pick up a copy of Paradise Lost, he placed greater emphasis on exploring the paternal aspect of Victor\u2019s feelings toward his creation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of Victor\u2019s childhood was explored more extensively in a ten-minute prologue. Viewers learn that Victor faced his father\u2019s emotional torment and physical abuse while also losing his mother at a young age. This gave him the desire to conquer death and ultimately God by creating life. Victor\u2019s trauma, ostracization and emotional turmoil set the stage for him to ultimately project his suffering onto his creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The creature\u2019s moment of coming into being was like that of a baby being born, or more of a \u201cgiant baby.\u201d Played by Jacob Elordi, who was 6 feet 5 inches tall, he towered over the others but portrayed the creature as a newborn trying to navigate an entirely new world. After narrowly escaping Victor\u2019s attempt at murder by blowing up the lab after his birth, the creature took shelter in the woods and taught himself how to survive. The creature had the purity of childhood innocence, but after being ostracized by mankind, a sense of vengeance towards his creator, Victor, emerged. A \u201cmonster-like\u201d figure starts to appear.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Like a son angry at his father, the creature hunts Victor down at the Frankenstein estate, where William, Victor\u2019s younger brother, is preparing for his wedding to Elizabeth. This differs from the novel, in which Elizabeth and Victor were in a relationship instead. Upon finding Victor, the creature requests that he create a female companion. Victor brutally rejects the plea, unwilling to risk his reputation. The creature, like an angry and hurt child, hurls Victor to the side of the room. Elizabeth enters the room to intervene, but gets caught in the crossfire and is shot by Victor accidentally. The creature flees with her dead body, and Victor sets out to hunt the creature, determined to travel to the ends of the Earth if necessary to put an end to his own creation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A seemingly endless game of \u201ctag\u201d starts to play out as Victor loads his firearm and pursues the creature in the Arctic. However, del Toro shows how a father-son relationship ultimately can\u2019t last like this. The film’s ending left audiences with a much more hopeful note than the novel. In the novel, Victor never had a final conversation with the creature before dying of exhaustion. After years of seeking revenge, neither of them got closure and the novel hinted that the creature ultimately burned himself to death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the movie, however, there was a final conversation between Victor and his creature on Captain Anderson\u2019s ship, during which they exchanged their stories from their own perspectives. The creature\u2019s retelling made Victor come to realize his faults as an ignorant creator and an irresponsible father. Despite everything, the creature forgives him. \u201cIn forgiveness is where the Creature learns that he can finally be human [and] the only way he discovers that is not through violence or revenge,\u201d said Eloridi, \u201cIt\u2019s through actually seeing another person and understanding them and understanding his father\u2019s flaws and that his father came from somewhere as well.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victor ultimately passed away, but before that, he asked the creature to say his name one more time. When the creature was first brought to life, Victor demanded that it call him by name, demonstrating his success in creating life. Now, at the end, \u201cVictor\u201d holds a different value: he is accepted as the son of someone, not an abandoned creation. The ending of this father-and-son dynamic symbolizes how generational trauma can be repaired through mutual acceptance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sun rises in the Arctic Circle, and the creature gazes into the snowy abyss. The film ends on a note of resolution and healing rather than a continuation of hatred and distress. Nevertheless, these two works of art, separated by more than 200 years, both caution against the unethical and irresponsible use of science and ultimately the consequences of playing God.\u00a0

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWho is the true monster: the creator or the creature?\u201d is a common question revolving around Mary Shelley\u2019s novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. Published on New Year’s Day 1818, this immensely popular and enduring classic was written for a horror story contest when Shelley was just 18. Frankenstein told the tale of a mad scientist and the consequences of creating an unnamed creature.  Set against the backdrop of the Enlightenment, Frankenstein was widely considered<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":386,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[319],"tags":[],"coauthors":[643],"class_list":["post-12909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/386"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12910,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12909\/revisions\/12910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12909"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}