Media Frankenstein

The modern representation of Frankenstein’s monster is vastly different then the original book portrayal of the monster. Most Halloween-themed media portray the monster with its arms outstretched slowly marching toward its victims. That was the image I grew up with of the monster. After reading the book, my image of the monster has greatly shifted away from the media interpretation.

The monster was shown to be a fast-learner and intelligent. By the time we get to the monster’s narrative; the second time we meet the monster and a short time after its creation, the monster is shown to be capable of speech and intelligent thinking. It learned human language and human emotion during its time with the De Lacey family. The first time the novel exposes the reader to the monster for a prolonged period is when the monster is telling his story to Dr. Frankenstein. Here the monster articulates his journey after his creation with details and structure an unlearned person could not produce. Instead of representing the intelligence of the monster, modern media has instead displayed a slow, inarticulate, dumber version of the monster. Modern media’s version of Frankenstein and his monster could be seen as an example of Halberstam’s “gothic representation of subjectivity as a balancing act” between conflicting ideals, educated/uneducated or bourgeoisie/proletarian. Dr. Frankenstein epitomizes the well-educated bourgeoisie, and media Frankenstein portrays uneducated proletarian who revolts against his bourgeoisie creator. A part the creation of media’s monster could be attributed to monster as a sport theory from Daston and Park. A scary monster will get people talking and more views.  A scarier monster could be created by taking away human characteristics, for example, emotions and intellect. As a result the media monster was produced.