Treatment For A Modern Frankenstein

Treatment for a Modern Frankenstein

Introduction

The greatest job a director can do is to convert the novel into a movie and translate to thee audience the exact same message or a true interpretation of the novel the author was giving. Basically the movie would begin in a cemetery by the funeral of creator of the monster in laid in the cemetery. The characters will be having shadows and the climate will be stormy especially outside the laboratory in which Doctor Frankenstein works. The creature would appear from the dead with black clothes. The Frankenstein is in reality interpreted as the craving for knowledge that led people exploring even beyond the limits; man’s great desire to comprehend and try to be in charge of the world around him and control himself.

Major Themes

Dangerous Knowledge: Frankenstein collected some human body parts and went to his laboratory where he placed the scavenged body parts and some mysterious compounds into a huge cauldron. Keeping the metal doors closed and watching in conquest behind the class window, Frankenstein discovers that the something was shaping up in the cauldron. To his humiliation the creature that comes out is not a perfect human being as he had anticipated in his dream but rather a monster! This shows the price of pursuing dangerous knowledge was very big and dangerous

As a scientist, Victor Frankenstein was very obsessed with pursuing the secrecy of life that he ended up surging beyond the accepted confines as he accessed the secret of life. While in college, Ingolstadt, Frankenstein became very exhausted with his pursuit of the secret of life

Treatment for a Modern Frankenstein

that he suffered and had to be nursed by his childhood friend and a friend to the Victor family as well, Henry Clerval. Henry also started to follow the works of Frankenstein as a scientist; yet he previously studied languages (Shelley & Tavner 2009).

The pursuit of knowledge by scientist sees them go beyond the previous human explorations and the results of the pursuit become very dangerous to the lives and peace of the scientists. Captain Robert Walton goes beyond the preceding human explorations by venturing to reach the North Pole where he finds Frankenstein. (Shelley & Tavner 2009). The captain seems to believe in science and the pursuit of knowledge as he wonders what could not be discovered in the world of eternal light! Light refers to knowledge as used in this book. the faith and optimism displayed by Walton about science makes him think that the world was a dark place (lack of knowledge) full of secrets, hidden passages and unknown mechanisms and it was up to the scientists to discover the secrets and reveal the truths behind these mysteries.

Literally fire and light are closely related and the fact that one could see light then fire is close. The monster discovers that fire shed some light in the dark when it first experienced it; however when he tried to touch it the fire harmed him. The pursuit of knowledge became very dangerous as Frankenstein’s own creation, the monster ended up killing almost everybody that Victor held dear and was close to. Led with rage and vengeance, victor comes to die as he seeks to hit back at the monster. Captain Walton on the other hand is caught up in ice sheets and having leant from the story, he pulls back his mission as the quest of knowledge was proving to be hazardous (Shelley & Tavner 2009).

Frankenstein also referred to as the modern Prometheus is likened to the legendary story of the Greek god who gave out the knowledge of fire to the mankind generation and when his superiors found out he was harshly punished for it. Victor is like the modern Prometheus who attempt to give out the secret of life and is ruthlessly punished for it but unlike in the Greek myth, the knowledge of life remains a secret in Frankenstein (Shelley & Tavner 2009).

Secrecy: Captain sees the world as a dark place full of secret, hidden passageways and

Treatment for a Modern Frankenstein

undiscovered mechanism and that it is the role of science to solve the mystery. Victor Frankenstein became obsessed with the stories about how human life could be revived from the tales and other outdated theories and even went ahead to make one human like creature. (Shelley & Tavner 2009).

Victor visualizes the science and secret to life as a mystery to be probed and discovery of the secrets have to be jealously safeguarded. His teacher at the college, Mr. Krempe who was also a philosopher and a scientist helps to infuse the life myth and theories. Victor considers him as a model scientist, though uncouth he was deeply rooted in the secrecy of science and life. Being able to safeguard the secret of life and conscientiously protecting it is seen as a very critical characteristic of scientists. The reason why Philosopher Krempe does not give out the secrets of science claiming that nature itself did not expose how life was created also Victor does not tell any one about his vengeance for the monster who murdered the people dear to him until when he is about to die, he tells the story to captain Walton (Shelley & Tavner 2009).

As Frankenstein wears down in secrecy, guilt and shame, the monster ran into hiding because of its grotesque looks. Walton is the final confessor of the events that masked the pursuit of knowledge in the life of the scientist as perilous as victor confessed to him just before he died. Victor relieves himself of the oppressive secrecy that ruined his life as he makes the confessions to captain Walton and in the same way, the monster desperately tries to get someone to understand and sympathize with his miserable existence by making a human connection(Shelley & Tavner 2009)..

Existence of Sprits: Traditionally, the sublime nature of creature was used in myths to explain the possible existence of spirits. It also covered the romance and the emotional experience of people. In this story, Victor, The scientist also believes in existence of spirits and this is revealed when he heads to the mountains to seek vengeance on the monster after the deaths of his brother William and the adopted cousin Justine. This explains the perceived relationship between the spirit world and real life, equally, the monster is described to feel its heart lightened after the hellish winter of freezing and desertion. The influence of nature on people is quite apparent in the book but for Victor this power of nature wanes away when he realizes that the monster was set to haunt him regardless of where he runs (Shelley & Tavner 2009).At the end of the story, Frankenstein goes after the monster obsessively; natural world in the appearance of the arctic deserts symbolically describes the background for his vengeance against the

Treatment for a Modern Frankenstein

monster.

The Characters

The Frankenstein story is very critical to the modern science interpretation and casting it as a science fiction movie can be very challenging since it can be very difficult to bring out the real concept. In the modern world, it’s evident that ‘Frankenstein’ still exists. Looking at history of medicine practice, we can note that baby Fae miraculously survived for over a month after a transplant of a baboon heart in 1984. In the year 1997, the Scottish scientists announced that they had cloned a sheep successfully. In the year 2002, scientists in the US were able to decode the whole human genome and speculations for the creation or cloning of a real person are just at the horizon. Who knows what would result in understanding the life of human being and the individualism it has flickered in public deliberations with reference to the confines of science and its control.

In the cast of a science movie, Dr Frankenstein will be represented by a young, curious and overambitious doctor as in the modern would who wants to explore the genetic engineering to the fullest. The branch of science in the cast will be genetic engineering especially cloning as the subject of concern. There are so many genetically engineered foodstuffs coming to the market referred to as Franken foods and this causes concern that needs to be addressed. Basically, many of the things done in the laboratories just remain a secret the way Dr. Frankenstein did about his creature, he never told anybody about it until when he was dying. (Shelley & Tavner 2009).

The monster in this science movies cast will be an alien formed from either cloning or mutation of some genes being engineered. Basically mutations can result in very strange beings, some could very powerful and a number of the mutants are deadly. This will be very perfect for creating a monster that is ruthless to human beings and it will have maximum intelligence just as aliens are usually depicted in movies to be extremely intelligence and dangerous in fact they are usually out of control (Back 1995).

Treatment for a Modern Frankenstein

Just to shock up the audience a little bit, the movies will have one of the clones get alienated and unable to die meaning that it would be immortal. In this case, that dangerous creature will turn against man, devouring him and destroying everything it its way and no matter how hard people try to kill it will find a way of cloning itself and coming back again ands again. Recasting the movies in a scientific setting as it is in the modern world, the monster will be made in a modern laboratory but would sneak away being able to detect its creators and being very intelligent just as the aliens are supposedly are, it will hunt down those who made it(Back 1995).

The death of William will be depicted in serious murders that the aliens would be causing to the families of the doctors who created them. Those who are close to the enthusiastic doctor who creates this alien because of his zeal for knowledge and create life will face the consequences when the alien comes by for vengeance. Robert Walton will be used to bring out the story just as the narrator to his sister. Elizabeth who happens to a be a fiancé to Dr. Frankenstein, William his brother and Justine the adopted cousin will be the closest people to the passionate doctor who will suffer the wrath of the alien just before the doctor decide to speak out his secret to someone (Captain Walton) who happens to come across him in his most desperate moments of near death (Back 1995).

Conclusion

In the modern age, the issues of responsibility still loom in moist debates especially when it comes to science and its limits. This film will be done in hopes that the audience will take the changes to reevaluate and explore the wider concerns or power and ethical concerns that were originally indented by Shelley in writing the Frankenstein story. Mary Shelly offered the world very critical blue prints for the danger that awaits mistakes that people make. Frankenstein still echoes because there are still questions and debates concerning the limit between good and the scientific research or is it misused science. For instance, the technology used for the examination of the DNA in the labs and growing stem cells could be not accurate on not. This is a bad example of using science.

Treatment for a Modern Frankenstein

Reference

Back K. W. (1995). Frankenstein’ and Brave New World – 2 Cautionary Myths on the Boundaries of Science. History of European Ideas 20; 326 – 331.

Shelley M.W & Tavner G. L (2009). Frankenstein – Real Reads. Windmill Books