FROM TEXT TO SCREEN: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN AND ITS MAJOR FILM ADAPTATIONS

Abstract

This study examines the adaptation of Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley in three screen versions, namely, Frankenstein (1931), The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), and Mary Shelley Frankenstein (1994). Despite the numerous retellings that have been inspired by the novel, there is scanty academic effort to compare how these movies adapt the novel’s themes, characters and narrative patterns. The present study utilizes a qualitative comparative approach based on Adaptation Theory, especially the models of Hutcheon, Stam, Sanders, and McFarlane as a way of discussing the textual and filial elements. The results indicate that all adaptations represent the cultural fears of the period: technological modernity and mechanization in the 1930s, post-war violence and bodily horror in the 1950s, and bioethical concerns on genetic manipulation in the 1990s. The paper concludes that the film versions of Frankenstein are not direct reproductions, but rather cultural reinterpretations; in that the film versions reformulate the philosophical and moral issues of Shelley in the evolving social, technological and industrial environments.