Frankenstein (2025): Who's The Real Monster?

 This past weekend, my mom and I watched Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein.  The movie - while being a bit different from Mary Shelley's novel - left a deep impact on me.  From the sceneries to the characters, the movie was amazing in all aspects of the word.  This blog might be a bit shorter than the rest, because I'm going to jump straight into the analysis section.  I highly recommend watching the movie for yourself if you haven't already (because this post will contain spoilers).  So, join me as I analyse the characters and the story of Frankenstein.

Only Monsters Play God

In the movie Victor Frankenstein is portrayed to be this charismatic scientist who wants to create life from nothing.  One of the first scenes in Victor's flashback is of him trying to persuade a group of high scholars of his research by showing them how he brought life to the top-half of a human.  Although it was extremely impressive, the judges of the meeting decided to stop the presentation, because they viewed it as blasphemous.

This scene alone already showed a big difference between book Victor and movie Victor.  Book Victor never told anyone about his work and was quite the coward overall, but movie Victor is the exact opposite.  He told an entire room of people about his plan and is overall much more charismatic in the movie.  Oscar Isaac does an amazing job in playing a charismatic, yet obsessive character.  

In a flashback we also see that Victor lost his mother at a young age and that his father was quite abusive to him.  His father wanted him to also be a great surgeon like him and forced him to study for hours on end.  That is one of the reasons why Victor's experiment went wrong, because he tried to use the same methods his father used on him when he was a child.  If the Creature didn't do as he said, Victor hit and yelled at him.  Generational trauma is one of the main themes of the movie, because Victor abused the creature just like his father did to him.  I would also like to add that this is another deviation from the book, because in the book Victor's father is described as a very loving man. 

We see more of Victor's obsessive side when he first meets his brother's fiance, Elizabeth.  Victor is obsessed with her in the movie, and she is quite the contrast to Victor.  While Victor sees the Creature as a science experiment, Elizabeth sees him as a human being, and treats him like one too.  The second word the creature speaks is the name Elizabeth.  In the movie, the only word that the Creature can say at first is Victor.  Elizabeth says something in the movie that really affected me and made me feel even more sorry for the Creature, she said something along the lines of "he said your name, because it meant the world to him".  

The Creature

Next, I want to talk about the creature before explaining the ending of the movie.  The Creature (played by Jacob Elordi) in this movie is much, much more nuanced than the one in the older movies.  The old Frankenstein movies made the Creature look like this braindead villian who only wants to kill, while in the book the Creature was very smart, could speak fluent French and enjoyed literature. 

 One of the books he read and enjoyed a lot was Paradise Lost.  For those who don't know, Paradise Lost is a book that takes place between the creation of Adam and Eve and the fall of man, but it is from the point of view of Satan.  In the book, the Creature first felt a stronger connection to Adam, because he wanted to be loved by his creator, but ultimately felt more connected to Satan, because he could relate to being cast out by his creator and being vengeful towards him.  

In the movie, Victor tries to burn down the castle where he did his experiments with the Creature inside.  Luckily, the Creature escaped just in time and decided to take refuge in what he thought was an abandoned house.  When the house's occupants came back, the Creature hid in the mill part of the house.  There the Creature helped the family at night when they couldn't see him and he learned how to talk and read by watching the old man teach his grand-daughter.  

After the family left again, the Creature decided to make himself known to the old man (who was left behind).  Because he was blind, the old man didn't know that the creature wasn't a normal human, so they started to bond and the Creature read books to the man to keep him entertained.  Later on, after he went away and found out about how he was made, he saw that wolfs attacked the old man.  Sadly, he passed away.  Just when he passed in the Creature's arms, the house's occupants came back and shot him multiple times and left him in the snow.  That is when we found out that the Creature is immortal in this adaptation, which only furthers the tragedy of his situation.  

The Creature is an extremely tragic character, because he can't die and because Victor didn't want to create a partner for him, so he is doomed to be alone forever.  Elizabeth's death really brought a turning point to the Creature's life.  After her death the Creature became much more vengeful towards Victor.  Her death also spawned the cat-and-mouse game of the Creature chasing Victor and Victor trying to kill him (which is where the movie starts, in the north pole on a ship that found Victor unconscious).      

Ending Explained

After hearing the Creature's tale, Victor felt actual remorse for his actions and decided to ask the Creature for it's forgiveness before his passed away.  He also asked him to say his name like he used to, when it meant the world to him and he does.  Victor also tells the Creature to go live his life to the fullest.  Victor Frankenstein then passes away with his creation by his side.  After that, the Creature left the ship and helped to push it out of the frozen water to save the crew before taking in the rising sun like Victor first teached him.  

The feeling that the ending of the movie gave me is very hard to explain.  Because on the one side it's a very hopeful ending, the Creature forgave Victor and even helped the stuck ship; but I still feel very melancholic for the creature's sake.  I mean, it can never die and it doesn't have a companion like him.  But he still looked hopeful for the future when he took in the sunlight.    

Another reason why the ending is quite hopeful is because in his dying moments, Victor saw that he actually succeeded, because the Creature could forgive him.  That showed Victor that he did create an emotionally intelligent being.  It was also good for the Creature, because forgiving Victor set him free from that cat-and-mouse game he had with him, and he finally got the chance to live his life.  That's why he smiled while taking in the rising sun - a symbol of hope.  

 In Conclusion...

I don't think I can overstate how good this movie was.  Especially the ending, even though it differed from the book, I really enjoyed the optimistic ending it had.  Every scene and character in this movie was flawless and I'm really happy that more people will view the Creature in a more positive light, instead of just evil.  Also, I hope that more people will now stop calling the Creature "Frankenstein", because he is never called that in the book.  But it is quite ironic how Frankenstein is called the "monster" when in reality Victor Frankenstein is more of a monster than the Creature.  

Thank you so much for reading my post, if you haven't already please click the follow button, because you will then be notified whenever I upload a new post.  Also, if you haven't watched the movie, please do yourself the favour and go watch it, it is out on Netflix.  I hope you enjoyed this post, and until next time, be awesome!