\n Frankenstein at 200\u00a0and why Mary Shelley was far more than the sum of her monster’s parts<\/a><\/p>\n
It is divided into two parts \u2013 scientist Victor Frankenstein\u2019s (Oscar Issac) narrative and then the Creature\u2019s (Jacob Elordi) narrative \u2013 framed by and interspersed with the story of a ship caught in the ice and a captain faced with mutinous sailors who want to give up on their foolhardy mission and return home. This very much follows Shelley\u2019s original tale. <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/file-20251015-56-waiej4.jpg\")
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A Consultation of Physicians, or The Company of Undertakers is an engraving by the English artist William Hogarth that satirises the medical profession.
\n Wellcome<\/p>\n
The main narrative in the film has been moved to 1857; Shelley\u2019s book is set in the 1790s. This enables a far greater range of technology to be employed \u2013 from early photography, flushable toilets, and gigantic voltaic piles, which were the first electrical batteries.<\/p>\n
However, many scenes evoke earlier times, such as the gowns and wigs of the medical professionals who reject Victor Frankenstein\u2019s heretical experiments with corpses. These have an 18th-century aesthetic, wearing large white wigs like those depicted in William Hogarth\u2019s 1736 engraving A Consultation of Physicians, or The Company of Undertakers<\/a>. <\/p>\n The film makes full use of historical medical knowledge. For example, one breakthrough in Victor\u2019s experiments comes when he is given a map of the lymphatic system, which is said to be the fifth long lost Evelyn Table<\/a>. The real four tables are from 17th-century Italy and were an educational tool to demonstrate the vein, artery and nervous systems. Famously, these wooden boards were pasted with real human tissue. <\/p>\n Read more: Just as the surgeon who gathered the material for the Evelyn Tables is unlikely to have asked for the patient\u2019s consent before their death, Victor is relentless in his search for body parts to build his monster. One of the most visceral scenes is of him surrounded by piles of heads, legs, and other human parts, sawing off what he intends to use, and lugging sacks of unwanted bits of bodies to be slung into the gutter. <\/p>\n Throughout, Victor is brilliant but single-minded to the point of monomania. He is likened, as he is in the novel\u2019s subtitle, to the mythological figure Prometheus who stole fire from the gods to give to humans. But, unlike Prometheus, Victor\u2019s actions seem to lack much altruistic purpose.<\/p>\n The one character who sees through him is Elizabeth Lavenza (Mia Goth), newly imagined as the intended wife of Victor\u2019s brother William (Felix Kammerer). Elizabeth in this version is herself an amateur entomologist (a scientist who studies insects). Her scarab necklace, with its Egyptian symbolism<\/a>, is a symbol of renewal and rebirth \u2013 a symbol of her affinity with creatures that are often misunderstood. <\/p>\n Del Toro creates animosity between Victor and his father Leopold (Charles Dance) to prepare us for the inadequacies of Victor\u2019s relationship with his creation. He also leans into the theory that Victor and his Creature are doubles<\/a>. Nowhere is this more clear than when the scientist identifies himself as Victor and the monster applies that name to himself. Both characters also emit the same animalistic growl when they are angry.<\/p>\n The Creature is often portrayed as Victor Frankenstein\u2019s double. There are also visual signs of this doubling. At first, the monster is practically naked bar a few bandages until he acquires a long coat from a fallen soldier and other swaddling layers, which only enhances his formidable size. <\/p>\n When Victor begins to hunt the Creature, he is dressed in a similarly huge fur coat. His gait is ambling, much like the creatures in his first steps, as he drags his prosthetic leg across the snow in pursuit. Their resemblance seems to signify a merging of identities. It is difficult to know who is the hunter and who is hunted. <\/p>\n
\n The dark history of medical illustrations and the question of consent<\/a><\/p>\n![\"https:\/\/media.netflix.com\/en\/only-on-netflix\/81507921\/assets\/eyJpZCI6ImM5ZGU2NzYxLTlkOTEtMTFmMC04NDQ2LTBlMDVlOTFmOTMzMyIsIm5hbWUiOiIwNDFfUEZfMjAyNDA2MDdfMzM5NTVfUi5qcGcifQ==\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/file-20251015-56-dj8mhx.jpeg\")
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\n Ken Woroner\/Netflix<\/a><\/p>\n