As of now, for my third writing project, I’m planning on writing about the novel Frankenstein and the Mel Brooks movie, “Young Frankenstein.” I can see myself running into problems with this because it’s not quite as clear cut as other people’s approaches. For those who are doing movies like Pinnochio, or Blade Runner because they can all sort of handle this with the “creator – creature” relationship comparison. The problem with Young Frankenstein is that it is the exact same plot (because it’s supposed to be) however every character and the relationships between the characters are drastically different. I think that it is here where the bulk of my paper will be formed and I see it having a relatively different structure than most people’s final pieces.
I think that one of the most interesting parts of the movie is how the director constructs the parody of Frankenstein while also remaining relatively true to the plot. While he definitely took some creative license, he by no means lost the overall purpose of the storyline. Overall, Victor Frankenstein was still a scientist driven by the idea of creating life from something dead, with his wife Elizabeth at his side. The creature still rose from the dead and wreaked some havoc after doing so, however his actions while alive were drastically exaggerated and given a strong comedic twist. Victor’s character was seemingly made to exist in a little bubble of chaos in which almost everything he intended to accomplish was simply not possible, while the character of Elizabeth was also twisted from a pseudo cousin to what appears to be a wife with a French mistress edge to her.
The differences within the creature are some of the most profound. In this movie, he is not portrayed quite as much as the hideous walking piece of dead flesh as Mary Shelly made him out to be. Here, he is almost more like a big, dumb child which Victor then assumes the role of fathering. The creature almost has a personality which comes out particularly in the scene where he and Victor preform the song, “Puttin’ on the Ritz” for other scientists. The creature reacts badly to the audience’s surprise, similar to the way that the creature reacted badly to society’s rejection of him in Shelly’s novel.
All in all, I can see a basic shape for the paper in which I plan to focus on the specific characters and their relationships as opposed to the overall picture of the different plots the way that the rest of the class seems to be heading. I’m hoping that this works out smoothly, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I got a bit tripped up towards the end when it comes time to tie it all together.
