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                                  The Waltons
                               A d v e r t i s e m e n t
          Kenneth Branagh’s film, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,
removes the uncertainty surrounding Victor’s and the Creature’s
deaths, the uncertainty Mary Shelley was careful to include in her
novel. When such  vital parts of her novel, which serve important
purposes described in her preface, are removed, Mary Shelley’s
machinery cannot function as it was intended to do, and it is unfair
to call the result Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Also absent from the
film is the point of view of the Saville family, which puts the focus,
not on Victor and his Creature, but rather on Walton himself. The
Walton Margaret Saville knows is completely missing from the film,
although Aidan Quinn plays a character so named. Margaret’s
brother is lonely, and, manipulated by Victor, believes the story,
allows Victor to speak to the crew in his place, denies that the
Creature is sincerely repentant, and turns him away. Kenneth
Branagh’s Walton does not allow Victor to manipulate him or his
crew. “I give the orders here,” he snaps. Of Victor’s story he says,
“It couldn’t be true.” On the other hand, he seems to believe the
Creature is who he says he is, Victor’s son.
     It is important to note the differences between Shelley’s Walton
and Branagh’s because, among other things, Branagh’s remaking of
Walton closely follows the common pattern of avoiding Walton’s
problems found among Shelley’s readers generally. Book Club of
the Air host, Ray Suarez, speaks of Walton as wanting to “reach
out” to the Creature, who “runs and jumps out the window”. Thus
the manipulation of Walton’s moral tendencies and his culpability,
things that make the reader uncomfortable, are omitted, and Walton
is remade to better suit conventional expectations.
     As has been suggested, Victor evidently remakes himself in the
story he tells, for reasons that may not be essentially different from
Mr. Suarez’s reasons for remaking Walton. Traces of the original
Victor that connect with the Vitebsk story were included by Shelley
in 1818, to which more were added in 1831. Two examples will
help the reader to appreciate this, both with respect to the Vitebsk
story thus far and with some things to come. Victor tells Walton
that he proceeded to England by sea. In the apparently unnecessary
inclusion of the words “by sea” a balloon appears as the only
possible alternative. Added to the 1831 edition is mention of Victor
playing at being a crusader who redeems “the holy sepulchre from
the hands of the infidels”.                     [To a Candid World Menu]
                                             54
            To a Candid World, Copyright 1998,  Thomas Wolfsehr