Title: The Curse of Frankenstein
Author: Jimmy Sangster
Date of First Publication: 1994
Place of Publication: The Frankenstein Omnibus
Type: Short story
Characters: Victor Frankenstein; The Creature; Elizabeth Frankenstein; Justine Moritz
Themes: BYRONIC HERO; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; ANDROID
Critical Summary: A short story adapted from the script of The Curse of Frankenstein, a pilot episode of a series that never got picked up in 1958.
The reader meets Victor Frankenstein, locked in jail awaiting execution, where he relays the events leading to his imprisonment to a priest who is there to take his last confession. Flashing back to the death of his mother, Victor inherits the Frankenstein fortune, and moves into the family castle. With the funeral completed, Victor hires Paul Krempe to be his tutor. Victor and Paul become friends, and over the course of several years expand their knowledge of biology. During this time the reader is introduced to Justine, a servant girl who has a physical relationship with Victor. After the years of work, Victor and Paul successfully resurrect a dead dog they stole from the nearby village. After this great success, Victor sets his sights, much to Paul’s chagrin, on building a human being.
They commence work on slowly acquiring body parts to build this human being, Victor excitedly planning, and Paul growing more and more uncomfortable with the whole arrangement. Victor’s aunt passes away, so her daughter, Elizabeth, moves into the castle as Victor’s fiancé. Victor and Paul go to great lengths to keep her, or anyone else from discovering the work they are doing. Paul begins to try and convince Elizabeth it is not safe for her in the castle, which drives a wedge between him and Victor. With Elizabeth in the house, Justine is alienated, and grows resentful of the whole situation.
To acquire a brain, Victor befriends and then kills an aged physicist; in the act of removing it from the old man’s body, he is attacked by Paul causing damage to the brain. Victor uses it anyway and manages to bestow life on his creature with Paul’s reluctant help. The creature attacks Victor, and Paul beats it unconscious. Paul says the creature must be destroyed but Victor refuses and they part ways. Upon returning to the lab, Victor discovers his creature is gone, and again calls on Paul to help him.
They find the creature in the woods, and Paul shoots it dead. They bury it in a shallow grave and Victor tells Paul that it is over. It isn’t. Victor digs the creature back up and brings it back to life. This time spending time with it and training it to follow simple commands. During this time, we find out that Justine is pregnant with Victor’s baby, but that doesn’t matter much because she enters the lab, and Victor allows the creature to murder her. With Justine out of the way, Victor and Elizabeth get married, Paul returns for the ceremony, and Victor shows him the creature. After an argument, the two rush out of the castle, leaving the lab open, where Elizabeth wanders in. She is attacked by the creature and Victor shoots her in the struggle by mistake. He lights the creature on fire, and in an attempt to douse the flames the creature jumps into a conveniently placed tub of acid, eliminating any evidence of its existence.
The reader is returned to the prison cell, where they find out that Justine’s body was discovered, and that Elizabeth left Victor, going with Paul. Victor is frantically attempting to prove his story, swearing that Paul can corroborate his tale, which Paul does not. The reader is left with Victor desperately trying to think his way out of a hopeless situation, never letting go of the idea that he is better than all of them.
While Sangster’s story does involve many of the same characters as Shelley’s novel, “The Curse of Frankenstein” differs fundamentally from the story of the original. Gone are the themes of a sympathetic monster, as well as a remorseful creator. The characters in the short story are clear cut: Victor is a Byronic Mad Scientist and the Creature is a mindless abomination devoid of thought. Peripheral characters, like Elizabeth, have no other purpose than to advance the story, while Justine only shares a name with her original inspiration. Sangster adapted a complex and deep novel for television, and in doing so, may have removed much of the deeper meaning of the work.
Administrative Notes: Daniel Maher, CSUF; Alexandra Hollinshead (editing)