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Masculine Revisioning in Kenneth Branagh's "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein"
Analytical Essay # 4747
Masculine Revisioning in Kenneth Branagh's "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein"
This paper detects the deviations Kenneth Branagh instills into Mary Shelley's seminal work in his 1994 film adaptation reflect his own attempts at "masculinizing" her seminal work.
3,155 words (approx. 12.6 pages) |
8 sources |
MLA | 2002
Paper Summary:
The essay uses psychoanalysis as a method of comparative discourse, in order to see more clearly the variances and motives between Shelley's and Branagh's texts. The author claims that while Branagh's adaptation affords perhaps the most accurate retelling of the plot of Shelley's text, the lens by which he interprets the tale bends the focus, elaborating upon certain underlying narratives while suppressing or overlooking others. The essay maintains that "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" demonstrates an attempt to revise and rewrite the story in order to place emphasis on more culturally masculine concerns and anxieties, and is far from being the definitive cinematic imagining of Shelley's work. Moreover, he feels that by looking closely at key deviations in Branagh's interpretation and presentation, one can observe a systematic re-envisioning which seeks to displace and usurp Shelley's argument against masculine ideals.From the Paper:
"Stephen Behrendt contends that Victor Frankenstein and his monster reflect Mary Shelley's anxiety over the public role of authorship in a male-dominated society. As objects of discourse, women were continually reminded of their "proper" and "natural" place in private familial and public extrafamilial interaction" (Behrendt 71). Victor's "unnatural" process of creation a man assuming the maternal role of biological life-giver mirrors Shelley's socially constructed sense that she behaved unnaturally in assuming the role of artistic creator. Victor's hysteria and the Creature's disfigurement embody Shelley's horror at her own articulation a horror unconsciously generated by the dictums of a patriarchal world. Victor demonstrates his hysteria when he confesses that "a kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the horror of my employment; my mind was intently fixed on the consummation of my labor, and my eyes were shut to the horror of my proceedings" (Shelley 162). "More papers on Masculine Revisioning in Kenneth Branagh's "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein":
Cite this paper
APA Citation:
Masculine Revisioning in Kenneth Branagh's "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" (2012, January 15). Retrieved February 10, 2012, from http://www.academon.com/Analytical-Essay-Masculine-Revisioning-in-Kenneth-Branagh's-Mary-Shelley's-Frankenstein/4747
MLA Citation:
"Masculine Revisioning in Kenneth Branagh's "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein"" 15 January 2012. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. <http://www.academon.com/Analytical-Essay-Masculine-Revisioning-in-Kenneth-Branagh's-Mary-Shelley's-Frankenstein/4747>
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May 07, 2002 As an English major finishing up his Master's degree, I have never received a grade below "-A" on any paper I've submitted. My specialties are Joyce, Shakespeare, and psychoanalysis. I also have training as a copyeditor, which means everything I write is grammatically correct -- without question.
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