Listening to the Monster: Eliding and restoring the creature’s voice in adaptations of Frankenstein

Abstract

This article examines the integral subject of the Monster’s speech in reference to stage and film adaptations by Richard Brinsley Peake, James Whale and Nick Dear. The focus of the article is the Monster’s vocality and ability to communicate, a complicated subject from the earliest of the novel’s adaptations. It examines the history of the Monster’s speech as well as the way in which that speech or silence interacts with the layers of adaptation each new version is engaged with. In this way it demonstrates how integral vocality is to a sympathetic vision of the Monster, even when it is no longer present in the adaptation. To utilize Marvin Carlson’s critical idiom, even our visions of the silent Monster are ghosted by the vocality of Shelley’s original creation. Nick Dear’s recent stage adaptation seeks to intervene in this trajectory and restore the Creature’s narrative, giving him both voice and authority over his own experiences.