n her secrets to man, disappear from the film. The events on screen remain remote from the viewer. The absence of Walton diffuses the warning to consider the final effects of scientific exploration and experimentation. The reader discovers the dangers inherent in defying the natural order, while the movie audience watches an ugly thing lumbering about the countryside. The film creates an image of the creature as a silent; malevolent being because a thoughtless young scientist creates a powerful object, yet provides no measures for guidance and control. Victor seems unfairly persecuted by the dreadful fiend he created. His initial dreams of benefiting mankind and creating a race, which would be grateful to him, are emphasized, rather than focus on his own disdain for that which he brought to life. In the novel the readers sympathy shifts for the monster when he confronts Victor with a demand for reasons for his abandonment and hatred. Even more startling is the being's extraordinary range of ideas, precise vocabulary, and concept of justice and obligations. The articulate figure challenges his maker: both reader and Frankenstein recognize the justice of the creature's demands. Slowly, reader sympathy shifts to recognition of its deplorable state, abandoned and unprepared for any role in the world. The creature had committed no crime due to not knowing better, yet his creator shunned him. The being, nameless as an object with no legitimate place in creation, deserves an answer. Movie directors ignore the dramatic potential of such a scene. As the narrative unfolds reader response shifts from the need to allow the creature to speak to a sense of pity, perhaps outrage, for the injustices he suffered. Mary Shelley does not leave the monsters murderous nature to a simple error in brain selection; instead it is the result of his neglect. This is not the monster that roams the countryside in search of its next victim; instead it is a miserable,...
