Abstract
The 2011 National Theatre stage adaptation of Frankenstein, written by Nick Dear and directed by Danny Boyle, highlights a construction of masculinity that relies on and normalises violence against women. Though Shelley’s narrating scientist only briefly mentions his interactions with his female creature and brushes over his fiancée’s death, on stage, Victor performs necrophilic acts to taunt his creation/counterpart. Later, he and the audience watch while the creature rapes and then murders Elizabeth in a brutal simulacrum of sexual climax. These scenes of violence against women, performed frankly, do not allow for the possibility of emotional recovery or resolution on the part of the audience but instead become a parody of desire and agency. They thus reinforce violent stereotypes as the basis of toxic masculinity.
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Notes
- 1.
Lester D. Friedman and Allison B. Kavey examine the various ways by which Frankenstein has been adapted throughout the centuries in their work, Monstrous Progeny: A History of the Frankenstein Narratives.
- 2.
For considerations of narrative structure in Shelley’s novel, see Aguirre, Benford, Clark, Joshua, and Newman.
- 3.
The published script is slightly different from the actors’ performances in a few places, as can be the case with stage performances. I indicate where the discrepancies affect my argument in the body of the chapter but otherwise indicate any alterations in the dialogue in the notes.
- 4.
Dear’s script indicates that ‘she fondles him,’ but on stage, she places Victor’s hands on her breast. In the script, she asks him to ‘Feel my heat!’ a phrase that will be echoed later, when the Creature surprises her in her bedroom.
- 5.
The text reads, ‘wouldn’t you say.’
- 6.
Emphasis added to reflect the actor’s performance.
- 7.
Randy Gener argues that the value in Lynn Nottage’s play Ruined lies in its ability to bring the realities of wars occurring in Africa, of which many in the United States are ignorant, home to audiences. Similarly, Elizabeth W. Son argues that plays examining the use of Korean comfort women during World War II can aid in the healing on a cultural level.
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Hoffman, C.A. (2018). ‘Now I Am a Man!’: Performing Sexual Violence in the National Theatre Production of Frankenstein. In: Davison, C., Mulvey-Roberts, M. (eds) Global Frankenstein. Studies in Global Science Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78142-6_8
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