Igor: Dr. Mary Shelly's Frankenstein

Who is Igor? Yes, Igor is Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant. Except, Igor was not one of the original characters from Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Over the years people have adapted the original book to fit the need for more interesting movies. In the process, they changed and added many things such as Igor, the hunched-backed assistant. How does the story in the movies differ from the story in the book? A classic example is the 1931 movie, Frankenstein, starring Borris Karloff as the Monster. A more modern example is the 1994 movie Mary Shelly's Frankenstein starring Robert Deniro as the Monster. The story is often portrayed quite differently in movies compared to the original book: With plot points that overlap or, in the extreme case, adding …show more content…
The 1931 movie Frankenstein has a few examples. One is the addition of Igor. Igor has taken many names since people began making Frankenstein movies. Igor is a hunchback, this means that his spine is curved and keeps him from walking upright. In the movies, he is the grave robber doing most of the manual work for Dr. Frankenstein. Though this character is popular, when it comes to the movies, he is not one of the original characters from the book. He was created to be a plot device. Igor is not in the 1931 Frankenstein movie for too long, because he is killed early on to give Dr. Frankenstein a reason to hate his monster. In this movie, they remove characters such as Frankenstein's mother, younger brother, and Justine. The removal of these characters diminishes the impact of the story drastically. These characters provided explanations for why Dr. Frankenstein acted the way he acted in the book. Without them, this movie does not follow the story of the book. The makers of the movie also changed two of the big names in the story. Victor Frankenstein was Henry Frankenstein and Henry Clerval was Victor Clerval. There is no reason for this what so ever, so why it was done is a complete …show more content…
Henry Clerval was simply a college buddy in this movie. He was also looking to be a doctor and not a writer and speaker of many languages like in the book. The movie portrays Dr. Waldman to have run similar experiments to the ones Frankenstein runs. The movie also kills him off. This movie does get the monster in the same light he is portrayed with in the book. This is an important part of the monster’s character as it explains his actions. Compared to the other movies that include the monster character, this one is the closest to having the physical appearance described in the book. This movie was pretty on point when it came to the characters in the