Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.), 30 April 1935. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1935-04-30/ed-1/seq-44/>
After students finish reading Frankenstein, students can evaluate various ways that the creature was first widely interpreted visually and consider how those interpretations impact how we still visualize and think about the creature today.
The Bride of Frankenstein movie ad can be used as a basic introduction to Visual Analysis after finishing the original Frankenstein text. Texas A&M Writing Center has a short overview for Analyzing Visual Images to set the vocabulary for students to use in their observations. By focusing on the symbols and images of The Bride of Frankenstein poster, students can draw connections from the original text and contrast the images to their own interpretations.
This newspaper contains an ad for the sequel to the Frankenstein movie, The Bride of Frankenstein, when it first came out in 1935. Actor Boris Karloff, whose casting has become the iconic image of Frankenstein’s monster, is in the foreground with his presumed bride and the symbolic lightning in the background.
- How do visual images influence how we think about characters and others?
- How do we capture the essence of a story through visual design?
- What assumptions do we have about visual images?
Texas ELAR TEKS and Common Core State Standards
TEKS E4.11(A): Inquiry and research: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student engages in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes for a variety of purposes. The student is expected to: (A) develop questions for formal and informal inquiry
- By using the Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis Tool, students are in charge of observing the work and directing their own questions and further inquiry.
RI.11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
- Students should be able to compare and contrast visual representations of Frankenstein’s creature to Shelley’s original text and research how we get from her original, literate creature to the bumbling monster popular in culture today.
- After reading Frankenstein, have students use the Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis Tool to observe, reflect, and question how the creature and his bride are depicted in the movie poster. Students should be able to make connections to the original text to see how the poster’s iteration was developed and determine if they agree or disagree with the visualization of the characters.
- Have students create a “sequel” to Frankenstein and design their own movie poster. What parts of the novel would they want to focus on for a sequel? What elements and symbols would they include? How would it be reflective of today instead of the 1930s? What might be similar or different from the newspaper’s movie ad? After students have designed their own posters, set up a gallery walk for peers to also observe, reflect, and question the other sequels and consider what assumptions they would have about them.
- Some families may be uncomfortable with the content of a woman created solely for a man’s pleasure. Also, Victor Frankenstein’s techniques of using dead body parts to create his monster might be too gory or require a content warning for some sensitive students.
Links to resources for approaching those topics
- Richard T. Jameson writes about the legacy of The Bride of Frankenstein for “The A List: The National Society of Film Critics 100 Essential Films, ” 2002.
- Theater poster from a 1977 production of Frankenstein. Students can use their knowledge of visual elements of design to study it. (Frankenstein, 9-11 and 15-17 September 1977 presented by Worms Theatre Center 2000 hrs. Taukkunen Barracks)
- The Yale National Initiative has a teaching unit on Movie Posters: Capturing the Essence of a Story that teachers could use to expand their own units or take parts of the teaching strategies to use just for this one poster.
- Smithsonian Magazine has an open-source article about the value and thrill behind the famous movie posters of bygone eras.