What Del Toro Changed About Frankenstein (And Why It Matters)

Important: Spoilers for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein – Watch the Movie First!

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is a wonderfully crafted, mostly faithful retelling of Mary Shelley’s story. However, one critical change – the catharsis in the final encounter between Frankenstein and the creature – provides a deeper meaning, one that may have felt inaccessible in Mary Shelley’s time.

In Mary Shelley’s original, the creation seeks its indifferent creator – the one who brought it into a difficult life, shunned it, and then hunted it to the ends of the Earth. Eventually, suffering from exhaustion and exposure, Frankenstein dies. The creature finds its creator dead and, feeling remorse, loss, and hopelessness, says: “He is dead who called me into being; and when I shall be no more, the very remembrance of us both will speedily vanish.” I read this as Shelley exploring what it means to discover that God is dead – that the creator cannot answer for the pain of creation, that meaning will vanish, and reconciliation is impossible.

In del Toro’s retelling, both creator and creation survive to face each other. The creature tells its story, and the creator hears it. Beholding the pain of his creation, the creator seeks forgiveness, and in that act of contrition the creation finds release from existential pain, accepting life for what it is – difficult, flawed, and beautiful, all at the same time.

Del Toro’s telling shows the power of forgiveness – especially when applied to existence itself. To forgive God, if one believes, or to forgive humanity for the world it has created, is the pinnacle of radical forgiveness, and del Toro’s story shows us the power in that simple choice.

Forgiveness of another person can heal a relationship. Forgiveness of God, of humanity, of existence itself – this is different. This brings not just healing but release. This brings existential peace.

In Shelley’s version, the creature dies in despair. In del Toro’s, it lives in acceptance. The difference is forgiveness. And that difference changes everything.