Family Resemblance: Frankenstein’s Monster
and the Phantom of the Opera in Penny Dreadful (2014-2016)
Family Resemblance: Frankenstein’s Monster
and the Phantom of the Opera in Penny Dreadful (2014-2016)
Author(s): Dorota BabilasSubject(s): Studies of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej
Keywords: Penny Dreadful; Frankenstein; The Phantom of the Opera; mash-up; adaptation
Summary/Abstract: The Creature of Frankenstein never managed to fulfil his desire of finding a loving partnerin Mary Shelley’s novel, but his symbolic progeny continues to haunt modern popularculture. The article discusses the case of “family resemblance” between Frankenstein’sCreature and the title antihero of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. In theirrespective literary sources, they share an inborn deformity, an appreciation for music,a romantic yearning for love and acceptance matched with sociopathic violence. Recently,the TV series Penny Dreadful elaborates on these allusions, conflating the narratives byShelley and Leroux, as well as their later adaptations.
Journal: Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature
- Issue Year: 43/2019
- Issue No: 2
- Page Range: 135-143
- Page Count: 9
- Language: English