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)

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.

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