{"id":6278,"date":"2026-01-22T16:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T16:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=6278"},"modified":"2026-01-22T16:30:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T16:30:04","slug":"romantic-adaptations-situating-del-toros-frankenstein-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=6278","title":{"rendered":"Romantic Adaptations: Situating del Toro’s Frankenstein (2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this post, we welcome Dr Jodie Marley back to the BARS blog to discuss a handful of approaches to Guillermo del Toro’s recent adaptation of <\/em>Frankenstein, starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, and Mia Goth. If you would like to write for the ‘Romanticism Now’ blog series, or any other series on the blog, please email Amy Wilcockson (comms officer) and Chloe Wilcox (comms fellow) at britishassociationromantic@gmail.com. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Contains spoilers for the 2025 <\/em>Frankenstein film)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guillermo del Toro\u2019s new Frankenstein<\/em> adaptation received mixed reactions in my Romanticist circles. Rather than detail my personal response to the film, I hope to introduce several themes I\u2019ve observed in del Toro\u2019s adaptation process. This piece thus represents some initial ways to approach the film\u2019s engagement with Mary Shelley and her novel, and some starting points for further criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Guillermo del Toro\u2019s Oeuvre<\/u><\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Perhaps the most telling key to Guillermo del Toro\u2019s new Frankenstein<\/em> film is his self-identification with Mary Shelley, both detailing his own childhood trauma and describing William Godwin as a difficult father (Loughrey, \u2018How Guillermo del Toro\u2026\u2019). Many of del Toro\u2019s films focus on early-life trauma, adapted from his own lived experiences (Balanzategni 2015, 76-7). Frankenstein <\/em>is characteristic of the director\u2019s past work, with Victor\u2019s turbulent upbringing by an abusive father (a departure from Shelley). Yet Victor\u2019s mother, in Shelley\u2019s and del Toro\u2019s versions, is a model for his relationships with women. Shelley\u2019s novel opens as Elizabeth takes on his mother\u2019s role looking after the Frankenstein family, and later, Victor dreams about kissing his dead mother\/Elizabeth, (2018, 27, 37).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Elizabeth, in the novel, only meets the Creature once (2018, 149). In del Toro\u2019s film, she represents a formative influence, alternately acting as a mentor figure and romantic interest. Elizabeth\u2019s relationship with the Creature in the film is truer to her relationship with Victor in the novel. This may be partly due to her engagement to Victor\u2019s brother in the 2025 adaptation. This is another source of familial tension absent from Shelley, which further isolates Victor in the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Elizabeth\u2019s romantic association with the Creature is never fully realised. She represents the latest in del Toro\u2019s tradition of pairing socially ostracised women with kind-hearted, though outwardly \u2018monstrous\u2019 men. Frankenstein<\/em> often feels like a spiritual remake of del Toro\u2019s earlier Shape of Water <\/em>(2017), where a mute cleaner, Elisa, falls for a water-tank-imprisoned amphibian man at a secret research facility. Elisa, like Elizabeth, teaches the man she cares for how to communicate. Both women are, ultimately, doomed by their relationships with monster-men. An early, less tragic example of this del Toro trope is the relationship between the eponymous demon Hellboy and telekinetic Liz in both the 2004 film and its 2008 sequel. In Hellboy II<\/em>, Whale\u2019s Bride of Frankenstein<\/em> (1935) plays on a background television during one of the couple\u2019s arguments (Ward 2014,12).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Perhaps these women\u2019s similar names are coincidental. Del Toro\u2019s consistent reference to Frankenstein<\/em> and its adaptations as inspiration for his films, however, is certain. Shaw details the impact of Whale\u2019s 1930s films on the director, who also required his Cronos <\/em>(1993) crew to watch 1957\u2019s Curse of Frankenstein<\/em> before shooting (Shaw 2013, 35-8). Considering the above context, 2025\u2019s Frankenstein<\/em> may not be del Toro\u2019s first adaptation of Shelley\u2019s novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n