Mary Shelley's Frankenstein [Teaser, Act 1]

MARY SHELLEY'S

FRANKSTEIN

AN ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

BY RORY ROBERTS

Scene I. Day. Aboard a Ship Destined for the North Pole.
VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN sits across from ROBERT WALTON in a cramped lamp lit cabin on a whaling ship. Frankenstein grinds his teeth, then speaks to Walton. Walton writes in a large journal as Frankenstein gives his oration.

VICTOR:

I remained for several years, an only child. My parents seemed to draw inexhaustible affection from a very mine of love that they then bestowed. Mother's tender caresses and father's benevolent smile while regarding me are my first recollections. I was their plaything and their idol. It was with the deep consciousness that their helpless child's future was in their hands that during every moment of my infant life I received a lesson of charity and of self-control.

For a long time, my mother had desired much to have a daughter.--

Frankenstein closes his eyes and smiles with a beam of benevolence and sweetness.

Scene II. Day. Castle Frankenstein, Bedchamber.
FRANKENSTEIN'S MOTHER lays on her death-bed. She is dying from Scarlet Fever but the fortitude and benignity of this best of women shows through her composure.
Victor Frankenstein and ELIZABETH LAVENZA sit next to Frankenstein's Mother, their hands held together by their mother's hands and their fingers entwined.

FRANKENSTEIN'S MOTHER: 

My firmest hopes of future happiness were placed on the prospect of your union.--

Frankenstein's mother withdraws her hands, crosses them affectionately over her chest and shrugs.

FRANKENSTEIN'S MOTHER (Cont.): 

I will resign myself cheerfully to death and will indulge in the hope of meeting you again soon.--

Frankenstein's mother closes her eyes and dies, expressing her affection even in death.

Scene III. Day. Frankenstein Castle, Entry Hall.
Victor Frankenstein descends the staircase where his friend HENRY CLERVAL, Elizabeth, and Frankenstein's Father have lined up to see him off.

Scene IV. Dusk. A Genevan Country Road.
Frankenstein looks out the window of a carriage loaded with his luggage, he appears as though he's indulged in the most melancholy reflections.

Scene V. Day.  An Igolstadt Church.
The English white steeple stands out against a clear blue sky.

Scene VI. Day. The University of Ingolstadt, Auditorium.
PROFESSOR WALDMAN speaks from the stage to a crowd of students.

PROF. WALDMAN:  

The ancient teachers promised impossibilities and performed nothing; the modern masters promise very little but they have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding-places. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers. They can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows.--

Frankenstein sits among his fellow students with his mouth open, leaning in to hear his professor. He sits tense in his seat, his arms crossed, his teeth and fists clenched as though he were grappling with a palpable enemy.

Scene VII. Day. Dissecting Room, the University of Ingolstadt.
A couple of years have passed [November, 1703] and Frankenstein [about 19 y.o., currently pale and emaciated], a third-year student, views a cadaver hung upside-down from a chain. His fellow students smoke pipes and hint suggestively at the surrounding cadavers.
Frankenstein crouches and examines a worm as it borrows out of an old cadavers milky blue eye.

Scene VIII. Night. Charnel-House, Ingolstadt.
Frankenstein leaves footprints in the bone meal and dust as he approaches one of several stone casks. He lifts the lid off one and sets it on the floor then takes out two large human bones from the cask. Frankenstein discards one of the bones to the floor and looks at the other.

Scene IX. Dusk. An Ingolstadt Road That Runs Beside a Slaughterhouse.
Frankenstein walks up a long filthy mud road surrounded by country. A constant bubbling stream of blood and water fills the the muddy tracks beneath his feet.
Frankenstein stops and stares as the bloody water rolls up over his boots.

 Scene X. Night. An Ingolstadt Church.
The shadowy white steeple bleeds into the dark clouds and night sky beneath the light of the moon.

Scene XI. Night. Frankenstein's Apartment.
The empty neglected apartment is dusty but unused except for the desk and bed that are piled chaotically with books [all concerning natural philosophy but mostly physiology], notes, research papers, etc.. Rain pours dismally outside.
A letter is left by an unattended lamp, [it reads:] "I know that while you are pleased with yourself, you will think of us with affection, and we shall hear regularly from you. You must pardon me if I regard any interruption in your correspondence as a proof that your other duties are equally neglected."

Scene XII. Night. Frankenstein's Apartment's Gallery.
Moonlight illuminates the empty storage room and neglected furniture, a dark staircase can be seen at the end of the room. Rain pours dismally outside.

Scene XIII. Night. Frankenstein's Workshop.
In Frankenstein's apartment's unused attic, where Frankenstein has constructed his laboratory, is where the attempt to create a new species in the image of man has been resolved beneath the flickering dying candles.
There are instruments of science and books of the dark arts [Agrippa, Paracelsus, Newton, etc.], organs of man and animal alike that are preserved in jars and displayed on shelves on every wall. Laid out on a massive stone slab is FRANKENSTEIN'S CREATION. He is eight feet tall, handsome and strong but monstrously disfigured [Yellow skin, teeth of pearly whiteness which are a more horrid contrast to his watery yellow eyes and straight black lips.] Frankenstein sits patiently by the side of his placid creation.
The candles begin to flicker out together, then only a few remain.
As the last candles dies, the creation opens his eyes. As the creation looks upon its creator, his breathing becomes hard and fast, and then, his limbs begin to convulse as the last light goes out.
Frankenstein, in the darkness, searches for the door. The creation's breathing can be heard beneath Frankenstein's bumping around in the dark. Frankenstein reaches the door and flees through it.

Scene XIV. Night. Frankenstein's Apartment.
Frankenstein manically paces his apartment, he hangs his head low and quietly talks to himself.

Scene XV. Day. An Ingolstadt Street, Dream.
In a dream Frankenstein walks the streets of Ingolstadt looking healthy and normal.
Down the street Elizabeth walks in Frankenstein's direction.
A delighted and surprised Frankenstein embraces Elizabeth and kisses her lips.
When Frankenstein removes his lips, Elizabeth's lips are thin and pale with death.
Frankenstein realizes that he's holding his dead mother in his arms. Squirming out from under her dress are worms.

Scene XVI. Night. Frankenstein's Apartment.
The creation crawls up the foot of Frankenstein's bed and reaches out his hands to his creator like a child grabbing for its parent. The rain has stopped and the moonlight comes in the room from the window shutters.
Frankenstein wakes from his nightmare in a cold sweat and then sees the creation.
The face of the creation grows closer and closer to the still frozen Frankenstein's face. The creation drools and makes spit bubbles while forcing inarticulate sounds.
Then, the creation reaches out to Frankenstein who flees his apartment in soundless terror.

Scene XVII. Dusk. Frankenstein's Apartment's Courtyard.
Frankenstein stands clutching at the chained gate of his apartment's court, pressing himself to the bars, he takes long deep breaths.
The PORTER of the building approaches the gate from the street with a ring of keys.
As he goes to unlock the gate, the porter spots Frankenstein who is consumed by his worries. He loudly recites a poem to the worried young man:

PORTER:
Like one, on a lonesome road who,

... Doth walk in fear and dread,

And, having once turned round, walks on,

... And turns no more his head;

Because he knows a frightful fiend

... Doth close behind him tread.

The porter finishes unlocking the gate and Frankenstein leaves without a word into an otherwise empty street.

Scene XVIII. Day. Campus, the University of Ingolstadt.
The country side is rich and Spring is bountiful.
The sickly Frankenstein walks with his old friend Henry Clerval, the two of them carry a few pieces of small luggage. The pleasant green hills and trees seem to suit Clerval while local Frankenstein is a tourist besides. Clerval wanders from tree to rock and rock to tree and tells Frankenstein his story, with the opposite charge of courage and attractiveness to Frankenstein's fear and depression, trying to cheer him with the heart-warming story leading to their reunion.

CLERVAL:

You may easily believe how great was the difficulty to persuade my father that all necessary knowledge was not comprised in the noble art of book-keeping; and, indeed, I believe I left him incredulous to the last for his constant answer to my unwearied entreaties was "I have ten-thousand florins a year without Greek, I eat heartily without Greek," the same as the Dutch schoolmaster in The Vicar of Wakefield. But he has, at length, permitted me to undertake a voyage to these knowing isles.

FRANKENSTEIN:

Dearest Clerval, tell me at length how you left my family and Elizabeth.

CLERVAL:

Well, and very happy, only a little uneasy that they hear from you so seldom.

Here Frankenstein stops raises his eyes and looks to the sky.
Clerval stops to look at Frankenstein.

CLERVAL:

My dear Frankenstein, I did not before remark how very ill you appear; so thin and pale.

Frankenstein continues to quickly walk the trail as Clerval follows behind listening.

FRANKENSTEIN:

I have lately been deeply engaged in one occupation, that I have not allowed myself sufficient rest. But I hope, I sincerely hope, that I am free at length.

Scene XIX. Day. Frankenstein's Apartment.
Frankenstein throws open the door to his apartment, frozen in place, looking breathlessly inside for a specter to stand waiting to kill him, but his chamber is clearly empty. He cautiously takes a few paces inside. When Frankenstein is satisfied that his monster has disappeared, he runs outside laughing ecstatically. Momentarily he hurries back to the apartment with Clerval in tow, Frankenstein laughing strangely, loud, unrestrained, heartless laughter.

CLERVAL:

My dear Victor, what, for God's sake, is the matter?

FRANKENSTEIN:

Do not ask me!-- The monster can tell!-- Oh, Henry, save me!

Frankenstein has an epileptic fit, falling to the floor, he reaches for an invisible opponent where there is none. Clerval kneels and tends to Frankenstein.

Scene XX. Dusk. An Ingolstadt Church.
At sundown, the white steeple stands out in the orange sky.

Scene XXI. Night. Frankenstein's Apartment.
Frankenstein lies in bed, malnourished and exhausted to the point of delirium. Clerval scours the apartment floor under lamplight while shushing and comforting Frankenstein's insane cries for help against all matter of death and assailant.

Scene XXII. Morning. Frankenstein's Apartment.
Frankenstein lies completely beneath the covers in a fetal position.
Clerval confusedly attempts to organize Frankenstein's desk. Clerval resolves to happily place all dockets with writing on one side in one pile and all with writing on both sides in another.
Then, Clerval dusts around the stacks of papers and books on the desk.

Scene XXIII. Night. An Ingolstadt Country House.
In a garden, dead leaves fall on a bed of tulips, the tulips look old too as the fall winds bully them.

Scene XXIV. Dusk-Dawn. An Ingolstadt Church.
The white steeple watches the passing of many winter days and nights. Heavy rains and snows and bright sunny days that come and go. The piercing sounds of dogs, choirs, fireworks, and bells are only what's loud enough to be noticed in the racing progression of time. Then, in moments, a season has passed.