eldritchhobbit

Actually, I find it interesting that the novel tells us that the creature is brilliant and originally of good will, but is turned against humanity by the cruelty of society, whereas in the classic movies, he has a defective brain that makes him both brutish and criminal. Those two versions neatly reflect, on one hand, the theory that crime is a product of social abuses, of which William Godwin, Mary Shelley's father, was one of the pioneering advocates; and on the other hand, the theory that criminals are atavistic or otherwise biologically defective, put forth by such writers as Lombroso, which was one of the inspirations for eugenics in the period when the films were made.