Victor Frankenstein (1994 film)

"No one need ever die. I will stop this. I will stop this. I promise."

- Victor Frankenstein makes his infamous and impossible resolution

"That is RUBBISH and you know that! These practices have been repeatedly proven true by members of your own kind! Yes, you sir!"

- Victor, in a fit of rage, unintentionally embarrasses Professor Waldman by revealing he dabbled in Necromancy in front of the student body

"And didn't that fit in with your plans? Don't you ever think of anyone but yourself?"

- Elizabeth revealing Frankenstein's true nature

Victor Frankenstein, played by Kenneth Branagh, (who also played Gilderoy Lockhart), is the titular main antagonist in the most faithful film adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Origins
Victor Frankenstein was raised as a spoiled brat in Geneva in the rich, upper class Frankenstein family. He had a loving set of parents, and his father shared his obsessive nature. As a young boy, Victor would, cruelly, trap fireflies in his light to illuminate his room when he read, and they died. He did cry at this but not through sorrow, he was so spoiled he only wanted his room lit by other ways than candlelight.

As he got older his isolationism grew and he became even more unsocial. He would forever be pondering over old books of ancient magic and alchemy. One day his mother got pregnant by his father, and Victor barely registered it, let alone the fact that he would soon be having a sibling. He made a derisive comment "How is the imminent arrival?" before going back to his studies. His mother tried to dissuade him and let him have fun, but this went ignored by Victor until he was forced to chase her when his mother playfully stole his papers.

Elizabeth
One day his father adopted a young girl named Elizabeth, who would be Victor's step sister although the plan always was for them to be married. Elizabeth had lost all her family to the scarlet fever and she was an orphan now. Victor lusted over Elizabeth at first sight, and she him, but for Victor studies came first.

Victor's life changes
One day his mother got so heavily pregnant she went into labour. His physician father tried to help her but she nonetheless died in childbirth. Despite Elizabeth's consolation that all would be well, lightning struck a tree outside, giving Victor first taste of the power of electricity. Victor cruelly ignored his newborn baby brother, saying instead "Please bring her back, God!" Later, as his mother lay in her grave, he promised to God that he would find a way to stop Death, the final enemy.

At university
Victor got entry into Ingolstadt University but he was immediately shunned due to his Swiss origins, his obsession with "obsolete sorcerers" and his eccentricities and rebellious nature. He found he had only two close friends - Henry Clerval and Professor Waldman (played by John Cleese. Victor began faithfully to his family by writing home once or twice, saying all was well, but Victor fell out with the pompous Professor Krempe who believed in a nihilistic Universe. When Krempe pushed Frankenstein too far, the scientist snapped and, under Professor Waldman's tutelage, began a study of Necromancy. However, Waldman warned him the results were evil. One dark day, Waldman was brutally murdered by a patient in the surgery and the assassin was caught and hanged.

Frankenstein began sinking into evil deeds. He robbed cemeteries, stealing corpses, and desecrating the remains. He chose Waldman's brain, believing him to be a highly intelligent man, and began using the assassin who killed Waldman as the base for his new Creation.

Over time, Elizabeth got worried about Frankenstein's neglect of her, and her letters, and she herself went to Ingolstadt, braving the fears of a pox outbreak to visit her lover. However, when she found him inside, in sweaty clothes, a stinking laboratory, and dishevelled and exhausted, Elizabeth almost broke off her romance with him. He kicked her out, but when he tried to call her back it was too late. Victor successfully animated his Creation in his anger later that evening.

Now proving that he could cheat Death, Victor got horrified when he realized what a strong and relentless Creature he had made. The Creature he had made was initially friendly, but after Victor clubbed it in a fit of fear, the saddened Creature fled from its tormentor and took refuge in the Swiss Alps.

While the Creature helped a peasant family in the Alps, Victor recovered. Learning from Clerval that the townspeople had nearly all died from pox, including the children, Victor said "Thank God..." his most evil quote, confusing and alarming Clerval. Victor said this because he believed his Creation was now dead from pox too when in fact it had lived.

Creation meets Creator
Victor Frankenstein reunited with his lover Elizabeth, and they returned home on purposes of getting married. The Creature had by now realized who Victor was and that he had built him, and was angered. He encountered the young William Frankenstein, Victor's brother, outside the palace and he murdered him. Victor was enraged, and the maid Justine was hanged, being framed by the Creature. Frankenstein barely lifted a finger to stop her execution.

On the way back home, Victor met the Creature for the first time, who directed him to the mountains. After an argument with Eliabeth and Henry, he left and met the Creature, who admitted to killing William, saying he saw Victor's face when killing William, and it gave him pleasure. The Creature then asked for a bride, and if he denied him his wedding night, he would be with Victor on his. After Victor and Elizabeth got married, Victor's father died of grief and the Creature closed his eyes. Later, the Creature returned to kill Elizabeth and made Victor insane.

Final confrontation and death
Victor chased the Creature to his mansion where he made Elizabeth's corpse return to life as a gruesome puppet. When she realized that she was artificially created, she killed herslf in an inferno in front of the Creature and Victor. In an anger, Victor chased the Creature to the Arctic, seeking to kill him. However, the captain of a ship, Captain Walton, that was stuck in the ice rescued Victor, who warned him of the dangers of science before telling his story and dying. Walton believed Victor insane, naturally, until he met the Creature. Unlike Frankenstein, Walton felt pity for the Creature, who, after Victor's funeral, decided to end his life with his master as he was "done with man."

Personality
Victor Frankenstein was a madman, simply put. Obsessive, delusional and relentless, he went as far as graverobbing and Necromancy to achieve his goals. When his goals were successful, he got cold feet and fled. This proved his downfall, had he properly nurtured the Creature, he would maybe have prevented all the darkness that followed.