Very similar to Mary Shelley’s novel, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein begins long before the monster is born, showing young Victor and the tragedy that shapes his life. The story opens at the Frankenstein estate, where Christian Convery’s Victor grows up between two very different parents.

His mother, Claire, is gentle and loving, while his father, Leopold, is cold and cruel. This contrast becomes the emotional core of the story leading Victor to keep searching for that mother figure in Elizabeth, his sister-in-law, played by the same actress who played his mother, Mia Goth.

Now, in del Toro’s movie, Claire passes away early during childbirth leaving Victor to blame his father for failing to save her. After her death, Victor’s grief turns into obsession, a desperate need to defy death itself. The loss of his mother becomes the spark that drives Victor toward his dark experiment, bringing the dead back to life.

The table contains basic details on Frankenstein:

Guillermo del Toro Completely Altered Victor’s “First Misfortune” in the Film 

Now that we revealed what happened to Claire Frankenstein in Guillermo del Toro’s film, readers of Mary Shelley’s novel might find the whole thing rather confusing. Because while keeping the same emotional roots as the classic novel, del Toro’s Frankenstein made several changes to Victor’s early life.

In the book, Victor’s mother is named Caroline, but in the film, she’s called Claire. In addition to this, del Toro also changed the whole Frankenstein family as well as the untimely demise of Caroline. Because in the book. Victor’s parents, Alphonse and Caroline Frankenstein, had three sons and an adopted daughter.

And that adopted daughter was Elizabeth. Now, in Shelley’s novel, Caroline died from scarlet fever after caring for Elizabeth. And before she passed away, she let Victor know her dying wish; she wanted him to marry his adopted sister. ‘My firmest hopes of future happiness were placed on the prospect of your union,’ Caroline said.

Meanwhile, del Toro’s movie gives this story a darker twist. Here, Claire dies during childbirth, and Elizabeth is not adopted but engaged to Victor’s brother, William. These changes were made because the idea of Claire wishing her son to marry her adopted daughter, on her deathbed, would have been controversial in today’s date.

How Did Caroline’s Demise Become the “Omen” of Victor’s Future Misery

Well, since Guillermo del Toro made changes to Caroline’s death in his movie, it also altered the aftermath of the event. Because in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Caroline’s death marks the first tragedy in Victor’s life, what he calls his “first misfortune.” Her passing shatters his sense of safety and comfort.

Without her love, Victor becomes emotionally distant and withdrawn. This emotional wound never heals, and it becomes the root of his obsession with controlling life and death. He wants to reverse the kind of loss he suffered as a child. And soon he isolates himself from his father and his friends, burying himself in his studies.

However, later on in the novel, after the chaos unleashed from his creation, we read Victor reflecting on his mother’s death as an “omen” of his misery. This moment showed how deeply her loss shaped his fate. Which is why in the novel, when The Creature kills Elizabeth, it becomes a full-circle moment.

Victor’s obsession with immortality and the creation of The Creature began with his mother’s death, and his obsession also ended with Elizabeth’s demise. In fact, considering how after Caroline’s death Elizabeth had become the mother figure in his life, her death stripped Victor of almost every form of female companionship at once.

But sadly, in Guillermo del Toro’s movie, this whole ending gets replaced with Elizabeth developing feelings for The Creature, similar to the plot of The Shape of Water. So when The Creature attacks Victor and he shoots it, Elizabeth walks in and gets injured. This eventually leads The Creature to take Elizabeth to a cave, where they share a tender moment before her demise.

Let us know your opinion on the changes made by Guillermo del Toro in Frankenstein.

Frankenstein is streaming in the US on Netflix.