“Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs.” (Shelley, 1994, p. 32) Another character who might be viewed as ambitious in his hunt for monsters is Van Helsing. Throughout the film, it is clear that Van Helsing is highly motivated. And how can he not be? The Holy Order found him took, took him in, and employed him. He owes them everything! The work he does for the Holy Order has also saved countless lives—even if his only motive is to serve them, the outcome is great. Additionally, he wants to know more about the past that haunts him. Soul searching might be considered a valiant motive. Though we, as an audience, are coerced into thinking Van Helsing might not be a good guy, the answer to Anna’s question to him is evident by the end of the film: “Some say you're a murderer, Mr. Van Helsing. Others say you're a holy man. Which is it?” (Sommers, "Van Helsing").
Perhaps the most interesting character in both Frankenstein and Van Helsing is the monster. Victor’s monster, throughout the book, is rather peculiar. He loves humans one moment and hates them the next. He also kills a lot of people and strives to make Victor miserable. But his reason? Because his creator does not love him. “’I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king, if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me . . . Believe me, Frankenstein: I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor me. . .” (Shelley, 1994, p. 69) Dr. Frankenstein’s creation has different motives simply because his creator loved him. He is willing to help Anna and Van Helsing defeat Dracula, but he does so expecting they will help him reach his goal: “To exist” (Sommers, "Van Helsing"). |
“His words had a strange effect upon me. I compassionated him and sometimes felt a wish to console him. . . I thought, that as I could not sympathise with him, I had no right to withhold from him the small portion of happiness which was yet in my power to bestow.” (Shelley, 1994, p. 106)
“As I sat, a train of reflection occurred to me, which led me to consider the effects of what I was now doing. Three years before I was engaged in the same manner, and had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my heart, and filled it forever with the bitterest remorse. I was now about to form another being, of whose dispositions I was alike ignorant. . . I had before been moved by the sophisms of the being I had created; I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats: but now, for the first time, the wickedness of my promise burst upon me; I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race.” (Shelley, 1994, p. 120)