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In one of the promotional interviews for 2025's Frankenstein, Guillermo & Oscar share that when considering a character, two things to ask oneself are: When or what makes the character start, and When or what makes the character stop.
There are a few ways audiences can walk away from a first watch of the movie; and this isn't to say that the film itself does this, but it is a movie where audiences are inclined to leave with certain impressions, one of which is to walk away carrying only the later part of Elizabeth & Victor's relationship where it ends with contention rather than keeping in mind the whole of their relationship, with all its earlier rapport and context. This is heightened by an admittedly riveting performance of Victor as a villain and a monster, which can leave such a huge impact that the circumstances and factors outside of his outright villainy & cruelty risk getting dismissed as less significant, when those factors very much are just as intrinsic to the narrative and themes of the story.
All this is brought up to say that the overall dynamic between Elizabeth & Victor in this movie, thematically and as characters, tends to be largely overlooked, underrated, and simplified to a very surface-level endpoint alone: Elizabeth hates him. It's a fair assessment to make, but in truth, it's false to say that it's the only sentiment that is true regarding her relationship with him or their narrative ties. She holds hate for who he becomes when he spirals into villainy, but it's clear that before a certain point, it would be mistaken to believe that she's always disliked him, never mind that she's always hated him. It would also be hard-pressed to insist that they are not, at one point, genuine friends.
They begin and continue with their honest selves and perceptions. Victor does not refute or demean her initial impressions of him or the greater state of the sociopolitical world, in fact being the only person to listen and encourage her as Harlander and William are quick to leave when she speaks up. Their rapport grows; there's this tension where both sides are operating on almost too much honesty, but it is in part because neither of them are inclined to hide parts of themselves from the other that they grow closer and banter.
Guillermo said that each of the main characters feels "alone," but in the phase where Elizabeth & Victor get along, it seems they are not. They are both outliers & strong-willed, with interests, passions, and pursuits that are less accepted or palatable in the era they're in, but these are more reasons why they become, in a way that will be expanded later, kindred spirits. This is not portrayed as nigh spiritual, lofty or aesthetic, or anywhere close to an ideal or a pinnacle of perceived perfection, goodness, or other-worldliness; a tone shared between Elizabeth & the creature later on. What Victor & Elizabeth share, rather, is wholly grounded, wholly imperfect, and ostentatiously messy; Victor falls for her and the language of cinema gives indication that she, at least to an extent, returns these sentiments. Of all the characters, Elizabeth is who Victor actively listens to and treats as an intellectual equal the most. Elizabeth's darker humor, righteous opinions, and even her questionable inclinations to potentially follow Victor down a path where they might betray someone they are both obliged to are aspects to her that she openly shares with Victor and no one else. While their relationship cannot be sustained when one or both of them become the worst version of themselves, they just as much, if not more so, do not demand the best & least imperfect versions of themselves either. They do not perform for each other - not as society expects or demands, nor in any particular role - brother, sister, professional, fiancée, man, woman. For a while, both with and without any romantic inclinations, they are friends in the simplest and most genuine sense.
It's apparent how and why their relationship falls apart, but there is something very one-note in the general perception of what they share, when at least half the time (if not more) they know each other, the affection and camaraderie is not one-sided, however romantic or platonic one may choose to view it. Though in large part because of that general perception, a very broad theme that these two characters intrinsically share gets largely overlooked: that being the detrimental effects the patriarchal era they're in & other characters that surround them have on them.
By her gender, Elizabeth has no station of her own in this era, and while choice is the seat of her soul, it's inferred that she has little practical control of her life in the time period she's in, addressed even more so in portions of earlier versions of the script - again, from her to Victor alone. How society detriments her is clear, painted by how easily her uncle and betrothed can turn a deaf ear to sentiments she efforts to share that are important to her. Victor, for his part, is a true product of this life. He is swayed by the wills of his father, and then The Angel, an entity & will that is real to Victor despite how it may be interpreted otherwise, and then his own ambitions in relation to his peers and benefactors, particularly Harlander. All these mold him in a narratively ironic way; as he molds life and strives to be the master of life & death, Victor, in truth, is rarely if ever the master of his own life, beholden to the expectations and cruelties of Leopold & others. Gentleness and any inclination for softness is tamped down, and after Claire's death, the closest we see him to recuperating any such traits before the end of his arc - regarded not as strengths but as liabilities to the world & teachings around him - is primarily when he is with Elizabeth.
Victor & Elizabeth are placed into the same conflict but from (and towards) opposite directions, wherein where they meet is when they most get along. Elizabeth is deterred from moving by her station, her will halted and largely ignored when she desires to change something or express discontent. She cannot start. Victor is conversely shaped to be his harshest and most headstrong self, soft only with his mother and then almost never again when that bond is cut short. He is discouraged from questioning the virtue and value of continuing this way of life and self-conduct, instead largely encouraged to present these aspects of himself as ambition and pride. He cannot stop.
The pressures that they go through are enough, for them, to approach the moments when they do change the course of their trajectories in practically self-destructive ways - likely because, until such a time comes, the impression they live under makes it seem that for her to start and for him to stop is so unreachable as to be unthinkable, and thus to succeed requires exhaustions so profound it risks and can result in outright death.
Elizabeth is conveyed as wedded against any substantial desire to marry from her (regardless of whether her affections for William or any other can be taken as romantic or genuine; this is strictly in regards to the legal rite of a marriage). She has thus far expressed concerns for her lack of pragmatic control or direction over her own path in life, exploring only avenues that the world makes available to her - in this case, marriage or a convent. When she finally starts, seeing the creature as unjustly targeted and wanting to stand up for him, she acts in an outright self-destructive way, however righteous or compassionate her motive might be: she jumps directly in the line of a gun about to fire. When Elizabeth is finally able to start, she dies. Victor is driven during the whole movie, by others and by ambition and later on by anger and hatred. By that later part, the tone of his arc is clear: He must learn to stop, to listen and forgive, if he is to be saved. But he and the creature spend months festering and enabling their own cruelty - to the point that Victor is wholly exhausted and running on empty when found by Anderson & his men and taken aboard the vessel. Though the creature at one point claims that the blood Anderson witnessed is all his, in truth, Victor is outright shown to have been just as much if not more so beaten, stabbed, and otherwise injured before and during their months-long chase. When he is finally willing to listen to the creature as he would an equal, to put down what keeps him harsh and instead bare himself soft and forgiving, it is Victor finally able to stop. He dies.
Their journeys run parallel, but from each direction, they find a point where they can meet. This is strengthened and made more so possible from the entirety of the relationship they have, not regardless of it. In the time they share a kinship with one another, it is likely that the two of them do, in some way, perceive this shared struggle in one another - not literally, but in the truth that they both feel "alone" as outliers do, and that there is, or was, a possibility for them to find some solace or support from their friendship. Until Victor's spiral into villainy (and possibly even after), neither of them wholly condemns the other. Elizabeth & Victor not only share more than what a surface-level reading of their relationship alone would give them credit for, but they offer richer and more generous themes & storytelling when the whole of what these characters are portraying are taken into account.
speaking of unconventional romance, i feel like the 2025 movie's version of victor & elizabeth is the best recent example i can come up with of "i ship them" without this at all meaning that i want them to have a conventional setup. they were in love in the wrong era or at least with not enough resources and support to freely be their gentlest-and-genuine-freak selves. this is the couple that could've had some open romance. victor is married to his work and elizabeth is happy single or open with her studies. she's definitely still catholic and they definitely had a thing while she was gunning to be a nun. they do not chase the white picket fence dream. both of them consider it and don't take long to recognize it isn't a life either of them want, with each other or in general. at most they end up in a setup where elizabeth is victor's lab partner or assistant. she's weird enough to be an igor and they'd feel better to have each other as their steadfast fellow weirdo friend.
again, they are kindred spirits in that they're both outliers and recognize it in each other. elizabeth can come across as strange and victor can be a dick, but for as long as victor isn't actually harming others, they genuinely like each other - not just despite but in a real sense because of certain traits that greater society would consider their shortcomings. their relationship isn't spiritual, it isn't lofty, it isn't an ideal, or a pinnacle of virtue or goodness/perfection or something otherworldly. it is grounded. it's messy; neither need to be their best selves with each other, but they also cannot be sustained when one or both of them are at their worst. they argue, commiserate, desire, fear, and hang out - in this worldly, almost everyday sense. elizabeth shares this passion about flora and bugs and the corruption of world governments & how it connects to the personal. victor will listen while cutting up corpses in front of her. i ship them. at one point they did love each other; in different circumstances they still could. they are fun together. it's just that this doesn't mean what a lot of fans would take it to mean on a surface level. this movie's versions of them are not getting married.
idk if i have the bandwidth for the kind of post this deserves and maybe i'll revisit it sometime, but i can't get over how the movie just– does not get into elizabeth as a character as well as it could've. the movie tries to make her character so many things that can branch in multiple directions. that she's meant to be victor's foil makes it even more interesting. sometimes i think "well, this isn't what the movie is about so that's why it couldn't execute the landing well with her," but tbqh it doesn't even have to be a full-fledged character story. i wouldn't even really expect one. but harlander has an entire arc, anderson has an entire arc; even the blind man doesn't have an arc on-screen but it's at least apparent that he is at the end of his arc, that it exists. (which is a whole other post on its own; i can get into how the blind man is both victor's foil and his future. i love how victor's narrative is reflected in so many other characters, not just the creature's. i love the theme that victor is one man in a world that shapes all of them – that he, like others, feels alone, yet they're all going through such similar beats. they're in a world of entropy and ouroborous and cycles and bettering themselves through the pain. victor is who we see this world and story through, the focus is on him, but he's not the only island in this ocean.)
ultimately, i think the writing wanted to do too many things with elizabeth's character that it ultimately couldn't really execute the landing with enough of them without taking something substantial away from her. i don't think this is an issue with an audience reading, or an intentional "unreliable narrator" issue, so much as the actual barebones writing/execution itself stumbling with her. the impression that she leaves a lot of fans with is being a pretty standard "good guy"; she's described in interviews as the "good mother" to victor's "bad father." but was that angle and those adjacent to it pursued too heavily? the impression of her that a lot of fans come away with tends to be idealized but impersonal; she is lofty, a pinnacle, an ideal, and almost an aesthetic. it is indeed the polar opposite of the extreme & less engaged interpretation of victor's character: a one-note raving villain with little depth or scope for the world around him. but both these extremes, both these ideals, can risk coming across as shallow takes on them.
i've tried conveying before that the tone of the movie insists on highlighting victor's transgressions; that is the story. but it insists upon this so heavily that it risks cutting from itself that broader theme of a world and a life wherein victor's shortcomings do not exist alone, in a vacuum; that harlander hurts people, anderson hurts people, the creature hurts people, the blind man & leopold did as well. and the movie insists so heavily on the tone it takes with elizabeth that it risks cutting from itself aspects that make her as much of a grounded character as the rest, instead of lofty and untouchable: that she reflects the same sentiments and struggles as everyone else and must, in her own way, confront them and become changed or otherwise affected. in other words: have her own arc.
and she does, but the tone that the film takes with her in its later part risks making her feel like an ideal of a character, a more literal mouthpiece for the narrative/messaging, than a substantial, grounded one like most of the others. but this isn't the case in the earlier part of the film! that part is why i can see her having an arc, but the movie risks it being an "only if you squint" or "only interpretive" kind of situation.
she's raised in conventionality. it is what she knows because it is what's been accessible to her. but she has an inclination to rise above that, or at least remove herself from it. she may not know how. she has lofty ideals, principles, but cannot or does not really apply them. she challenges victor but is also drawn to him. he is absolutely unconventional. elizabeth can come across as sanctimonious. victor is the most unsanctimonious man in the continent.
neither of them have much in the way of friends or companionship. interviews for this movie describe all the characters as lonely and illiterate on how to give or receive love. her and victor become friends. neither of them know how to really be a friend. what neither of them can communicate or resolve is that they want the same things from life, but they approach this from opposite paths. generally, most of the time, victor is honest; outside of the one grand lie regarding harlander's death, victor may be considered, in practical terms, the most honest character in the story: he is outspoken and open about who he is, what he thinks, what he wants, what he's willing to do to pursue it. with anderson, he paints himself the villain in his own telling: i made him, i hurt him, the one to kill (even if indirectly by the crew) is me.
this is consistent with elizabeth; he is open about his attraction and willingness to pursue something with her. there is a reason why elizabeth, who never has an issue condemning or challenging victor's shortcomings and misdeeds, does not do that with him here in this scene. honesty isn't something to condemn, only to reject if she so chooses, and she does. but notably, she does not stand her ground as she does in every other scene with him. she responds to his honesty here by running.
again: they want the same thing, whether a viewer "ships" these characters or not, ie. interprets them or her tie with william or the creature as romantic or platonic – elizabeth also wants to step out of the norm, away from convention, to be honest about what she wants, to figure out what she'd be willing to do to pursue it. it is why she is drawn to the creature, who is so far out of scope from the world she's known and had access to that he comes across, to her, as "other" – as other to her world as she feels she is because of all she yearns for. when she rejects victor, she is still at a point where, when confronted with contending paths, she chooses the conventional choice. she is already engaged. this should be important to her, for whatever reason a viewer may choose. the consideration over whether she's really happy where she is and what her choice is isn't the basis of her decision. but it's the conventional one, the one she knows; she doesn't know how to pursue the things she wants. both her and victor do not know how to communicate these sorts of things, and mutually, in different points of the story, they do not ask the harder but more effective questions or share their feelings in ways they'd know how to receive and understand. they have both been lonely, alone, for a long time.
when the night of the wedding comes, she doesn't care about it. she has little regard for the wedding, for the groom, for anyone in the building. the creature exemplifies the "otherness" she feels and understands, admires and yearns for. she has until this point tried to commit to the decision she made when she rejected victor, because it was not solely a rejection of a romantic pursuit. the decision was as much, if not more, to remain conventional, familiar, to remain in an accessible role to her rather than risk pursuing some other route that is more strange and unknown and risky. but as the commitment draws near, her consideration and value for it deflates. she does not ask after william or anything or anyone, only that she be removed from all of them and the situation entirely as her final request. she wants to be with something, someone, she feels a kinship with, that she finds some "understanding" in, as she says in the tower. her arc is that she felt like the butterfly that she herself chose to keep in a glass case, but when the night to fully & completely commit to that decision comes, she changes her mind. her priorities shift. in a real way, she becomes more honest.
and i see it, i see all of that, it's on the screen, but my hangup is that so much of it risks getting lost regardless. and in this case, i really don't think it's because of an inattentive audience. i think it's the execution of it, how the movie itself lands with her. elizabeth can be sanctimonious. her perceptions, her words, her actions, oftentimes contradict. and there are playful directions one can go from that. is she aware of all this? or that in an extreme, it can come across as hypocrisy? like the others, she contains both external limitations and her own faults, both of which hurt her and have an effect on the world/characters around her as much as her influence and virtues do. she can be, is, a substantial character with weight, fully-fledged and grounded and messy who can be played with.
but i don't know if most audiences see all that. because the way her character lands: it's so much the opposite of the things i just listed – she's lofty, she's untouchable, she's right all the time, she has no arc because she's not messy or grounded enough to have one, she doesn't have anything she needs to work on, she's an ideal and a mouthpiece for certain messages the movie tries at times really too hard to hammer in. i don't think i can blame anyone for coming away from this movie with that interpretation of her because of the way the movie itself resolves her, and i just find myself feeling some type of way about it. i see her tie to victor and the narrative and how she fits with the rest of this world and characters, how she can stand on par with the captain and the creature and her uncle etc.. i see this interesting, contradictory, fun character who genuinely offers something more than, better than, a pinnacle. but i don't see that in how such a large part of the fanbase perceives her.
