Frankenstein's monster

Frankenstein's monster
Frankenstein character
Steel engraving (993 × 78 mm), for the frontispiece of the 1831 revised edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, published by Colburn and Bentley, London
First appearanceFrankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
Created byMary Shelley
Portrayed byCharles Stanton Ogle
Boris Karloff
Lon Chaney Jr
Bela Lugosi
Glenn Strange
Christopher Lee
David Prowse
Kiwi Kingston
John Bloom
Nick Brimble
Robert De Niro
Kevin James
Rory Kinnear
Xavier Samuel
Evan Jones-Sawyer
Shuler Hensley
Christian Bale
Jacob Elordi
In-universe information
Nicknames"Creature", "fiend", "spectre", "the dæmon", "wretch", "devil", "thing", "being", "ogre"[1]
SpeciesSimulacrum (made from different human body parts)
GenderMale
FamilyVictor Frankenstein (creator)
Bride of Frankenstein (companion/predecessor; in some adaptions)

Frankenstein's monster, also referred to as Frankenstein,[a] is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus as its main antagonist. Shelley's title compares the monster's creator, Victor Frankenstein, to the mythological character Prometheus, who fashioned humans out of clay and gave them fire.

In Shelley's Gothic story, Victor Frankenstein builds the creature in his laboratory through an ambiguous method based on a scientific principle he discovered. Shelley describes the monster as 8 feet (240 cm) tall and emotional.[2] The monster attempts to fit into human society but is shunned, which leads him to seek revenge against Frankenstein. According to the scholar Joseph Carroll, the monster occupies "a border territory between the characteristics that typically define protagonists and antagonists".[3]

Frankenstein's monster became iconic in popular culture, and has been featured in various forms of media, including films, television series, merchandise and video games.[4][5] The most popularly recognized versions are the film portrayals by Boris Karloff in the 1931 film Frankenstein, the 1935 sequel Bride of Frankenstein, and the 1939 sequel Son of Frankenstein.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Baldick was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Camidge, Ross (22 September 2007). "Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus". BMJ. 335 (7620): 617.2–617. doi:10.1136/bmj.39317.718657.4E. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 1988964.
  3. ^ Carroll, Joseph; Gottschall, Jonathan; Johnson, John A.; Kruger, Daniel J. (2012). Graphing Jane Austen: The Evolutionary Basis of Literary Meaning. London, England: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1137002402.
  4. ^ Lescaze, Zoë (23 October 2017). "The Pop-Culture Evolution of Frankenstein's Monster". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  5. ^ Fischoff, S.; Dimopoulos, Alexandra; Nguyen, François (2005). "The Psychological Appeal of Movie Monsters". Journal of Media Psychology. S2CID 159834592.


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