In 1823, Shelley herself attended a performance of Richard Brinsley Peake's Presumption, the first successful stage adaptation of her novel. Frankenstein's creation referred to himself as a 'monster' at least once, as did the residents of a hamlet who saw the creature towards the end of the novel.Īs in Shelley's story, the creature's namelessness became a central part of the stage adaptations in London and Paris during the decades after the novel's first appearance. Frankenstein refers to his creation as 'creature', 'fiend', 'spectre', 'the dæmon', 'wretch', ' devil', 'thing', 'being', and ' ogre'.

Mary Shelley's original novel never gives the monster a name, although when speaking to his creator, Victor Frankenstein, the monster does say 'I ought to be thy Adam' (in reference to the first man created in the Bible).

Cooke as the monster in an 1823 stage production of Shelley's novel 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. įrankenstein's monster became iconic in popular culture, and has been featured in various forms of media, including films, television series, merchandise and video games. According to the scholar Joseph Carroll, the monster occupies 'a border territory between the characteristics that typically define protagonists and antagonists'. The monster attempts to fit into human society but is shunned, which leads him to seek revenge against Frankenstein. Shelley describes the monster as 8 feet (240 cm) tall and terribly hideous, but emotional.

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's title thus compares the monster's creator, Victor Frankenstein, to the mythological character Prometheus, who fashioned humans out of clay and gave them fire. 'Frankenstein', 'The Monster', 'The Creature', 'The Wretch', 'Adam Frankenstein' and othersīride of Frankenstein (companion/predecessor in different adaptions)įrankenstein's monster or Frankenstein's creature, sometimes referred to as simply ' Frankenstein', is an English fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus. Steel engraving (993 × 78 mm), for the frontispiece of the 1831 revised edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, published by Colburn and Bentley, London

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