Frankenstein, the title character in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, the prototypical “mad scientist” who creates a monster by which he is eventually killed. The name Frankenstein has become popularly attached to the creature itself, who has become one of the best-known monsters in the history of motion pictures.
Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus (1818), is a combination of Gothic horror story and science fiction. The book tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss student of natural science who creates an artificial man from pieces of corpses and brings his creature to life. Though it initially seeks affection, the monster inspires loathing in everyone who meets it. Lonely and miserable, the monster turns upon its creator, who eventually loses his life.
The first Frankenstein film was produced by Thomas Edison in 1910. Two German films, The Golem (1914) and Homunculus (1916), dealt with a similar theme derived from Jewish folklore. The Hollywood film Frankenstein (1931), with Boris Karloff as the monster, was based as much on The Golem as on Shelley’s novel. This film was a great success and was followed by dozens of variations on the Frankenstein story in films such as Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Frankenstein Conquers the World (1969), a Japanese-made version. The character of the monster has also been used as a vehicle for easy humour—as in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) and Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein (1974).