History Literature / Frankenstein

* CharacterFilibuster: A quarter of Frankenstein was just the monster's monologue. 99 percent of Frankenstein is the eponymous character's monologue! That 25 percent is a monologue within a monologue!

* AsYouKnow: The title character receives a letter from his sister which basically tells him his own life story in nauseating detail. As well as explaining how servants are a different form of employee in his own country to in England.

* CallingTheOldManOut: Basically the entire point of the monster's meeting with Victor is to do this.

* CommonKnowledge: Shelley never goes into any detail about how the monster was created ([[WatsonianVersusDoylist Or, alternately, Victor]] is deliberately not giving any so that no one can repeat his experiment), but it's pretty much taken for granted that he was made by sewing together bits of dead bodies and running electricity through it, thanks to AdaptationDisplacement.

* IdiotBall: Frankenstein is warned that the monster will visit him on his wedding night. So he leaves his new bride alone while he goes outside to reconnoiter the area. And he's surprised when the monster breaks into the bedroom and kills his wife? Not only that, Frankenstein could have avoided the whole problem if, instead of "aborting" the creation of a bride for the monster because he was worried about hordes of the creatures overrunning the world, he'd simply made her infertile. Of course, having an [[DungeonsAndDragons intelligence score of 20 and a wisdom score of 1]] is arguably the whole point of Victor's character. He's a genius with no common sense at all.

* PunnyName: The name 'Victor' is actually a sneaky reference to ''ParadiseLost'' (a big influence on the story), as Milton often refers to God as 'the Victor'. And then, of course, [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the Monster equates himself with Adam....]]

* TheyCalledMeMad: What Frankenstein fears they'll do if he tells people about the monster. They literally do call Frankenstein mad eventually, but to their credit, Frankenstein had been delusional with BrainFever for a time.

''Frankenstein'' (full title: ''Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus'') is a novel by MaryShelley, originally published in 1818, with a 1823 reprint without Shelley's involvement and a third edition in 1831, this time with significant edits from the author.

* MoustacheDePlume: MaryShelley first published the book anonymously, leaving people to assume she was male. And with good reason: upon her reveal, literary critics of the time actually downplayed the book because of the author's gender.

This novel has been adapted into a minor subgenre of movies and sequels, as well as a stageplay, which was more faithful to the book then the movies were. For a list of the films, see {{Frankenstein}}.

This novel has been adapted into a minor subgenre of movies and sequels. For a list, see {{Frankenstein}}.

* UncannyValley: In-Universe. The description of the Creature's physical efeatures maks it clear that in his dead state he might not be the most beautiful person, but he is not offputtingly ugly either. It is the way he moves after becoming alive that makes people react with disgust and fear towards him. Probably the earliest description of the effect.

* OnceMoreWithEndnotes

* FrankensteinsMonster: TropeNamer.

The novel tells the story of a scientist named Victor Frankenstein who unlocks the secrets to creating life, and uses this knowledge to create an artificial man, larger and stronger than most mortals, [[AndSomeOtherStuff by means that he declines to describe in his narrative]]. While he is initially triumphant with his success, he is immediately [[UncannyValley disgusted by and fearful of his creation]] (who views him as its father), abandoning it and fleeing.

* UncannyValley: In-Universe. Probably the earliest description of the effect.

* OutOfGenreExperience: The Creature learns English by secretly observing a woman being taught the language. We get a ''lot'' more detail on her backstory than is really necessary.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: the monster in the end, as he realizes that, after killing all that people and his own father, he has become the monster everybody thought he was.

* LamarckWasRight: Frankenstein destroys the half-formed she-creature that he was building for the monster because he feared that the two would breed a race of terrifying creatures like themselves and take over the world.

* AmbitionIsEvil: Frankenstein warns Walton not to be as ambitious as he was. It's apparently the {{Aesop}} Frankenstein got from his own interpretation of his story, but YourMileageMayVary.

* KarmaHoudini: YourMileageMayVary on whether the monster qualifies. [[spoiler:He escapes at the end and receives no direct comeuppance for the death and misery he caused, but he is completely miserable and utterly alone.]]

* PoorCommunicationKills: If [[CannotSpitItOut Victor had told a few key people about the monster]], [[WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis ''a lot'' of trouble probably could have been avoided.]]

* WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis: Aside from killing The Creature himself in the very beginning (rather than going to take a nap), Victor probably could have saved Elizabeth's life if he had just made a companion for The Creature, rather than destroying her and pissing him off further.
** Or not. One of the subtle ironies of the decision on the part of Victor ''not'' to go through with the creation of the female Creature is that it represents the emergence (very late) of a certain conscience and forethought. He starts to muse about the ''consequences'' of what he is doing, he realizes that he can't guarantee that she will even ''like'' the first Creature. What will the Creature do if even his special-made companion rejects him? To make it worse, Victor realizes that the female might turn out to be more purely evil by nature rather than nurture than the first; the first was made evil by his treatment, the second conceivably might be so by choice. He has no way to predict it. On the other hand, if she ''does'' respond well to the Creature, the two could become the parents of a race of super-beings, dangerous competitors to ''Homo sapiens''. His refusal is actually, oddly enough, a moral act, at least in part.
** ... or simply realizing that leaving the room is a very, very bad idea. In many cases actually.
** ... or actually taken responsibility for The Creature, and acted as a father and a mentor to it instead of recoiling in horror. It's a toss-up as to whether Shelly's theme was that Victor was committing scientific hubris by trying to defy death -- or if his real sin was abdicating responsibility for the results of his work.
*** Both at once. In his recollections to Walton about his motives for creating the Creature, Victor admits that he was visualing himself in relation to his new race of beings in the role of a ''god'' rather than a parent. He was both overreaching his mortal status ''and'' refusing the duties and responsibilities of his actions, at the same time.

* CloserToEarth: The women of the novel are all beautiful, religious, intelligent, gentle, and far happier than any of the men, to the point where they border on PuritySue.

** Played straight with Elizabeth and Justine.

* GenreLaunch: The novel is one of the earliest works of proto-science fiction.

* AndSomeOtherStuff: The good doctor describes his research in broad strokes, and the exact process of creating the Creature not at all. The in-story justification for that is that he doesn't want anyone else to repeat what he did.