History Characters / PoorThings

* MeaningfulName: Dr. Godwin Baxter is frequently called "God" for short, primarily by Bella -- appropriately for someone who "plays God" with his creations, and who acts as a powerful parental figure to her. "Godwin" was also Creator/MaryShelley's maiden name -- in fact, it was still her last name when she wrote ''{{Literature/Frankenstein}}''.

* BrainlessBeauty: Early in the film, Max can be forgiving for assuming she is a pretty woman with a developmental disorder -- unsurprising, given that she literally has the mind of a child in the body of an adult woman. She gets better very quickly and proves herself to be a very fast learner.

* BrainlessBeauty: Early in the film, given that she has the mind of a child in the body of an adult woman, Max can be forgiving for assuming she is a pretty woman with a developmental disorder. She gets better very quickly and proves herself to be a very fast learner.

* MyOwnGrampa: A rare non-time travel related example; Bella was reborn after Victoria's dead body was taken and her brain was replaced with the brain of Victoria's unborn and still-alive child, thus technically making Bella her own daughter.

* ThirdPersonPerson: Bella often refers to herself in the third person as her brain and vocabulary develops. In fact, it sticks around for a while, even when she begins reading Emerson.

* MadScientist: Dr. Baxter has this vibe going on, being a Frankensteinian scientist who resurrects a Victorian suicide and creates MixAndMatchCritters.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Max is significantly more able to admit to having been selfish and possessive (in his own understated way) of Bella before she was even fully developed than his book counterpart Archibald. In the book, the account of Bella's life is written by Archibald and is outright said to be a mixture of fabrications, lurid pornography, sexual fantasies, marital insecurities, and [[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} Frankenstein]] [[{{Fanfic}} fanfiction]] - which Bella refutes in her own papers as her husband's fevered and pathetic imagination. Archibald's account is presented as the main story instead of [[NestedStory the story within the story]] in the film and is never implied to be a work of fiction within the confines of the narrative.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Max is significantly more able to admit to having been selfish and possessive (in his own understated way) of Bella before she was even fully developed than his book counterpart Archibald.

* CuteMonsterGirl: Bella is a FleshGolem made of a dead woman's body and her unborn daughter's brain, but the spookiness of her looks doesn't get any further than [[EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette her rather stark coloring]].

* MakerOfMonsters: Baxter is a low-key monster-maker, being limited to stitching body parts of different small animals together and performing the occasional human brain transplant- though his two human creations are both pretty, entirely normal-looking young women with minimal scarring.

* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: Godwin and Max's (Archie in the book) relationship is much friendlier in the film, with Godwin personally wanting Max to marry Bella before her encounter with Wedderburn.

* DrivenToSuicide: The movie starts with a woman throwing herself off a bridge into a river. [[spoiler:We eventually learn that this woman was Victoria Blessington, who committed suicide to escape her abusive aristocrat husband and whose body was upcycled into Bella's with the addition of her unborn child's brain.]]

* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Very pale, with jet-black hair long enough to hit her in the back of her knees.

* BackFromTheDead: Bella Baxter was previously an aristocratic woman who throws herself into the Thames after becoming pregnant. Godwin uses her unborn infant's brain to bring her back to life.

* AbusiveParents: While Godwin is decidedly ''not'' abusive to Bella (despite being a bit overprotective), he's borderline abusive to his second "daughter" Felicity, treating her coldly in an attempt to distance himself emotionally from his newest experiment. His own father was evidently not only highly abusive, but completely deranged.

* MakerOfMonsters: Baxter is a low-key monster-maker, being limited to stitching body parts of different small animals together and performing the occasional human brain transplant.

* ScaryStitches: Dr. Baxter appears to be a MixAndMatchMan, with a grotesquely deformed face that seems to be made of parts of other unfitting faces stitched together.

* ParentalIncest: Dr. Baxter actually inverts this trope. Instead of being a father who develops perverse feelings for his child, he created Bella in the first place intending for her to be his mistress and not feeling particularly parental toward her. But Baxter's total sexual invalidity (thanks to his father's experiments on him) pushed the idea out of his head, and then strong paternal feelings followed. By the time we see their relationship, Dr. Baxter reads Bella bedtime stories and snuggles with her without the slightest hint of impropriety.

* ReallyGetsAround: As soon as she discovers her sexuality, Bella becomes absolutely sexually voracious. Upon being whisked away by caddish lawyer Duncan Wedderburn, they have sex often enough to tire out even a notorious horndog like Duncan. Bella eventually spends a stint in Paris as a prostitute where she has sex with many men.

* ReallyGetsAround: As soon as she discovers her sexuality, Bella becomes absolutely sexually voracious. Upon being whisked away by caddish lawyer Duncan Wedderburn, they have sex often enough to tire out even a notorious horndog like Duncan. Bella eventually spends a stint in Paris as a prostitute.

* DepravedBisexual: Madame Swiney is a downplayed example of this trope. She offers Bella useful life advice, but she also shows as much sense of entitlement towards Bella's body as Wedderburn does.

* BrainlessBeauty: Early in the film, given that she has the mind of a child in the body of an adult woman, Max can be forgiving for assuming she is a pretty woman with a developmental disorder. She gets better very quickly and proves herself to be rather erudite.

A young woman resurrected by the surgeon-scientist Godwin Baxter, who desires to find her place in the world.

* BrainlessBeauty: Early in the film, given that she has the mind of a child in the body of an adult woman, one might be forgiven for thinking her a gorgeous idiot. Upon meeting her, Max can't help but call her a "beautiful retard". She gets better very quickly.

A debauched lawyer initially hired to oversee the marriage of Max and Bella. He promises Bella adventure and runs off with her, but later tires of her independence and strong will.

* BrainlessBeauty: Despite being created by the same process as Bella (as far as we know -- we're never actually told if [[spoiler:another brain transplant]] was involved), Felicity ends up coming across more as actually unintelligent, rather than simply passing through the stages of childhood in an adult body the way Bella did. While Bella initially possesses a childlike clumsiness while learning new words, for example, Felicity tends to do things like staring into space while making repetitive motions and repeating words with no understanding. [[spoiler:She may be getting better by the end of the movie, when Bella is raising her as a little sister.]]

* IHatePastMe: [[spoiler:One of the things that apparently bonded Alfie and Victoria (according to Alfie, anyway) was their shared taste for callousness and cruelty. Bella, who was formerly Victoria before being brought back to life with no memory of her previous life, is appalled by this notion.]]

* BrainlessBeauty: Early in the film, given that she has the mind of a child in the body of an adult woman, one might be forgiven for thinking her a gorgeous idiot. Upon meeting her, Max can't help but call her a "beautiful retard".

* DrivenToSuicide: The movie starts with a woman throwing herself off a bridge into a river. [[spoiler:We eventually learn that this woman was Bella, ''nee'' Victoria Blessington, who committed suicide to escape her abusive aristocrat husband.]]

* AmoralAttorney: Duncan Wedderburn is a lawyer who helps Bella escape in order to fulfill her wishes of exploring the world, but has selfish ulterior motives beneath his charming exterior.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: She is immediately interested in Duncan and declares that she wants to go on an adventure with him (including sexual), [[OneTrueLove but she declares in her limited vocabulary that she expects to return and marry Max when she returns.]]

* MeaningfulName: Dr. Godwin Baxter is frequently called "God" for short, primarily by Bella -- appropriate for someone who "plays God" with his creations, and who acts as a powerful parental figure to her. "Godwin" was also Creator/MaryShelley's maiden name- in fact, it was still her last name when she wrote ''{{Literature/Frankenstein}}''.

* MeaningfulName: Dr. Godwin Baxter is frequently called "God" for short, primarily by Bella -- appropriate for someone who "plays God" with his creations, and who acts as a powerful parental figure to her.

* UnusualEuphemism: Bella comes up with a whole bunch, simply by virtue of not yet having the vocabulary to describe what she's doing. Hence, “having sex” becomes “furious jumping.”

* ChummyCommies: Toinette identifies as a socialist (though not, strictly speaking, as a communist), and her ideology apparently sparks enough of an interest in Bella that they go to at least one socialist meeting together. They also become friends and lovers.