Frankenstein Forum

Shelley made a couple of glaring errors in this novel.

First, how can Frankenstein create a huge being without huge parts?  An eight-foot man would have to have a proportionately long femur, the longest bone in the body.  Since no person is eight feet tall and has such a long femur, where does Victor procure two such bones for his creature?  Same with hands, head, ribs, etc.

Second, when Victor fears that the creature and his female companion will procreate and fill the world with beings like themselves, why doesn't he simply prevent this?  As a scientist, he obviously knows that omitting ovaries from the female will render her sterile. 

Despite these errors, I love the novel and the point it makes about messing with God's role.

Frankenstein is THE most movie-ized story in the world.  If only someone would create a film that is true to Shelley's story.  They all emphasize the wrong ideas or stray entirely from the plot.

I agree with your second point, I was thinking the same exact things when I read it!

I thought the same thing ( refering to second point). I also wondered about the size, however it does not mention specifically using only human body parts, did it? I only found the wording of "lifeless matter" and "complex animal' and all manner of ways of stating materials. I would suspect that animal parts could operate just as well as human ones in a theoretical creation of this nature where a giant human is created by a man. Anyway, these are not mistakes, but merely facts of unimportance. The only part that was bothersome for a moment was that of reproduction. Here I must say was an elaborate description of the evils the offspring would create, when offspring did not have to be a result if frankenstein truely knew what he was doing.(Obviously he did not in the first place!):)

I agree with your second point, good idea suprised i didn't think of that myself however i didn't care for the novel enough no offense anyway i must say that with the first opinion, although the book states that he creates the creature with parts from a cadaver which was robbed from a grave, it doesn't state that he assembled the creature's anatomy exactly like the human from which he took the parts. you have to have an imagination. he could have had some sort of object (like an artificial cartilidge) extendig from the bones of the body to connect each one of them individually, as oppose to the natural ball and socket. this could have added extra length through out the body, also who knows whether or not Victor could have constructed an artificial brain too large to fit in a human's skull, and therefore made an incision eliminating the original top half of the skull allowing a lagerer brian to fit, and than added a "skull cap" to that...etc. just random last minute thoughts

I learned recently that a hallmark of romantic novels is an unlikely or unrealistic story. This explains the problems mentioned here plus several other "holes" in Shelley's plot: how the creature learns to speak and read so easily, why William is never mentioned as a baby, why Victor goes to college at age 17 and is 23 just two years later (because Earnest, 7 years younger, is now 16), and of course all the handy coincidences like finding those three books in a sack in the woods, or happening to encounter William when he does.