# Couldn't Frankenstein animate an intact corpse? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299 "2003-10-14T01:47:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/1 "2003-10-14T01:47:46Z")
Alright, apparently his stitching job was so shoddy that the creature had an unearthly ugliness about it, presumably because it was rotting before he managed to finish his work (months from start to finish - unless the face was the very last part, it’s going to have decomposed a little). And I know that he made an abnormally large creature (somehow he found a bunch of abnormally large corpses) so the sewing of vessels and nerves would be easier. Anyway, does the book mention anywhere why he couldn’t just take some little boy (_cough William cough_) or something who had died and reanimate _them_? It seems like it would get around a major part of his creature’s villany. ---
**Author:** ![Spacegirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Spacegirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spacegirl)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/2 "2003-10-14T04:12:11Z")
Frankenstein was trying to create a “perfect” being, which involved many diffierent body parts. The monster was big because Frankenstein wanted him to be big and strong. Frankenstein didn’t expect the monster to be so hideous. ---
**Author:** ![Spacegirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Spacegirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spacegirl)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/3 "2003-10-14T04:13:17Z")
\*different ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/4 "2003-10-14T04:49:35Z")
Plus, the corpse would just die again from whatever it died from originally. He got to pick the choicest pieces and discard the damaged ones. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/5 "2003-10-14T05:39:24Z")
From chapter 4: > [@](#): > > …I thought that if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption. So he brings the matter up long enough to say he can’t do it, but doesn’t explain why. Shelley just wanted it to be impossible, for obvious reasons concerning the plot. Otherwise, Frankenstein could just bring back to life anyone the monster killed (such as William, as you mentioned). ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/6 "2003-10-14T05:57:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BluMoon \* > \*\*The monster was big because Frankenstein wanted him to be big and strong. \*\* This is wrong, by the way. Frankenstein says, > [@](#): > > As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved, contrary to my first intention, to make the being of gigantic stature, that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionably large. **Speaker** had it right. He made it large so that it would be easier to work with. ---
**Author:** ![Sanscour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f475e1/32.png) [@Sanscour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sanscour)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/7 "2003-10-14T07:18:43Z")
He’d have an ENORMOUS _schwanzstucker!_ ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/8 "2003-10-14T08:02:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Loopus \* > \*\* > So he brings the matter up long enough to say he can’t do it, but doesn’t explain why. Shelley just wanted it to be impossible, for obvious reasons concerning the plot. Otherwise, Frankenstein could just bring back to life anyone the monster killed (such as William, as you mentioned). \*\* …As a rider to this, I _think_ I remember reading (I haven’t actually read _Frankenstein_ myself, yet. I will, though. I will.) that Shelly didn’t actually say, specifically, that Frankenstein created the creature from pieces of dead humans. That, in fact, she’s actually pretty vague as to how the creature was constructed—she basically made references to Victor raiding “morgues and slaughterhouses” for “materials,” but that was it. Maybe Shelly imagined Vic’ creating the creature out of raw, organic, tissue (Stem Cells?) rather than pieces of human cadavers sewn together. ---
**Author:** ![Short\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Short\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Short_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/9 "2003-10-14T12:23:30Z")
It’s been a long time since I’ve read the book, but I think **Ranchoth** is right: Shelley never explains how the greatures was made. AFAIK, the whole “digging up of corpses” thing was a movie invention. Frankenstein doesn’t so much want to bring dead people back to life: he wants to “create” life out of nothing, so he made a body basically from scratch. ---
**Author:** ![Short\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Short\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Short_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/10 "2003-10-14T12:24:34Z")
uhm, i mean “creature”, and not “greatures”, whatever that is. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/11 "2003-10-14T12:27:10Z")
The last two posts beat me to the punch – and not only did Frankenstein not explicitly built his creature from corpses, he isn’t explicitly said to re-animate it using electricuty. I’ve had arguments about that in my literature class, but it’s true. There’s a mention about work with galvanic responses in the forward to the book, but nowhere is it suggested that this is how the creature was brought to life. On the other hand, it makes for impressive stage and movie effects, so most adaptations show electrical apparatus being used. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/12 "2003-10-14T13:21:41Z")
Also before Dr. F. re-animated his creation he thought it was beautiful. Plus if he just brought a dead person back to life he should be able to predict how the person would behave. ---
**Author:** ![newdadmarc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a88e4f/32.png) [@newdadmarc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newdadmarc)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/13 "2003-10-14T14:32:48Z")
> [@](#): > > He’d have an ENORMOUS schwanzstucker! …\*That would go with out saying \* sorry nothing real to add just wanted to finish the quote. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-frankenstein-animate-an-intact-corpse/207299/14 "2003-10-14T15:22:41Z")
I actually noticed how it didn’t mention that he had used electricity, even though the jacket to my book claimed it was. And now that I think about it, I see that perhaps you guys are right about not using corpses… although when he destroyed the female creation, it made it sound like he wanted to hide what he had done, less the villagers thought he was a murderer.