# Frankenstein's Monster: What are the neck bolts for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2006, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510 "2006-09-28T17:33:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [September 28, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510/21 "2006-09-28T21:55:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Another thing about Frankenstein that I’ve always wondered…the monster appears (in all film versions) to be stitched together from various odd parts. Why didn’t the Dr. just reanimate a complete body? Very good question. In Shelley’s book, it isn’t stated that he stitched the body together from “spare parts” – Frankenstrein got his raw materuials from biological sources, but it’s sort of implied that he built his monster more “from scratch”. Why was it changed? Maybe they thought it was too close to “playing God” to make everything up. Maybe they thought the notion of making everything was too hard for the audience to grasp, or that it was far too complex. But re-animating a once-living body, I’m sure, was too close to religion for the movie companies. Frankenstein would be doing the same kind of re-animation that Jesus did. I’ll bet that scared the execs. They are careful to have Frankenstein say “That Body has Never Lived!” When he’s explaining his work. Of course, to my mind resurrecting a previously non-existent person with the single brain of someone who had been alive (especially, as in YF, “Hans Delbruck: Scientist and Saint”) is almost indistinguishable from bringing that person back to life. But maybe it gave them an out. Besides, if he doesn’t at least sew the body together, it seems as if Frankenstein hasn’t actually _made_ anything. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2006, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510/22 "2006-09-28T22:10:50Z")
A reanimated corpse would be insufficiently “different” for Mary Shelley’s purposes–it would look too much like an ordinary human being, and might have memories of its earlier existence, and Frankenstein wouldn’t be its “creator”, merely its reanimator. As for explaining _why_ Frankenstein couldn’t or didn’t do it, all she says is: > [@](#): > > Pursuing these reflections, 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. Of course, this doesn’t make a lick of sense–why would it be _easier_ to animate a hodgepodge of body parts then to reanimate the dead? But it’s necessary to the story, and Shelley is more concerned with philosophy than scientific consistency. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510/23 "2006-09-28T22:22:03Z")
And where did he get a bunch of oversized parts to work with in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510/24 "2006-09-28T22:30:08Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] And where did he get a bunch of oversized parts to work with in the first place? [/QUOTE] Abbie… something. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510/25 "2006-09-28T22:32:51Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] And where did he get a bunch of oversized parts to work with in the first place? [/QUOTE] After he decides to make a “gigantic” being, all I can find is this quote: _“The dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of my materials…”_ Whether that means materials for experimentation or materials for the creature itself, I’m not sure. Shelley seems to have left many such details out; maybe she considered them unimportant? [QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] Abbie… something. [/QUOTE] Heh. I happen to be reading _Frankenstein_ right now for school: we’ve only gotten about halfway through the book, but there have already been plenty of _Young Frankenstein_ jokes. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2006, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510/26 "2006-09-28T23:02:28Z")
[QUOTE=Earl Snake-Hips Tucker] Boris Karloff was not a tall man, so I suspect the thick-soled boots and the extended high forehead were to make him more physically imposing. [/QUOTE] I never really considered 5’11" particularly short, myself. I took it from his biography that the story was to give him a lurching walk. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510/27 "2006-09-28T23:15:08Z")
The monster. > [@](#): > > His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!–Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510/28 "2006-09-28T23:16:58Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] Where else are you going to put the jumper cables? [/QUOTE] If not on the bolts, maybe on the nuts? ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510/29 "2006-09-28T23:42:33Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing] The monster. [/QUOTE] Sounds a lot like Edward Scissorhands. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510/30 "2006-09-29T00:36:15Z")
[QUOTE=aruvqan] I never really considered 5’11" particularly short, myself. I took it from his biography that the story was to give him a lurching walk. [/QUOTE] Boris Karloff was only 5’11"? Seriously? Good Christ, the man knew how to act tall! That boggles my mind. I’m as tall as Boris Karloff! I’m as huge as Frankenstein’s Monster! _Rrrruuaarrrr!__wanders off in search of random windmills or power lines_ ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510/31 "2006-09-29T00:36:57Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing[/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > Quote: > His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!–Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips. He must have an enormous schvanztucker! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510/32 "2006-09-29T12:17:06Z")
[QUOTE=kunilou] He must have an enormous schvanztucker! [/QUOTE] _ **Please** _ don’t repeat the old one about him being popular! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510/33 "2006-09-29T12:54:31Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] Boris Karloff was only 5’11"? Seriously? Good Christ, the man knew how to act tall! That boggles my mind. I’m as tall as Boris Karloff! I’m as huge as Frankenstein’s Monster! _Rrrruuaarrrr!__wanders off in search of random windmills or power lines_ [/QUOTE] Eeergh… you know that back when he was born, 5’11" wasn’t an _only_ at all, right? Damnit guys, just look at basketball statistics before you decide that anyone shorter than you and 100 years older is a dwarf! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankensteins-monster-what-are-the-neck-bolts-for/374510.md?page=1)