# Let us assume that Victor Frankenstein was real, and it all worked **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [March 12, 2025, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470 "2025-03-12T14:49:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2025, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/61 "2025-03-13T22:13:43Z")
> [@gkster](#): > > In Mary Shelley’s novel, Victor Frankenstein is a student of “natural history” at the University of Ingolstadt, and not a doctor of any kind. Would that necessarily been seen as a bar to calling yourself “doctor” circa 1780? When did university accreditation become considered necessary for the title? ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2025, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/62 "2025-03-13T22:21:33Z")
> [@Maus\_Magill](#): > > I have learnt something today. I now require a large bottle of gin to unlearn it. Stupid Lent. Let me tell you about the collective works of Chuck Tingle… ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2025, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/63 "2025-03-13T22:43:32Z")
When I decorated my vermillion double breasted Victorian laboratory smock, I wanted the phrase “Back off man! I’m a scientist” translated into Latin and written on the back. I was informed by the learned members of the SDMB that there is not really a Latin word for scientist. Latin really stopped being used before the modern idea of science. If Mary Shelley described Victor Frankenstein as a student of ‘natural philosophy’ or something similar, she meant scientist, I haven’t read the original novel in a while, but I remember young Victor reading books by alchemists (I think Albertus Magnus and Felix Agrippa). If he moved on from “exploded systems” to contemporary science at college, it would be an expected and natural transition. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2025, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/64 "2025-03-13T23:02:01Z")
The Victor Frankenstein character was almost certainly inspired by Johann Konrad Dippel, who supposedly conducted experiments in alchemy and anatomy at Castle Frankenstein. A place Mary Shelly had visited before writing her tale. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2025, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/65 "2025-03-13T23:31:04Z")
IIRC, Frankenstein also lists Paracelsus among his inspirations. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2025, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/66 "2025-03-14T08:22:26Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > You could end up with the undead being used for dangerous jobs, ala the current film Mickey 17. That’s a series of clones, not the same body reanimated over and over. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2025, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/67 "2025-03-14T09:31:43Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Mods, can we cornfield this before someone Rule 34s it? As an afficionado of Rule 34 (I mean, I actively used to seek out the weird and perverse)… I agree. Just like Trump sex tapes, some things are not meant to be seen. ---
**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:** [March 14, 2025, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/68 "2025-03-14T12:29:13Z")
Ahem– [And set in our era, too.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Will_Fear_No_Evil) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2025, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/69 "2025-03-14T12:58:49Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > That’s a series of clones, “ala” means " in the manner of", not “exact in every way”. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2025, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/70 "2025-03-14T15:34:47Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Ahem– > [And set in our era, too.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Will_Fear_No_Evil) Not quite the same: the donor body was a brain-dead woman kept alive on life support until the brain transplant, not a reanimated corpse. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2025, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/71 "2025-03-14T15:42:01Z")
Frankenstein was “Victor” in the original novel. In the 1931 movie, he was “Henry”. In some of the sequels, the inscription on his tomb reads, “Heinrich”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/72 "2025-03-16T23:27:41Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > or powered exoskeletons that use reanimated muscle instead of mechanical power. The game City of Heroes has a villain named Dr. Vahzilov who wears such a flesh exosuit. He also does a lot of the other things described here, including making shambling mindless servants, and making rich people “immortal” for big payment. In his own deluded mind, he’s a hero, trying to conquer Death itself. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/73 "2025-03-16T23:41:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The game City of Heroes has a villain named Dr. Vahzilov who wears such a flesh exosuit. He also does a lot of the other things described here, including making shambling mindless servants, and making rich people “immortal” for big payment. In his own deluded mind, he’s a hero, trying to conquer Death itself. Oh, yeah, forgot about him. He does fit the thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470.md?page=3)