# Why did they add the abnormal/normal brain thing in the Frankenstein movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 27, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-add-the-abnormal-normal-brain-thing-in-the-frankenstein-movie/614151 "2012-02-27T15:07:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-add-the-abnormal-normal-brain-thing-in-the-frankenstein-movie/614151/41 "2012-02-28T15:22:03Z")
Frankenstein repeatedly refers to his creation as “the fiend,” which in the early 1800s probably carried a more sinister, malevolent connotation than it does now. ---
**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:** [February 28, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-add-the-abnormal-normal-brain-thing-in-the-frankenstein-movie/614151/42 "2012-02-28T15:24:21Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Frankenstein repeatedly refers to his creation as “the fiend,” which in the early 1800s probably carried a more sinister, malevolent connotation than it does now. He calls it by several descriptions – I think he uses “the wretch” more than “the fiend”, and he uses others besides. It’s blatantly clear that he refuses to name his creation, or to say that it is his. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-add-the-abnormal-normal-brain-thing-in-the-frankenstein-movie/614151/43 "2012-02-28T15:28:35Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > See my notes above. At least four films start with the Arctic “framing” story and tell the story in flashback, including Brannaugh’s. Two of the films are surprisingly faithful – the Per Oscarsson _Victor Frankenstein_ and the recent Hallmark miniseries. I remember one critic complaining about Branagh’s version and scornfully taking him to task for having the opening scene in the Arctic.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-add-the-abnormal-normal-brain-thing-in-the-frankenstein-movie/614151/44 "2012-02-28T16:33:57Z")
Semi-related note: Sunday night’s Frankenhole had the Creature celebrating his [del]birthday[/del] created-by-a-man-day. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-add-the-abnormal-normal-brain-thing-in-the-frankenstein-movie/614151/45 "2012-02-29T00:01:56Z")
> [@grude](#): > > The actual novel is a much more cinematic affair than the films even, the novel opens in Antarctica as Dr Frankenstein has finally been found by his creation and the rest of the story is told in flashback. In general, I do not care for this sort of technique in storytelling. ---
**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:** [February 29, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-add-the-abnormal-normal-brain-thing-in-the-frankenstein-movie/614151/46 "2012-02-29T00:07:20Z")
I’d like to once again recommend The Frankenstein Diaries. Non Spoilers- The final creation has a normal brain. By the end of the book he is murderous, but that could be entirely because by that point his creator has gone round the bend and is trying to kill him. I have read the original several times. I continue to hate it. ---
**Author:** ![Almac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Almac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Almac)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-add-the-abnormal-normal-brain-thing-in-the-frankenstein-movie/614151/47 "2014-03-05T18:55:08Z")
I think the answer lies in the development of the Universal movie. Before James Whale got the project, French director Robert Florey had been assigned to direct (he later made Murders In The Rue Morgue, with Bela Lugosi, for the studio). It was probably his idea to give the monster an abnormal brain and make him mute. I imagine in order to make the movie a more straightforward horror shocker and less of a philosophical treatise on loneliness and responsibility. Incidentally an early stage version of the story (Presumption: Or The Fate Of Frankenstein) featured aspects later to become familiar tropes of the movie series; among others a cowardly superstitious assistant (a model for the hunchback Fritz. usually recalled incorrectly as Igor) and the unspeaking, marauding monster himself. Mary Shelley herself saw this play and described it approvingly in her diaries. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-add-the-abnormal-normal-brain-thing-in-the-frankenstein-movie/614151.md?page=2)