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, ...
Shelley's description of the being — whom Frankenstein often calls a fiend or daemon — is decidedly sparse. He is enormous; he has long, black hair; he is frightful to behold; and he stares at his creator with a “dull yellow eye.”
At birth, the Creature is described as jaundiced, possessing a “dull yellow eye” and “yellow skin”—an allusion to the very common condition of neonatal physiologic jaundice (81).
Overly ambitious scientist Victor Frankenstein sees its “dull yellow eye” open when he animates “the lifeless thing.” He mentions that its long, “lustrous” black hair and pearly white teeth contrast with its “shriveled complexion and straight black lips.” But Victor is too shocked by what he has made to look on it for ...
Even though Mary Shelley's creation has become a pop culture icon, there are still a few basic things people get wrong about him, from mistakenly calling him the name of his creator (Frankenstein) to depicting him as green, when, in her book, Shelley describes his skin as yellow and translucent.
Victor does his work, and as he looks down on the creature, he admires its perfection and beauty. . . until it opens its eyes. Victor recoils in horror when he sees the creature's dull yellow eyes, almost exactly the color of the skin surrounding them.
Frankenstein intended. His limbs were in proportion like the average human, his hair was jet black and flowy, and his teeth were pearly white, yet his yellowish skin barely covered the veins and such underneath. The most notable flaw was his dull, watery, and overall lifeless eyes.
However, the most animated part of his appearance is his eyes, which Walton says "have generally an expression of wildness, and even madness," but light up and become alive when he is more alert. A recurring theme in Walton's description of Frankenstein is that of a vibrant spirit shining through the frail exterior.
Many will be familiar with Frankenstein, a large, lumbering, green man with dark features, protruding square-shaped forehead, and various bolts and stitches on his face and neck.
Accordingly, the description upon the creation of the creature reveals Victor's initial intentions to create something that could be considered beautiful, but ultimately becomes something ugly: His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful.
Victor Frankenstein says that he designed his monster to be beautiful. His monster has proportional limbs, white teeth, and flowing black hair. He's also very tall, about 8 ft, and strong.
In Frankenstein, Victor's dual diagnosis of monomania and antisocial personality disorder bridges the historical gap between early eighteenth century and modern society's perception of insanity, while the attribution of these two diagnoses can enable the audience to sympathize with Victor.
As a living creation of Dr. Frankenstein, the monster is basically his son. And sons are frequently named after their fathers…at least when it comes to their last names.
In the novel he is never given a specific name, that's why he is just called “the creature”, “the monster”, “Frankenstein's creature” or “Frankenstein's monster”, some argue that he dubbed himself “Adam” and recognized himself as Victor's son making him Adam Frankenstein, but even that is spurious, he does not get the ...
Victor seeks to use science for the greatest human good: to conquer death, but his tragic downfall is brought about by his all too human flaws, or hamartia. He's ambitious and proud, tampering with forces beyond his control, presuming to violate the laws of nature and the authority of God.
Frankenstein's creation is said to have 'watery eyes' – if the eyes are 'the window to the soul', then it is clear that this monster has no soul. The creature is a product of the 'Uncanny Valley': a term used when a human-like figure has just enough wrong with it to appear inhuman.
What did Frankenstein's monster originally look like?
Shelley described Frankenstein's monster as an 8-foot-tall, hideously ugly creation, with translucent yellowish skin pulled so taut over the body that it “barely disguised the workings of the arteries and muscles underneath,” watery, glowing eyes, flowing black hair, black lips, and prominent white teeth.
The color sensitivity of the film stock used in the 1930s meant that certain shades of green would show up on screen as a ghostly white. Karloff's green makeup, then, both tinted the actor's skin to a cadaverous pallor and gave him a decidedly different complexion than the rest of the cast.
The monster in Shelley's novel resembles the double of its protagonist Victor Frankenstein. What Victor cannot show and reflect in the reality has been transformed in the actions of the monster. The monster becomes Victor's disguises self because it mirrors the deepest psychic instincts of Victor Frankenstein.
Victor thinks of himself as godlike, bringing light where there is only darkness and creating life where it did not exist before. He thinks he can even cheat death. Like a God he expects that his creations will show him gratitude and worship him without reservation.
Frankenstein, or more accurately Frankenstein's Monster, is often depicted with green skin, despite Mary Shelley's original novel describing the color as having a yellow hue — so how did the iconic monster get its literally-trademarked appearance?
This “monster” is the supposed murdered of several characters throughout the book and is presumably the main antagonist. However, the actions of Victor Frankenstein suggest that the monster is in fact Victor himself.
Moreover, the contrast between the Creature's drab physical appearance, “dull yellow eye,” “dun white sockets,” and “straight black lips” and the beautiful corporeal images above,"deep lashes", "lovely lips" and "dark eyes", reinforces his status as an outsider.
The creature is intelligent and is able to speak and reason, yet is not recognized as a human by society. He is able to voice his concerns, but due to the way he looks he cannot be considered human and is therefore denied the rights of man. This means he is unable to defend his crimes as a human normally would.
The monster is Victor Frankenstein's creation, assembled from old body parts and strange chemicals, animated by a mysterious spark. He enters life eight feet tall and enormously strong but with the mind of a newborn.
