Tools of Characterization

Characterization in Young Frankenstein

Clothing

The players in Young Frankenstein are usually dressed in a manner consistent with their characters. The upstanding scientist Frederick Frankenstein is either seen in a medical jacket or a tasteful suit. Igor's always in his black robe or, when he has to go out in the rain, looking like the Gorton's fisherman—both appropriate for his role as mysterious servant. And Inga is usually wearing something revealing.

The monster has the most dramatic costume changes, which is fitting, since he has the most dramatic character change. When he's first dug up and revived, he's in rags. Corpses don't care about fashion. But when the doctor needs him to make a good first impression, he's gussied up in a top hat and tails. And finally, when he's thoroughly domesticated, we see him in eyeglasses and pajamas reading the Wall Street Journal. The transformation from monster to man, a fairly boring husband-type man, is complete.

Physical Appearances

Characters' appearances are manipulated for both storytelling and comedy throughout Young Frankenstein, with two major examples.

First, let's look at Frederick's general appearance. He's groomed and put together for the first part of the movie, but as soon as he finds his grandfather's journal on reanimating corpses, Frederick and his hair start to lose their composure. It's not just static electricity making everything stand on end during the reanimation sequence; it's his craziness. It's also Gene Wilder's hair's natural state, come to think of it.

Then there's Igor's hump. Marty Feldman, who plays Igor, swapped the hump on the fly until someone realized it and put the gag in the movie. He also pretends it doesn't exist, with his classic line, "What hump?" Forget that annoying camel, let's make Igor the official spokesperson of Hump Day.

We can't forget Frau Blucher, who is as uptight and sour-looking a character as you could imagine. One look at Cloris Leachman tells us all you need to know about Frau Blucher, except maybe for the fact that she can play the violin like nobody's business.

Names

Frederick Frankenstein wants so much to distance himself from his kooky grandfather that he pretends his last name isn't even pronounced the same way, instead saying it's "Fronkensteen." This prompts Igor to make fun of him, saying his own name is pronounced "Eye-gor." However, just has Frankenstein's hair changes with his level of (in)sanity, he eventually and dramatically adopts the traditional pronunciation of his family name when he successfully revives the monster.

To the American ear, "Blucher" sounds a lot like "blech" or something else equally yucky. And no doubt about it, Frau Blucher's a pretty distasteful character. Just ask the horses.

(Contrary to popular belief, Blucher is not German for "glue" but that would explain why the horses would be scared of her.)

Actions

The dialogue in Young Frankenstein, silly and absurd as it may be, lets us know what our main characters are like—cynical or naïve, smart or clueless, sexy or repressed. Since the monster has limited dialogue (limited to grunts and groans, that is), what we know about him comes from his actions.

In the original 1931 film, the monster plays with a small girl and throws her into a pond, thinking she'll float like the flowers they've been tossing into the water. He unintentionally kills her. In Young Frankenstein, the scene with the little girl starts similarly, with the monster wanting to play, but Frankenstein ends up playing with the girl on a playground instead. He doesn't know his own strength, flinging her from a seesaw, but she actually lands safely in bed instead of ending up dead.

Both scenes show that the monster, underneath his hideousness, just wants some human connection. (This is much more strongly developed in Shelley's novel and the original film.) Likewise the scene when he tries to befriend Gene Hackman's blind priest. He gives it a shot, tolerating the priest spilling soup on him and shattering his wine glass, until the priest accidentally lights him on fire. He accepts all the coddling from Frederick and allows him to dress him up and teach him to sing and dance. He can't be all bad, is what the film's trying to say, just a big, over-sized, grotesque kid.

In the original film, the monster's actions were meant to convey his motivation and underlying personality; in Brooks' parody, they're for comic effect. We're not really feeling sorry for the poor misunderstood monster; we're laughing at him.