Frankenstein Marriage Quotes

How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Frankenstein.

Quote #1

ELIZABETH: The very day we announced our engagement, he told me of his experiments. He said he was on the verge of a discovery so terrific that he doubted his own sanity. There was a strange look in his eyes, some mystery. His words carried me right away. Of course I've never doubted him but still I worry. I can't help it.

Henry coincidentally gets caught up in his experiments just as he proposes to Elizabeth. Or is it a coincidence? Maybe Henry has some serious commitment issues. Yes, sure, I'll marry you…but first I have to just run off and make a monster. See ya. It seems a little too convenient.

Remember, too, that director James Whale was gay. Henry's decision to race off to spend time with Fritz could just be bad judgment…but it could also mean that he's not interested in marrying a woman—a fact which most people in 1931 would have kept carefully hidden for fear of prejudice.

Quote #2

VOGEL: What I really want to know is, when will the wedding be, if you please?

BARON FRANKENSTEIN: Unless Henry comes to his senses, there'll be no wedding at all.

VOGEL: But Herr Baron, the village is already prepared.

BARON FRANKENSTEIN: Well, tell them to unprepare.

Henry's wedding isn't just important to his family; it's important to the entire countryside. Marriage in the film is a symbol of social order and harmony. Frankenstein's refusal to marry ends up throwing the whole village out of whack. (Again, you could see this as a kind of fear that homosexuality will cause society to crumble—or perhaps as making fun of that fear.)

Quote #3

BARON FRANKENSTEIN: I understand perfectly well. There's another woman—and you're afraid to tell me. Pretty sort of experiments these must be.

The Baron suspects that Frankenstein is sleeping with someone other than Elizabeth, and that he doesn't want to get married because he is unfaithful. The truth is that he is unfaithful, kind of. He's putting his own ambition ahead of Elizabeth—he's fallen in love with a monster, which is maybe worse than if he'd just taken up with another woman.