Bride of Frankenstein Coloring Pages
Here's something that surprises a lot of people: the Bride of Frankenstein never comes to life in Mary Shelley's book. She first appeared in a 1935 movie, where she's on screen for just a few minutes at the very end. That was plenty of time to become one of the most famous monsters ever, thanks to her sky-high hair with two white streaks and a hiss nobody forgets.
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Frankenstein's Monster and His Bride
In the book, the monster is so lonely that he asks Victor Frankenstein to build him a friend who looks just like him. Victor starts the job, then gets scared of what he's making and destroys it before she ever wakes up. The monster doesn't forgive him.
The filmmakers decided someone should finish what Victor couldn't. In the 1935 movie the scientists do build her, and the whole story hangs on one question: will she like him?
Bride of Frankenstein
She doesn't get a name, either. The movie's opening credits list her with a question mark, so audiences had to wait until the end to learn she was played by Elsa Lanchester.
That hairdo was piled up over a wire frame, with a white streak swooping back from each side of her forehead. Lanchester said she got her hiss and her quick, jerky head turns from watching swans. When the monster reaches out his hand, she screams and hisses at him, and that's the end of the romance.
Poor Bride! She's been alive for a few minutes and everyone expects her to love someone she's just met. People have felt sorry for her (and for the monster) ever since, which is probably why artists keep drawing her beautiful, a little stitched together and not at all sure about all this.
Frankenstein's Monster
Frankenstein's Monster didn't have bolts in his neck in Mary Shelley's book. Those came from the movies, along with the flat head. In the books he's a thoughtful creature who teaches himself to read by listening through a cottage wall...
Frankenstein's Monster coloring pages