The Frankenstein monster was first shown to he world through the novel written by Mary Shelley in 1818, but the novel was not named Frankenstein but rather the modern Prometheus where he was described as a creation that was intellectual handsome and athletic. However none of these qualities would pass over in the subsequent films based around the creation of Frankenstein.

The most well-known image of Frankenstein's monster in popular culture derives from Boris Karloff's portrayal in the 1931 movie Frankenstein.

Since Boris Karloff's portrayal, the creature almost always appears as a bulky, startling, grotesque and gruesome figure, about seven feet tall, having broad shoulders and back; a hideously stitched and bolted-together body; a bulky flat square-shaped head with boxy forehead; a placid, gaunt, and elongated face; hooded eyelids over deep-set sunken eyes; neck-spikes or bolts to serve as electrical connectors or grotesque electrodes on his neck (by which he is presumed to have been animated); enormous long arms having long, huge, open, corpse-like, scarred hands with black nails; jagged surgical scars around his jaws; and a matted wig of black hair.

The monster was brought to life by Victor Frankenstein. After studying chemical processes and the decay of living beings, Victor gains an insight into the creation of life and gives life to his own creature, the Frankenstein Monster.