Why, in Young Frankenstein, the best film Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks ever made, does Frederick Frankenstein make such a point of, first, pronouncing his name “incorrectly”, and then correctly? Because Wilder and Brooks were both Jews.
It’s not unusual for Jews, growing up in, well, not-Semitic if not anti-Semitic societies like the U.S., to wish they could be not Jewish. A good way to become “not Jewish” is to change your name, as Frederick does. The “great moment” in Young Frankenstein comes when Frederick embraces his heritage. When he shouts out “My name is Frankenstein!” what he’s really saying is “I am a Jew!”
Afterwords
The scene in which the “monster” is tormented and captured by hysterical peasants recalled to Wilder and Brooks, if not the audience, the frequently murderous treatment handed out to Jews by hysterical Christians over the centuries. I discussed Steven Spielberg’s struggle with his Jewish heritage as the subtext for his film Catch Me If You Can. Aaron Sorkin similarly wrestled, not very gracefully, with his Jewish demons in The Social Network
