Frankenstein and Humanity

The 1931 film adaptation of Frankenstein was a good attempt at horror if you consider the time period it was made. However, it is 2010, so now the movie can be looked at comically based on the production. For example, a scene at the beginning of the film has Fritz climbing a gallows pole to cut down a hangman. When it is time for him to jump down, the film cuts to Henry and you hear Fritz yell, "I'm coming down," then he suddenly appears. This scene generated a lot of laughter from the audience because it was so simple and corny.

Another problem was the censorship imposed on films during this time period. They were not allowed to show a lot of violence because of the production code of 1934. It is surprising that a scene was included where the creature throws the little girl into the lake where she drowns. Even by todays standards that scene would cause controversy. If you can look past the time period the film was made and the comical production value, the film actually conveys a very powerful message about life and death and what it means to be human.

The themes of what makes us human is important in the film. The characters fail to recognize the humanity of the creature several times. This ultimately leads to the creature going rogue and killing innocent people, before he is eventually killed as well. There are certain qualities that make us human, like being self aware and making choices instead of acting on instinct. Humans are given choices in life and can become any type of person they want, whereas animals are born with instincts that help them survive. Human beings also have morals, and we know that some things are wrong, like murder. The creature in Frankenstein possesses a lot of human qualities, but also lacks some. One example is when he throws the little girl in the water and kills her. It is obviously inhumane to do that, and it makes him look like a monster instead of a human. After he does it, he clearly shows remorse, which is indeed a human characteristic.

Overall, he creature in Frankenstein is more of a defective human. It is hard to classify him as strictly a monster or strictly a human. If the creature was nurtured more when it was first brought to life, it might have learned to control his anger. The fact that he had a defective brain probaly made it so he didn't know how to act under stress, so he just eliminated the source of the stress. In the case of Frankenstein, the source of his stress was the people who failed to recognize the human qualities in him, and called him a monster.