Morality and Monsters: A Reaction Paper to "Bride of Frankenstein (1935)"

            Balance is a difficult thing to achieve. Whether simply physically or on the topic of science versus the morality of innovation, it is difficult to keep to that thin line between right and wrong when ambition cuts in. The 1935 American horror film Bride of Frankenstein, a sequel to Frankenstein (1931), talks about Victor Frankenstein and Dr. Pretorious creating a “bride” to Frankenstein’s Monster from the previous film and how this ambition ended badly.

            The film, in a nutshell, talks about how Dr. Pretorious ambitioned on being able to create monsters, create a world of his own. This desire led him to the idea of creating another creature to mate with Frankenstein’s monster and to do whatever it takes to do this, no matter how immoral it can be. I think, in its plot alone, this film shows how desiring something so bad can make you forget your moral principles, may it be on the matters of science or otherwise, losing balance because of ambition can lead you to the dark side, lead you to thinking you can alter nature and the world. In this film’s case, I think that is shown on how Pretorious turned into more of a monster than the Monster was, losing his morality and his balance, because of his desire, his ambition for science and innovation, his ambition to be God.

            This is furthered more by the film’s rendering of the Monster as dumb, as simply a creature created by man incapable of dialogue and proper speech. I think the use of this characterization was so that the Monster would simply be viewed of just that, a monster. It was so that the characters in the film wouldn’t have a reason to empathize with him and the viewers would be able to understand how a creation gone wrong, although misunderstood, would be a creation with a life being hunted by men. In short, the film successfully showed how a misunderstood creature made by man could be capable of more good than man himself; it successfully showed how science and morality should be balanced and what it could do when it’s not.

Audrey Anne A. Arocha

2012-51626