Freaks as a Distinct Group

          In Rachel Adam’s writing about Freaks she lists two possible interpretations for the role of the “freaks” in the film. The first interpretation states that the viewer is meant to identify with the freaks, and to recognize that we are all have things that make us abnormal. The second interpretation “does not see the freak as the audience’s monstrous double but as a figure possessed of a distinct, and not necessarily benevolent, agency” (Course Packet, 67). I believe that the second interpretation is closer to the truth. Although we are asked to sympathize with the freaks, I believe that by the end of the film we are not asked to empathize with them. After Hans and Cleo’s wedding scene, the freaks become a group distinct from the “normal” people in the film. 

The beginning of the film focuses on showing the audience that the freaks are ordinary people with physical disabilities. Early on in the film, a pair of men encounter a group of the freaks playing outdoors. The two men are repulsed by them and tell them to leave; the freaks’ caretaker responds by asserting that they are “just children”, and are not a threat.

 The way the freaks interact with the normal characters, Venus and Phroso, also helps the audience to accept the freaks as fairly ordinary people. Venus and Phroso do not draw attention to the physical deformities of the other performers, and converse with them on ordinary subjects. Often while speaking to the “normal” people, the “freak” characters do “normal” things— Frieda does the laundry while Venus talks to her, and the limbless man lights a cigarette while Phroso talks to him.

Although the freaks engage in ordinary activities, the way they conduct them often draws extra attention to their disabilities. Scenes that harken back to the cinema of attraction are woven throughout the film. The images of the women who drink using their feet, the man using his mouth to light a cigarette clearly, and the Hilton twins getting their dress zipped up are meant to hold the audience’s gaze. These scenes show that the “freaks” have learned to do what normal people can do in spite of their disabilities. However, the strange ways they have adapted draw the viewer’s attention more to the things that make them abnormal.

Apart from the attention drawn to the freaks various talents, the beginning of the film portrays the freaks as an overall friendly and relatable group. They are seen in the same areas as normal people, and they do little to distinguish themselves from those people.

This changes at Hans and Cleo’s wedding, when the freaks begin to chant “we accept her, one of us”. By saying that she is one of them, they are claiming to be part of a group that Cleo and Hercules are not part of. Cleo reinforces this difference by rejecting their acceptance, then pointing her finger at them and calling them “freaks”. At this moment, the freaks back into a mass in the corner, leaving Hercules, Cleo and Hans at the empty table. After they retreat, the freaks do not join the realm of the “normal” people again. They are shown either on the periphery of scenes, watching Cleo and Hercules from corners and windows, or they are shown watching them in large, threatening groups.

According to the reading, some interpretations of the film hold that “the identification between the viewer and the freaks persists in spite of the monstrosity of their actions” (83). I do not agree with this interpretation. The film’s climax focuses more on the freaks abnormalities than on their humanity. The image of the freaks in large groups, separated from their “normal” friends Venus and Phroso, makes them distinctly “other”. By the time they are crawling through the mud after Hercules and Cleo, they appear less like a group of people and more like a hoard of monsters or zombies.

          I think instead of identifying with the freaks the viewer is meant to identify with Venus and Phroso. These characters are sympathetic to the freaks, but they are not part of their “group”. They are notably absent from Cleo and Hans’ wedding, where we find out that the freaks see themselves as a distinct group that you need to be accepted into. Venus and Phroso are apparently not part of the freaks’ group. 

Venus and Phroso do not condemn the freaks for punishing Hercules and Cleopatra, but they do not take part in the violence either. Similarly, I don’t think the viewer is willing to associate itself with the acts of the freaks at the end of the film. The viewer may sympathize with the freaks, and may dislike Cleopatra and Hercules, but the freaks’ method of punishment still comes off as excessively brutal. The community of freaks remains something that neither the audience nor Venus and Phroso can be part of. Like Venus and Phroso , the audience can see the humanity in the freaks, but cannot fully understand them.