Response #2 Shannon Balstad, "It's Alive!" James Whale's Creation

Prologues and prefaces have been part of movies and plays from the very beginning, even back in 1700 with playwright John Dryden.  He used prefaces in his plays to justify his choices and defend the certain genre of his work against others. It’s interesting to see how this technique has evolved from its early days in theater into a cinematic technique in numerous films.  The opening of Frankenstein demonstrates this transposition of the preface, while at the same time making the audience aware of the medium and introducing a sense of reflexivity into the piece. 

It actually makes a lot of sense once it’s all pieced together:  Directors often use a preface in their films in the same style as Dryden, to defend their choices.  The director of Frankenstein, James Whale, had good reason to want to defend the choices he made in his films.  As an open homosexual in 1931, Whale ambitiously tackled complex subjects through the cinema in order to make a “scandalous” statement through a new and progressive format.  His film, Frankenstein, begins with a man greeting the audience and warning them of the frights they may encounter.  Doing so gives Whale a platform to introduce his art and say what he feels necessary to his audience before the film begins.  It is not entirely about the format in which he presents his material, but it is what it’s thematically composed of.  There are several different nuances of a few certain themes throughout the film, such as homosexual undertones and nature v. nurture. 

The sense of homosexuality in the film is represented very clearly through Frankenstein and his monster’s “relationship”.  His creation is not only an obsession to the doctor, but it is also takes his interest away from his fiancé Elizabeth.  Instead of paying her mind, Frankenstein would rather stay up in his tower with the extension of his genius.  Whale cleverly sets up a joke through shot composition and order when Frankenstein’s father says, “There is another woman!” in one scene, and it immediately cuts to the young doctor smoking a cigarette in “post-coital” fashion.  This joke epitomizes the homosexual undertones that exist consistently throughout the film.  Frankenstein would rather obsess over his (muscular) male monster than pay his fiancé any mind.   It’s also notable to the doctor’s character that he would construct a monster that possesses physical prowess.  He is obviously a vain man, as it also shows in his affection towards Elizabeth.  During an exchange between the two, she tries to confide in him, only to be told how beautiful she is and how that is (pretty much) all that matters.  This shallow quality in the young scientist also shows through in the themes of nature v. nurture in the film.

Was Frankenstein’s monster truly doomed to be a murderous criminal, or was it his short time on Earth as a living creature that turned him into one?  The fact that the brain used to bring him to life was one of a criminal supports the “nature” side of the argument, however there are several nuances throughout the film that would defend the latter.  From the second he is brought to life, the monster is largely referred to as IT.  He knows no identity other than the one being bestowed on him by Frankenstein, a self-fulfilling prophecy that comes at the moment he is first declared a monster.  The monster tries to explore the world separated from this title, for instance when he attempts to bond with a little girl, but his fatal mistake only reinforces the idea of the self-fulfilling prophecy in his mind.  It’s a strong theme throughout the film that is epitomized through nuances such as this scene, and it carries on up until the monster is screaming in the windmill.  James Whale does an excellent job at presenting his intended messages to the audience, while at the same time giving them enough to work with in order to form interpretations of their own.