Response Paper 2, Frankenstein. Marit

            Frankenstein was a bold film. This assertation is made not in regard to its endeavors to push the envelope on horror, but in reference to its explicit homosexual undercurrents. In 1931, homosexuality was far and away more of a scandal than it is today. By allowing James Whale, a known homosexual, to direct this film, Carl Laemmle allowed for his firm tackle complex subjects not yet covered in modern cinema. The homosexual themes in Frankenstein allow for an alternate interpretation to procreation, love and betrayal, and issues of nature vs. nurture.

            Dissatisfied with the thought of impregnating his wife-to-be, Henry seeks an alternate means of procreation through his experiments. As he is in the process of creating his monster Rick Worland notes that “Henry Frankenstein and his perpetually agitated manservant (!) are about to create human life without benefit of clergy- or heterosexual union” (Worland, 165). The observation that Henry seeks to reproduce, and succeeds at doing so, without the aid of his fiancé seems to indicate that the homosexual union is a legitimate means of parenting. But development of a life does not end at birth, and the viewer begins to wonder whether or not Henry is capable of being a parent or lover in any situation.

            It appears that Henry’s monster is the infamous “other woman” that his father seeks to destroy, but Henry’s actions after the monster’s creation seems to indicate that he was nothing more than a fling.  After watching his father fret about whom Henry was cheating on Elizabeth with, the viewer is greeted by a shot of a relaxed Henry, feet up on the table, smoking a cigar. A classmate pointed out that this is a trope of post-coital scenes. It appears that Henry is relishing in the afterglow of “making” the monster. But this sense of sexual pride does not last, as Henry quickly becomes embarrassed by the monster allowing his assistant to torture it. The spurned monster, once gentle and innocent, becomes enraged and escapes the castle, killing multiple aids in the process. Behaving in the disconcerting way of both rejected child and lover, the monster goes on to reap what is unquestionably the ultimate form of revenge within this homosexual framing.

            Realizing that he is unfit to be a parent in any sense, Henry returns to Elizabeth as a means of attempting to atone for his disastrous sexual curiosity. In rejecting the monster as a child, he plays on the ideas of nature versus nurture and, in doing so, champions nurture as the ultimate form of development. During the scene where the monster first experiences light, we see a devotion to Henry and a child-like innocence but, shortly thereafter when Henry rejects his creation, we see the transition towards malice begin. This transition is ultimately solidified in the moment when the monster drowns Maria and loses the last of his innocence. It is at this point that the viewer can see the monster transform from a rejected child to a rejected lover and perform his ultimate act of sexual revenge.

            The monster rapes Elizabeth to assert his sexual dominance and fully reject Henry. This is not explicitly stated, but details of the bedroom give away the deed: “A tall vase of flowers tilts against a chair by the open window, suggesting the monster’s violent ‘deflowering’ of the bride” (Worland, 172). By committing this rape, the monster has symbolically castrated Henry in every sense: He cannot make love to a woman and he cannot make a man stay. Henry is a failure as a man both homosexually and heterosexually and the monster has proven his sexual dominance by being the one to take Elizabeth’s virginity as opposed to Henry.

            By invoking these violent homosexual connotations Whale does not bring shame to his sexuality, but uses it as a tool to show Henry’s ultimate failure as a man. Whale invokes homosexuality to show that Henry is inept as a man in every way: He fails at both heterosexual and homosexual sex and procreation. The true monster in Frankenstein is Henry as he is incapable of any kind of love.

Worland, R. (2007). The horror film: An introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.