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Last night I had the wonderful
opportunity to take my nephew to see Universal’s timeless classic, Frankenstein, on the big screen. It was a great time and we both enjoyed the
movie. I felt privileged by the fact that
both of us were seeing it for the first time in theaters, and that it was the
boy’s first time seeing an eighty-three year old masterpiece.
Seeing Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s “monster”
for the first time in years had a powerful effect on me. With the limited audiovisual and special
effects capabilities of the time (1931), this movie is entirely driven by individual performance. Even Karloff’s almost-comical simplicity in portraying
the monster is driven by emotion and strong character acting. I could sense desperation both in the monster
and the humans who hate him. Beyond that,
the movie touched on my values, especially the sanctity of human life.
In Henry Frankenstein’s obsession with
creating life from dead tissue, he likens himself to God for giving life. This is the ultimate arrogance in a human
being, and such arrogance wreaks deadly consequences on the community once the “monster”
escapes. At first Frankenstein is
committed to preserving and cultivating the life he has artificially brought
into the world. Over a short amount of
time, Frankenstein’s monster proves to be beyond control, killing at least four
people in the creation’s short existence.
This image terrifies us deep down,
knowing that people’s final resting places were disturbed, their corpses violated
and mutilated without their consent.
Even the dead have rights; this is something we recognize in people’s
final will and testament, by which their exact instructions for their persons
and property are enforceable by law.
Living life in a world where people’s rights are violated every day, it’s
disturbing to think of our civil liberties and property rights being violated after
we pass on. Even worse is the idea of
your own corpse being used—without your consent—to create something that will brutally
kill innocent people.
Quite honestly, it was also very
uncomfortable to see the monster in its moments of despair and anguish. It’s known that the creature possesses an
abnormal (developmentally stunted and homicidal) brain and warrants his own destruction
by his deadly actions. At the same time,
the viewer knows this new life—while possessing some form of memory in its
formerly dead, damaged brain—knows next to nothing but torture. While it should never have been created—Frankenstein
had no right to do so—the creature is alive and awake. This new life enters the world and is kept in
shackles and darkness, a scene directly from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. When the angry mob comes to destroy the
creature, this child-like life form will know fear, pain, agony, and true suffering.
The way Dr. Frankenstein degrades human
life to the subject of a science experiment reminds me of the ways governments are
run by men who play God with their citizens.
The history of the world reveals numerous episodes wherein lives,
liberty and property were taken away, wherein people suffered and died, because
governments made grand experiments. These episodes are filled with lives and
fortunes destroyed via public policy.
Furthermore, nation-states like Nazi
Germany, the Soviet Union, and Red Cambodia are symbolic of monsters—created on
lofty ideals and mad delusions—out of control and causing untold death and
destruction. Moreover, the illusion
painted by governments, in which there is a monster lurking in the bushes, countless
times served as the justification for keeping citizens in a political state of
bondage. The recent NSA mass-surveillance
scandal is a painful indicator that our American Constitutional republic can
also slip into something decent people regard as evil.
Films like the 1931 adaptation of Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein serve to
entertain audiences, in no small part through prompting an emotional response
(hence the inspiration for this review). Scary tales like this one serve as
powerful metaphors, ever reminding us of the sanctity of human life. They also remind
us to teach our children the value of life, and to respect that which does not
belong to us nor is ours to violate.
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Universal Studios' photo of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster is in the public domain and was obtained from Wikipedia.
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