Frankenstein 1931:
 

Do All Monsters Go to Heaven, Daddy?

By Philip Hoy

As a morality tale, the 1931 film Frankenstein is the story of an individual whose selfish actions endanger the entire community, which in turn, must organize to destroy the threat and bring the individual back into the fold. The monster is the destructive result of Dr. Frankenstein’s attempt to play God and circumvent divine authority over life and death. The film’s closing scene depicting the doctor lying in bed under his wife’s care and the watchful eye of his father, confirms that he is now being rewarded for correcting his behavior. Through the doctor’s actions however, the film introduces at least one moral predicament that is left unresolved: the question of the monster’s soul. The question is answered explicitly through Dr. Frankenstein’s own words, and implicitly through Whale’s direction and Boris Karloff’s portrayal of the monster.

According to Dr. Frankenstein, he has not resurrected a corpse; he has created new life out of old parts. “The body is not dead,” Frankenstein tells Professor Waldman, “It has never lived. I created it!” At least in Dr. Frankenstein’s mind, to be truly a human life, his creation must have a soul. He cannot claim to “know what it feels like to be God” otherwise. “Kill it, as you would any savage monster,” pleads Waldman. “It’s murder!” is Frankenstein’s immediate and passionate response. For Frankenstein to proclaim anything less would be an admission of failure as a scientist; at the same time though, by leaving the monster to be euthanized by Waldman, he has admitted his failure as a father. While the townspeople can rest easy that they have executed a murderer, Frankenstein must come to terms with the fact that he brought life into the world, only to create a damned soul.

The audience, like Dr. Frankenstein, also suffers from conflicting emotions regarding the monster’s plight.  Boris Karloff, the actor portraying the monster, lets us see the innocent suffering child trapped inside the monster’s brute form.  Because of Karloff, more obvious to us is Frankenstein’s mistreatment of the monster through an emotional neglect that indirectly extends to physical abuse by permitting Fritz’s sadistic torture of the creature. Karloff allows us to see the creature’s soul when he reaches heavenward for the light that Frankenstein lets shine on him, and we see the emotional pain and confusion in his gestures and in his eyes when the doctor shuts off the light, oblivious to the needs of his creation. It is understandable that the monster kills Waldman just before the professor makes a living dissection of him; however, when the monster drowns the little girl Maria, just like Dr. Frankenstein, the audience can more easily resign themselves to the creature’s fate.

Despite the catharsis provided by the monster’s “death” and the reunion of Dr. Frankenstein with his bride, the film’s ending is still somewhat open-ended. In the brief long-shot of Frankenstein being attended by his wife, there can be no final evaluation the doctor’s state of mind. And the last view of the monster trapped beneath a burning beam... well, how can we be sure the monster is really dead? It’s hard to believe something brought to life by lightening from heaven can so easily be destroyed by manmade fire.

 

Work Cited:
Whale, James. Frankenstein. 1931. Universal. Amazon Instant Video. Web.