Kristine Faith D. Valle

2013-14356

“A Reaction Paper on The Bride of Frankenstein”

            The Bride of Frankenstein, a story about how two scientists’ desire to create life from the dead, successfully created a being that turned out to be a monster killing many lives in their small town. Eventually, Frankenstein unfolded to be not a completely horrifying “creature” but someone with a heart who simply looked for companionship. In the end, he ended up to be the good guy in the movie and nobly killed his bride, the mad scientists and himself, seeing that it was for the better. In this movie, it was shown how morality had to take a backseat for the sake of invention and discovery. Doctor Pretorius’ passion to create life from the dead, caused ignorance towards the grave effects of this experiment to the rest of society. Here, we reflect on what the meaning of science really is and to what extent it can go, whether or not morality should be sacrificed for human discovery.

            In present society, the power of science continues to unfold and grow stronger as new forms of technology such as stem cell; bio printing, cloning, and the like prove that there are no limits when it comes to innovation. However there are instances when science has to cross morality and the latter has to be sacrificed, causing disastrous effects.   The human mind and its thirst and ability to create discoveries is truly amazing but it is also important to acknowledge that there are limits in recognizing this ability. This simply means that, science is present to benefit humanity, and in as much as it is good to encourage experiments for innovation, when it no longer serves its purpose of serving the greater good, science has to be sacrificed and not morality.

            It is also notable in the Bride of Frankenstein, that he was made “dumb”, contrary to the book, acting as someone who did not have the ability to think like humans do. Analyzing the film, I believe that this was made to create a paradox, emphasizing the personality of Frankenstein which was his caring and loving nature, desiring someone to share his life with. He was made dumb to show his scary nature, that at the start it seems that Frankenstein was only capable of causing destruction and chaos, and he can bring no benefits to the community but in the end, it was revealed otherwise, and he ended up being the one who saves his town.

            Over all, I thought that this movie was really good and entertaining. Frankenstein has been one of the classics through the course of history and it never fails to provide good entertainment to wide audiences. However, looking at it more deeply, other than serving its purpose for recreation, this movie actually provides deep insights regarding life, morality and science. This movie showed us that science and morality must never go separately and that anyone is truly capable of loving no matter how monstrous they seem.