Reaction Paper on The Bride of Frankenstein

Corpuz, Raiza M.

 The Bride of Frankenstein is one of the first science fiction films which showed how scientists attempted to reanimate the dead, which can be a good thing if not for the fact that the human being they revived does not have second thoughts in killing the townspeople and also if it isn’t considered as immoral. There are many things that science can research and conduct experiments on, but science has definite limits. It can try to innovate our lives, improving it in the process, it can try to prolong our lives, cure every disease but it has its boundaries.

Looking at the situation presented by the film, science as indeed crossed the line in its experiments, ignoring its moral laws, thus creating a monster. Ignoring the fact that the monster they created killed many people, what Doctor Frankenstein did still cannot be considered good. Let’s say reviving the dead is possible; honestly I don’t know if a reanimated human being would act the same way as Frankenstein’s monster. If not, then all is well right? No, all humans die at some point. Scientists can’t play God by judging who must die and who must live or in this case who must live again. Looking at the situation again, if you revive a human being, word will break out that resurrection is possible and the people will demand to get reanimated after dying. With that, they will lose their morality too and ignore the importance of life and time. In a world where life is unending, population never decreases and exponentially increases.

In the book, the monster has the ability to speak while in the film, it doesn’t. I think the monster was made dumb to emphasize the new life given to him by Frankenstein. A newborn child doesn’t have the ability to speak and the ability to differentiate right from wrong. Also, I think that the monster was made dumb to emphasize the danger that lies ahead if we don’t consider the morality of science. Moreover, I think that characteristic was added, also to emphasize the ending wherein the monster finally learned what friendship is and started looking for a companion, and actually caring for Doctor Frankenstein and his wife, enough to save their lives before he brought the building down.

I actually sympathized with the monster at the end because being granted a new but distorted life, he didn’t have any companion. But being alone is better than what he has been through, because in the eyes of the townspeople, he is dangerous and thus often attacked and bound. At this point, I think what I want to say is the monster is better off without his second life.