I watched the Frankenstein play today and have a lot to say!
Covering Creature in horrific scars and grotesque stitches builds a mixed sense of fear, disgust, and pity in the audience. His clothing is also always disheveled in some manner, even after meeting De Lacey. We feel bad for this being who was subjected to living a terrible life solely for his looks, but we have to reflect; if we were in the shoes of any of the characters in this play, would we really have been able to overlook Creature’s appearance? If this was real life, would our brains be able to simply accept his jarring actions and demeanor?
As the play goes on, Creature's movements become more deliberate, though he is still not fully capable of making smoother movements.
Even when expressing the most intense emotions, Creature doesn’t have control over certain features (i.e., while begging for Frankenstein to give him his “wife,” his jaw hangs slack, no control). This really emphasizes his primal, not-truly-human self. As much as he wants to assimilate into human life and appear as “normal” as possible, he still has certain characteristics that would be very jarring to those he would interact with.
The audience is forced to watch as Creature turns from an innocent, curious, and blissfully oblivious as to why people fear him into a mourning, broken, knowing creation. The play begins with Creature learning how to walk and ends with him able to recite literature and understand complex human emotion that other animals are supposedly incapable of doing. While staying with De Lacey, he purposely avoids meeting De Lacey’s son and daughter-in-law out of fear of becoming an outcast once more. As his brain develops, he understands why he sticks out so much, and why people fear and hate him. This adds to his desperation to unite with someone “like him.”
De Lacey’s daughter-in-law doesn’t play a huge role as a woman, though her and her husband's hate and aggression towards Creature do affect him. Creature’s almost-bride emphasizes just how isolated he feels. The audience feels torn, rooting for Creature so he can finally feel genuine happiness once more, though also concerned because, like Frankenstein says, they are unsure of how two of these creations may behave, or future concerns, like reproduction, or how they would fit in society. Something that’s interesting about the bride is how she doesn’t say anything. In neither Creature’s dream nor in real life did she speak, or make any noises more complex than a simple guttural groan. Part of this is certainly due in part to the fact that she simply wasn’t developed enough to speak like how Creature or any of the humans were. I think another reason that she specifically didn’t speak in the dream, even when Creature knew how to and therefore could replicate it in his dreams, is because he simply didn’t know how a woman would “be.” Creature had never properly interacted with a woman (excluding the prostitute, and he wasn’t close to being self-aware at that point, either), meaning he had no true idea of what being with one would be like. This could have been another reason that she didn’t speak, even in his dreams. Elizabeth shows a fresh new perspective (she doesn’t hate Creature off rip), so seeing Creature kill her is agonizing. Creature could have potentially found a way to make amends with Frankenstein had he taken the time to fully analyze the situation, but he was so set on getting his revenge, he lost his only opportunity.
gummygunk
izzy806
areudirty
gamechangershow
tangentwithtanner